Wisden EXTRA 12

151 editions of the world’s most famous sports book

WisdenEXTRA No. 12, July 2014

England v India Test series

The Big Three era starts now Given that you can bet on almost anything these days, it would have been interesting to know the odds on the first Test series under N. Srinivasan’s ICC chairmanship running to five matches. (Actually, on reflection, let’s steer clear of the betting issue.) But certainly, until this summer, many assumed that – barring the Ashes – the five-Test series was extinct. Yet, here we are, embarking on the first since 2004-05 – when England clung on to win 2–1 in South Africa.

Not so long ago, five- or even six-match series between the leading Test nations were the core of the calendar. Sometimes, when it rained in England or someone took an early lead in the subcontinent, the cricket could be dreary in the extreme. But, at its best, a series of five still takes some beating. Rob Smyth selects his favourites from the pantheon; and this time, England v Australia is not eligible.

Had the famous West Indies “grovel” tour of 1976 been lopped off at four Tests, there would have been no fabulous finale at The Oval, where Viv Richards slammed 291 and Michael Holding produced the most beautiful fast bowling. Robert Winder, though, was lucky enough to be there, and relives his memories in My First Test.

Suresh Menon, the editor of Wisden India Almanack, notes in our leading article that we may be in line for more encounters between the Big Three, the nations that led the ICC revamp back in January. Menon’s

Eagar’s Eye

most recent book was a lovely biography of Bishan Bedi – a stylist who played all his international cricket before India’s 1983 World Cup win and the country’s wider liberalisation. Since then, the IPL has moved the goalposts once again. Menon is in an ideal position to examine what Test cricket means to Indians across the social spectrum.

The Ranji Trophy has withstood all this to remain the breeding ground for Indian Test cricketers. Although it has never commanded quite the same affection as the County Championship, it can still produce its fair share of romance. We delve into the Wisden archives to reproduce Siddhartha Vaidyanathan’s account of Railways’ fairytale run to the 2004-05 title.

This is the first England–India five-Test series for nigh on 30 years, so we thought we’d mark it with a competition, courtesy of our sponsors, Hardys Wine.

We’ll announce the winner early next year. Plus, for the first time, we’re running a Wisden news page.

Although Wisden EXTRA has allowed us to bridge the annual cycle between Almanacks, and Twitter and Facebook keep our online followers informed, some Wisden-related news has sometimes flown under the radar. Hopefully you’ll discover something of interest.

Either way – gem or blooper, please continue to let us know what you think about Wisden EXTRA. James Coyne

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Patrick Eagar, the doyen of cricket photographers, has taken his camera to cricket for more than 45 years. For much of that time, his lens has been trained on the international stage, but in this issue he turns his focus away from the fray and towards the spectators, or the recreational cricketers. And as always, he casts an erudite and entertaining eye on what he sees. © John Wisden & Company Limited 2014

Wisden is a trademark of John Wisden & Company Limited

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The Big Hit

As England and India prepare to do battle in an intriguing series, Suresh Menon examines India’s complex relationship with Test cricket

A five-day wonder

Testing times: despite having his jaw broken earlier in the match, Anil Kumble dismissed Brian Lara at Antigua, May 2002.

Pic: Timothy A. Clary, AFP/Getty Images 2

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In 2007, India won the inaugural World Twenty20. A year later the IPL arrived, accompanied by music as funereal as it was vibrant: Test cricket, some believed, was set to die. And the villain – characterised by fakescary Bollywood laugh and dollar bills thrown wantonly into the air – was India. The IPL was seen as a gamechanger fit to rank with overarm bowling. It generated its own hyperbole, much of it paid for by the BCCI. Yet, six years on, with India embarking on their first five-Test series for 12 years, there is a grudging admission that rumours of Test cricket’s death were perhaps exaggerated. India haven’t played a five-Test series in England since 1959 and, while the calibre of their players has undoubtedly improved over 55 years, the length of the current series is thanks not so much to the quality of the national team as to the board.

The idea of a five-Test series – the most financially beneficial arrangement for the hosts – was mooted by ECB chairman Giles Clarke and agreed by N. Srinivasan, the (currently suspended) president of the BCCI. “Srini felt that we ought to return to the days of the oldfashioned five-match series,” said an Indian official.

