Cricket
Over and out
'Van Gibson
The cricket season had its satisfactory l moments: none better than Brearley ad,11.18 Middlesex to the championship in his last match. His influence on the game in ;!'e last decade has been vast and almost en- IrelY beneficial. It is good that he has hw°Me a member of the cricket committee of the Test and County Cricket Board. As a ck°,111mander of men, he has been suited to "ols time: the psychologist, not the Boy's 11,4:1 paper dasher; Maigret, rather than e Drummond. As a tactician . on "ie field, his only current equal is Illing- Worth. . That was another enjoyable thing: Ill- Ingworth's return. Yorkshire did not have a successful season, taken all round, but they 'hooked a much likelier proposition after he ad become captain. I wish he had man- ag'ed to take them to the National West- inlitister final. It would have been splendid '0 have seen him leading out a side again on a great Lord's occasion. And the series against Pakistan produced 1118 .the 11 high-class cricket, though just how D we cannot be sure until we see how ZnEngland come on in Australia. The eland choice for Australia was much exPected' though still in some ways ' I thought it sensible to choose Pringle :d Cowans, because selectors should sWaYs be prepared to place a stake on class. t elhetirnes they have done so with spec- a.cular success (e.g. Tyson) and sometimes %bvi,,l1.1. dismal failure (I can think of several its't lt would be cruel to name them). It is, in telogical policy, much more in- ih-re8,ting than just picking the highest men have the averages. Many successful editors :.ve followed the principle 'find a good ;71 and give him his head'. Of course, fr it°rs make mistakes too, and I can recall c-,.?rh the days when I was a BBC producer a they of disastrous inspirations I had. But
were still interesting.
ev he choice of three off-spinners, how- cher, Was boring. I was glad that Marks was (Iv°. s,en, because I have always thought tkIthout much support from my colleagues) cqt he had the makings of an England cerleketer. T I am sure that, whatever his sued toss the field, he will make an excellent thil,rlst and companion, rejoicing with them was do rejoice and weeping with them that lv,e:,11. If he has a good tour on the field as f„`,", I dare say he might be a prospect as a 6,Lure England captain. He read Greats at pi,,It)d, so must have a touch of the bQ°s0Pher in him. ut to choose Hemmings and Miller as 1,!11 as Marks, seems to be overdoing it. .a.nere was a time when it was thought even single off-spinner in Australia was an ex-
travagance, because he would not turn the ball on those marble pitches. Even Jim Laker was only chosen for one tour there. Leg-spinners and slow left-handers were thought the better investment. We are out of leg-spinners now (to our loss, as Qadir showed us), but there are still some good left-handers about. I suppose Edmonds is probably the best, but he is an eccentric character, and with Botham (a host in himself) in the side, we could not afford many more. Somebody said to me one evening in the Star at High Littleton (he had been watching on television), 'Can't bide thiccy Edmonds, arsin' about all time.' Yet even if Edmonds is ruled out on tempera- mental grounds, there was still Cook of Leicestershire, who had a successful season, and would have provided a variation in the direction the spin takes.
Once before we took three off-spinners on tour: Allen, Titmus and Illingworth. They were all considerable bowlers, who finished with admirable Test records. But three of them in the same party was always one too many. For the rest, I was sorry that Gatting was not chosen. I know he has had his chances before, and not made the most of them, but he is an all-round cricketer of quality and spirit.
I spent the last day of the season at Taun- ton. Somerset had had some good- wins towards the end of the summer, and they seemed all set for another against Lan- cashire. Indeed, I rather feared the match would be over when I got there — having travelled from Worcester — at lunch. I gathered that Somerset had been spinning out the match in the morning, to give their faithful supporters a little more entertain- ment in the sunshine. I settled down outside the Stragglers' Pavilion to watch them knock off the 134 runs they needed. They contrived to get themselves out — and it took some contriving — by a quarter to six, well short. 'It can't happen,' the Somerset supporters kept saying, their additional entertainment extended much further than they would have wished. But it did, before their very eyes. How like Somerset! I say
this affectionately. We should never be so fond of them if there were not a few days each season when they make silly asses of themselves.
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