From Sir Philip Goodhart Sir: As Frank Johnson has pointed
out, compiling First XIs of the greatest cricketers has a compulsive fascination for many men. He also recalled our late friend, Colin Welch, arguing about the choice of a First XI of German philosophers.
Many years ago I would occasionally play a variant of this game with Colin Welch. We would pick First XIs of cricketers and poets, politicians, painters, etc., all of whose names would have to begin with the same letter. For example, an XI of crick eters and painters beginning with might start with Barry Richards, Rembrandt. Viv Richards, Raphael. Ramadhin, Rubens, Roberts and Renoir.
The strongest XI we ever selected consisted of cricketers and composers whose names started with the letter 'b'. Boycott would open with J.S. Bach, followed by Bradman, Beethoven, Botham, Brahms, Benaud. Bartok, Bedser, Bizet and Bernstein (West Side Story rather than the occasional South African left-handed batsman).
And then there are cricketers and painters whose names begin with a 't': Tendulkar and Turner. . . and so on ad happy infinitum.
Philip Goodhart
London W14
Previous page