And if Srini hadn’t felt so, it’s highly unlikely it would have happened. Despite accusations that he has brought the game into disrepute, and with epithets such as “nauseating” being used by the Supreme Court of India to describe him, Srinivasan is nevertheless due some thanks from the cricketing world.

In recent years the game has contributed to the mangling of the English language by its insistence that a two-Test encounter constitutes a “series”. India have played eight such “series” – including their last three – since May 2008. Yet in that period they have played 60 Tests, fewer, admittedly, than England (77) or Australia (74), but more than the others. And their 42 Twenty20 internationals are significantly fewer than those played

by England (60), Australia (59) and South Africa (57).

(Pakistan, incidentally, have played 72 T20Is.) A highprofile domestic tournament played in April and May might have something to do with this.

Two-Test “series” can discourage even the best from taking chances (oddly, a one-off Test is preferable since teams can throw everything into it). Take India’s recent tour of South Africa, for example: in the First Test, the hosts pulled down the shutters with 16 needed from 19 balls and with three wickets in hand. This negativity was encouraged by India’s tactic of bowling well outside off stump to quell any last-minute bravado. The two justconcluded England–Sri Lanka Tests kept people on the edge of their seats but, that exception aside, it’s often a case – as George Orwell almost said – of “Two matches bad; five matches good.”

But there is promising news: It is proposed that future India–England and India–Australia series will be five-Test affairs (after the pre-World Cup series in Australia which will be four). And all lovers of Test cricket must welcome that arrangement.

It is one thing for older cricket buffs – such as those who had the pleasure of seeing Colin

Cowdrey or Tiger Pataudi bat – to get excited over the development that the Big Three are keen to play five-Test series against each other. But what if the fans aren’t equally enthused? The crucial ones, in this context, are of course the Indian supporters, those who watch television and attract lucrative advertising deals. International cricket – even Srinivasan himself, though he might not acknowledge it – survives on their patronage. World Cups in both 50- and 20-over format have been successful because they are bankrolled by companies selling products to a largely Indian middle class.

Cricket stopped being a game played over 22 yards long ago; the real pitch now is the television screen – or the smaller one on the phone.

A recent Bangladesh–India one-day series almost went ahead without any live coverage: the $US1m offered by the Star network to Gazi TV, the rights holders, was apparently deemed too low. As it turned out, a last-minute deal was struck, and the matches were telecast, but it was a pointer to what could happen if interest waned. An India series isn’t automatically the hottest buy for television. Not for Indians, anyway. The lack of interest was partly due to the absence of the big names from the Indian side and partly to the countrywide interest in a different World Cup, being played in front of vast audiences in Brazil.

Thanks to the live broadcast of English and European leagues in India, viewership for football has been increasing. According to one estimate, while cricket drew 209m viewers in 2013, football was not far behind, with 155m. The 2014 IPL generated a viewership of 185m; Sony Six, the official broadcasters of the football World Cup, suggest the viewership for this event will be upwards of 100m.

Key to understanding all this is the youth of the Indian population. Nearly 65% of Indians are under 35, born no more than a decade before Sachin Tendulkar made his international debut. It is dangerous to jump to conclusions about what younger people like – my 75-year-old mother is a diehard IPL fan while my 25-year-old son is a Test match nut – but marketing managers are most comfortable dealing in clichés. That is the safe way to do it, the greatest good for the greatest number. The alternative, the greatest good for the game, is not a priority.

In November last year, when Tendulkar retired, 1.7m tuned in to watch his final Test. Compare that with the 133m (cumulative) audience for the World T20. Where the shorter formats score is in their more aggressive marketing, the guarantee of a result and in the unambiguous nature of black or white. A six is “great”, regardless of whether it was struck off the meat of the bat or a flailing edge. Test cricket’s conceit is perhaps that it is better to play correctly than to make runs or take wickets through ugly means, though few play to that tune so much these days. continued overleaf WisdenEXTRA • England v India Test series

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The greater subtlety, the more nuanced battles between ball and bat, the fact that the Tests are individually discrete yet constitute a complete entity whose intricacy becomes clear only in retrospect – all add up to make Test cricket a feast for the soul. And it is a feast that can be enjoyed by the delivery, the stroke, the over, the session, the day, the match, even the series, whose ebb and flow spread over a month or more. It is an intellectual exercise, with every incident a part of a larger whole, a piece of a huge jigsaw that reveals itself sometimes only years later.

The continuing interest in the Bodyline series (and the publication of books eight decades after the event) is a good example.

Yet, if it is the here-and-now of the shorter game that is more attractive to fans, then Test cricket will

have to sell itself better. The IPL, for all its faults, has had some beneficial effects on the five-day game.

“There are more decisions to be made now,” says former India captain Anil Kumble, who in an 18year career played in only one full five-Test series, against West Indies in 1996-97. “Teams are no longer comfortable about declaring early. They know that at a pinch a team can get 200 runs in 20–25 overs.”

How India fare in England over the next few weeks might shape the future of the five-Test series, at least for them. As many have pointed out, Indians are not great fans of cricket so much as great fans of cricketers. And in that slightly skewed perspective might lie the fortunes of Test cricket. If the team win and the heroes shine, then there will be great interest.

The Kohlis and Pujaras have done well in South

Two and a half hours before the start of play, and MCC members snake round the perimeter of Lord’s to claim their favourite seat. If you’re familiar with the ground, you’ll know they’re queueing as far as the North Gate, and have well over a quarter of a mile before they can get in via the Grace Gate. Members don’t have an allocated seat, and the really eager ones reach the ground before it’s properly light. The same used to apply to photographers, and I’d often pitch up at around seven in the morning to ensure I got the right position near the boundary rope. It’s all changed now, with the big international agencies having first choice. This was the third day of the 2009 Ashes Test, which England won by 115 runs.

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Africa and New Zealand, and have already replaced Tendulkar and Dravid in the collective consciousness.

Yet what would be the ideal scoreline? The seemingly best result, 5–0 to India, might actually turn the T20 generation off, despite any talk of “revenge” for the 4–0 clean sweep in 2011. Perhaps the perfect outcome would be a 3–2 win for India, though both scenarios assume that the British weather also enjoys a decent run of form.

India’s last five-Test series was in the West Indies 12 years ago. No Indian survives from that tour (Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the Keith Richards of cricket, had already racked up more than 50 Tests for the hosts, however, and a young Chris Gayle was finding his feet). England may prove a good start for the new-look team, though the route back to the No. 1

spot might well be made easier by playing more Tests at home than abroad.

Their fans, meanwhile, are blessed with the kind of short memory that hastens forgiveness: bad tours (such as the disasters in England and Australia starting in 2011) are easily forgotten by a good showing at home, even against lesser teams. A five-Test series is a novelty for the majority of Indian fans.

India are roughly in the position Australia were in back in 1977-78 when they had lost their stars to Kerry Packer’s series, and hosted a full-strength India. That series ended 3–2 to Australia, and helped reconnect their fans to traditional cricket. Now is a good time for history to do what it is good at: repeat itself.

Suresh Menon is editor of Wisden India Almanack

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Ah, Arundel! Like Wormsley, it’s an amazing ground created by a fabulously wealthy man driven to achieve an ambitious design. Here in Sussex, the dream was dreamed by the Duke of Norfolk – why don’t aristocrats ever choose to live in the county whose name they bear? – at the end of the 19th century, and over the years the castle ground has seen some magnificent cricket. The teams here have just contested the 2013 National Schools Twenty20 final, and if you think you can see more of a spring in the step of the lads in yellow, you’re right: Shrewsbury have just beaten Bede’s.

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For ten years, the Ashes stood as the last redoubt of the five-Test series. But, before the boards were seduced by cricket in pyjamas, there were countless classics from outside the England–Australia duopoly. Rob Smyth chooses five of the best

The magic number This summer, Test cricket’s disciples have an unexpected reward: the BCCI, of all bodies, have agreed for India to play their first five-Test series since 2001-02. (That West Indies won 2–1 tells you it was a long time ago.) If Test cricket is the ultimate sporting format – and a vaguely persuasively case to the contrary has yet to be presented – then a five-Test series must be the ultimate ultimate.

It’s not just bowlers who have a natural length: pop songs are right at three minutes and films at 90, while a Test series – it just has to be five.

It’s like a fusion of the best of cinema and television.

Five feature-length episodes which tell wonderfully engaging stories in isolation, yet which are also interwoven to reveal twists, subplots, rivalries and character arcs, with each episode more dramatic and significant than the last. It defines careers – lives, even – and inspires men to do things of which they did not know themselves capable.

Australia 2 West Indies 1, 1960-61 “Never,” said Wisden, “has it been more apparent that the game is greater than the result.” This was a series bathed in goodwill from the moment the captains Frank Worrell and Richie Benaud decided to buckle their swash. The five matches gave the kiss of life to Test cricket after a dull end to the 1950s – and the kiss of hope that sustained the romantic through an even duller 1960s.

The Tied Test, as close to perfection as a cricket match will ever be, overshadows all. But there is so much more to recall: two swaggering hundreds apiece from Garry Sobers and Rohan Kanhai; a hat-trick from Lance Gibbs; and particularly the superheroism of Alan Davidson, who took 33 wickets and scored 212 runs in just four Tests.

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There were other heart-stopping finishes as well.

Australia’s last pair of Slasher Mackay and Lindsay Kline held on for nearly two hours in the Fourth Test at Adelaide, and Australia sneaked over the line by two wickets in the decider at Melbourne.

After a phenomenal series – one that made a drumand-bass track of even the most relaxed ticker – came a ticker-tape farewell, with over 100,000 Australians saying goodbye to the West Indians. Truly, the game was the thing. For once it was not trite to say there were no real losers. It started with a Tied Test and, in a sense, ended with a tied series.

West Indies 2 Pakistan 1, 1976-77 This might be Test cricket’s best-kept secret. The stories of two West Indies series in the mid-1970s – away to Australia and England – are regularly taught on the cricket history curriculum, yet this Pakistan encounter remains largely untold. All that most people know are the more memorable details, such as Colin Croft’s eight for 29 or West Indies conceding a then-record 68 Extras in an innings.

West Indies’ eventual victory was significant in their rise to world domination, as it cemented their belief in the tyranny of fast bowling. They found the last two parts of their first great pace quartet, with Croft and Joel Garner sharing 58 wickets in their debut series.

Pakistan’s star was Wasim Raja, a fearless counterattacker who walloped 14 sixes, still unsurpassed in any Test series.

The First Test see-sawed violently and ultimately came down to the last-wicket pairs. Pakistan’s added 133 in the second innings, aided by many of those record-breaking Extras, before West Indies’ held

on grimly for a draw. Croft brutalised Pakistan to win the Second. The tourists overcame a huge firstinnings deficit to draw the Third and won the Fourth at a canter after one of the great all-round captain’s performances from Mushtaq Mohammad, who went into the game in dreadful form but scored a century and took eight wickets.

The momentum was seemingly with Pakistan, but West Indies ignored that to win the deciding Test comfortably, with Gordon Greenidge scoring 100 and 82. A formidable team were coming together, and it would be more than a decade before they were properly tested on their own patch – again by Pakistan, the one team who consistently stood up to them during their world domination.

England 1 Pakistan 2, 1992 Reverse-swing’s greatest summer was shiny on one side, thanks to the blinding brilliance of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, and seriously abrasive on the other. The enmity between England and Pakistan has never been greater. Wisden said it was “as eventful as any tour of England there has been”. When the Pakistanis returned in 1996, “no tour – save perhaps the Australians’ first after Bodyline – can have needed more delicate handling”.

The prequel of the 1992 World Cup final sparked a mutual mistrust, adding enormously to a contest already a compelling study in contrasts: England’s honest endeavour against Pakistan’s naked talent.

Opposites infract. England thought Pakistan were ball-tampering; Pakistan thought England’s umpires were cheating. Aqib Javed got shirty over a jumper at Old Trafford. And when Graham Gooch was appallingly reprieved despite being clearly run out at Headingley, the offending image reportedly appeared on buses in Pakistan.

A limited England, aided by a horse called Mallender, did well to hang in the series for so long, but it was right and proper that Pakistan should win. Stumps, toes and front pads will never be under as much threat as they were that summer. Wasim and Waqar’s new-fangled oldball threat was like nothing anyone had seen.

The pair were Kryptonite when the ball was reversing, not only for tailenders but also middle-order batsmen new to the crease. In five different collapses across the series, England lost 31 wickets for 133 runs. Some of the batsmen cried foul. Thankfully the abiding memory of the summer is of the shiny side: the unprecedented genius of two men who made sure the old ball would not shut up.

not quite there and West Indies were on the way down; they met in the middle with immense results.

There were famous moments from future giants.

Brian Lara’s 277, one of the great maiden centuries, turned a bore draw into a cherished memory, while Shane Warne’s flipper of the century to Richie Richardson was a big moment in his career, part one of a match-winning seven-for on his home ground.

The prospect of West Indies losing a series for the first time in 13 years did not impress Curtly Ambrose.

Few men have ever raged with such furious pride against the potential dying of a light. At Adelaide, he took ten wickets in one of the most amazing chapters in Test cricket: Australia’s tailenders took them to the brink of a series win before Craig McDermott was given out to Courtney Walsh. Australia had to adjust to the most alien, troubling of concepts, glorious failure, and on Australia Day too.

The deciding Test at Perth was over almost before it started. Ambrose spread-eagled Australia with an outrageous spell of seven for one. West Indies retained their unofficial world title, and Australia were left to wonder if they would ever know such riches.

England 2 South Africa 1, 1998 This was cricket as noir: rugged, hard-boiled and with a devastating twist when South Africa, the unwitting patsies, ended up losing a series they might conceivably have won 4–0. The contest meant an abnormal amount to both sides. England wanted their first win in a fiveTest series for nearly 12 years, South Africa their first series win in England for 33.

South Africa were a borderline lbw decision away from going 2–0 up – “That’ll do!” thought Allan Donald as the ball thudded into Angus Fraser’s pad – and then lost the last two Tests. The first of those, at Trent Bridge, was famous for the duel between Mike Atherton and Donald – a window into the soul of two outstanding competitors and authentic tough guys.

There was an unspoken agreement that the match and probably the series would be decided by that clash.

“Donald,” said Wisden, “hurled himself at Atherton like a man who had taken 24 wickets in the series and had just worked out that he could still finish on the losing side” – and both went to places they had never been before.

If Atherton was justly the star, his old mate Fraser deserved enormous credit: he took 18 wickets in the two England victories. That included eight in the final Test, a low-scoring dogfight at Headingley. It was an unturnoffable mishmash of collapses, over-my-deadbody defiance, downright nastiness and umpiring Australia 1 West Indies 2, 1992-93 One of the joys of success is that once-painful memories howlers, primarily from Javed Akhtar. Indeed the whole series might be used to convert DRS sceptics. Then become warmly remembered rites of passage. This series, so traumatic at the time for Australia, can now be again, perhaps not: had DRS been in place, we would viewed as an essential part of their rise to greatness. By not have had Atherton v Donald, the thing above all else that elevated this series.

1994-95, when they dethroned West Indies, they were too good, so this is the closest Test cricket has come to a contest between two all-time great sides. Australia were Rob Smyth is a freelance journalist WisdenEXTRA • England v India Test series

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3 Three years ago, Hampshire’s Rose Bowl staged its first Test, and the weather ruined the party. Britain, of course, is full of stiff upper lips, and they don’t come much stiffer than this stoic couple, resolutely staying put while all around have fled. At least, I think they’re under there somewhere! The blue and yellow, plus the geometric pattern of modern seating, make this rather pleasing – more so than the game, which dribbled away to a dreich draw.

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From the Archive

Wisden 1987

On successive days in June 1986, England were knocked out of the football World Cup by Diego Maradona, and lost a Test series to India with a game to spare.

Derek Hodgson took a dim view of it all – not least the Western Terrace’s attempts to adopt the Mexican wave

The hand of Roger Scorecard: click here

At Leeds, June 19, 20, 21, 23, 1986. India won by 279 runs.

Test debuts: B. N. French; C. S. Pandit.

Hammonds Sauce Works Band, playing in front of the Football Stand, was the indisputable success for England during a match which India won by a resounding margin in under three and a half days. This victory, their first in England outside London, gave them a decisive 2–0 lead in the three-match series. Summing up England’s performance, the chairman of selectors Peter May said: “We were outplayed in every department.”

It could be argued that there were extenuating circumstances. For the first time since 1978, England took the field without either Botham, who was suspended [for three months, after admitting he had smoked marijuana], or Gower [sacked as captain after the First Test] who, after practising on the Wednesday, withdrew to nurse a shoulder injury. Furthermore, Gooch, England’s third player with pretensions to world-class, had an unlucky but poor match. Whatever the reason, England, a summer tapestry in 1985, were ragged around the edges and coming apart at the seams one year later. It was an unhappy start to Gatting’s term as captain.

First use of a quickly deteriorating pitch was to prove vital, and India won the toss. John Lever, recalled at the age of 37 as the swing and seam expert to take advantage of Headingley’s known idiosyncrasies, made a surprisingly nervous start, conceding 18 runs in his first two overs, and then 31 in seven. Pringle’s steadying influence was needed somewhat sooner than his captain might have anticipated. By the time Srikkanth paid his usual tax on impetuosity, India were 64 off twenty overs.

To dismiss Gavaskar, who entered the match with a Test average of 51, was a bonus. Shastri and Vengsarkar added 53 in nineteen overs, and the latter went on to demonstrate his dominance of this series. Fifth out at 203, for 61, he batted for seven minutes over three hours while each partner in turn struggled at the other end.

India, resuming at 235 for eight, batted for 11.2 overs on the second morning, the late-order batsmen frustrating England’s bowlers while adding 37 more runs. England’s batsmen were similarly inconvenienced, falling immediately into trouble.

With Chetan Sharma injured, India had sent for Madan Lal, the professional for Ashton in the Central Lancashire League, and the veteran of 38 Tests quickly demonstrated his mastery and experience of English conditions, providing support for Kapil Dev and inspiration for Roger Binny. Slack was bowled second ball, Gooch was caught at gully off a ball from Kapil that kicked and Chris Smith groped ineffectively at one that came back considerably. Either side of lunch (41 for four), Gatting and Lamb were the first victims in a spell by Binny that brought him four wickets for 17 in 37 balls. When Athey, surprisingly low at No. 6, turned Binny for two the crowd cheered an England score of 74 for eight, relieved that the follow-on figure had been passed.

India’s first-innings lead of 170 looked unbeatable until England’s bowlers learned to enlist the unpredictable surface. India’s first three fell for 29 and they were 70 for five at the close as the seam attack revelled, Lever having figures of three for nine in 28 balls. Already, however, Vengsarkar had demonstrated, on the ground that nurtured Sutcliffe, Hutton and Boycott, the art of batting on a bad pitch. He returned on the Saturday to progress from 33 to 102 not out and prompt his tailenders into a caning of a dispirited attack. As at Lord’s he reached his hundred in the company of Maninder Singh, the No. 11. Gatting almost certainly must have wished that he could have exchanged one of his six batsmen for Edmonds, who continued overleaf WisdenEXTRA • England v India Test series

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had been omitted from England’s squad along with Ellison.

Needing to score 408 to win, more than any side had achieved in Test cricket, England sought only survival. But with half the playing time remaining when the innings began, even that hope grew forlorn as six wickets fell for 90 runs in the 41.1 overs before the close on Saturday evening. The Indian spinners found that the pitch was adding turn to its erratic bounce, and on Monday morning, only another 75 minutes were required for England’s humiliation to be completed, all out in 63.3 overs for a total of 128. In an innings of characteristic defiance, Gatting remained 31 not out.

The respective wicketkeepers, Bruce French, in his first Test and Kiran More in his second, made an excellent impression; as indeed did India’s other

wicketkeeper, Chandrakant Pandit, who was playing as a batsman in place of the injured Mohinder Amarnath.

The same, regretfully, could not be said of those spectators who tried to recreate the human wave effect by synchronised waving of the arms when Mohammad Azharuddin was batting on Friday afternoon. Their mindless imitation of the football crowds at the World Cup in Mexico did not help the batsman’s concentration and left Headingley’s reputation as a ground for cricket lovers as much in tatters as the reputation of the England team.

The attendance on the first day was disappointingly small and for the match amounted to 33,850 with takings of £229,004.

Man of the Match: D. B. Vengsarkar.

The cause of this commotion was KP, as it so often is… It’s always worth trying to follow the ball into the crowd, as you can get some great reaction shots, though it can be tricky to refocus in time. For the First Ashes Test of 2005, I was sitting at the Nursery End – that way the Lord’s Pavilion can form a wonderful backdrop – when KP drove Glenn McGrath for a straight six. The MCC members in the back row don’t seem too worried, but I reckon the terrified fellow leaping into his neighbour’s lap has been caught reading the paper! The next frame shows that the ball did indeed hit some

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Back in 1973, London was the target of an IRA terror campaign, and in August the Lord’s Test was disrupted when a caller claimed a bomb had been planted in the ground. The police took the warning seriously, and evacuated the stands. Some of the 28,000 spectators had to traipse on to the outfield, and I have a photograph of umpire Dickie Bird shooing them off the square. Not that everyone left their seat willingly: one MCC member had hoped to stay in the Tavern Stand, but I don’t think he was given much choice. The police – the ground didn’t use private security firms in those days – allowed me to follow them, so I’m glad it was a hoax.

In all, almost an hour and a half of the Saturday afternoon was lost, but West Indies still ran away with the game, breezing home by an innings and 226 runs.

From the Archive

Wisden 2006

There is another face to Indian elite cricket, a world away from IPL glitz and grandstanding. Siddhartha Vaidyanathan tells the story of the 2004-05 Railways team who had to sleep in a leaky dormitory at their ground and prepare the pitch themselves, yet still pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in Ranji Trophy history

The runaway train For a 17-year-old boy from Orissa, 1994 was a very tough year. His daily routine involved waking before sunrise and travelling 15 kilometres by bus from Cuttack to work on the railway at the small town of Kandarpur. Hardly any trains stop in this forgotten corner of eastern India, but someone still had to walk six kilometres along the line, oil the tracks, check for faults and climb dangerous heights to check the wiring.

The boy would return home limp and sapped. But nothing could stop him from spending the rest of the day trying to master the routine he loved best – picking up a cricket ball, hopping in from an angular run-up and ripping off-breaks. These were Kulamani Parida’s struggles as a Class IV employee in his first two years of working for the Indian Railways.

Across the vast reaches of the world’s most complex railway system, other young men were doing much the same. For them, there was no elite support system, no pre-season tour, no sponsors’ car. The reward was a place in the Railways team that competes with India’s state sides in the Ranji Trophy. Not many successful first-class cricketers face as severe an initiation as Parida. And surely no successful first-class team has as frail a support system as Railways. From a purely cricketing angle, Railways’ journey from the brink of relegation to the national championship makes a fantastic tale. Bearing in mind the background, it is the stuff of legend.

In December 2004, they took on Andhra at Anantapur, with just four points from five league games, and their key players, including captain Sanjay Bangar, out of form. Everyone had given up hope of a semi-final spot, and many were resigned to being downgraded to the Plate Group. When relegation threatens other teams,

players worry that they won’t get as much exposure to the national spotlight. When Railways faced relegation, they had worries of another sort – no promotions in their jobs, no salary increments, and no improvement in their quality of life. At times like these, other teams are rocked by internal strife. But this bunch weren’t just any side; they were bonded by glue most cricketers can barely imagine.

Most had been together for nearly a decade, spending much of their time all sleeping in a dormitory at the Karnail Singh Stadium in Delhi. They slept on creaky beds, with open electrical sockets staring down at them, wires and cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, water seeping through the walls. They had suffered through power cuts at the height of summer, and couldn’t even dream of air conditioning. They had stayed away from home for long stretches, eating together in a small cafe every evening and holding chirpy get-togethers at the Sareen tea stall every morning.

Whenever he was picked for India, Bangar had a room booked at one of Delhi’s smartest hotels. “But instead of staying there, he would come and stay with the rest of the boys at Karnail,” said Vinod Sharma, their coach. It had always been all for one and one for all.

Now, at Anantapur, they just couldn’t afford to slip.

They did better than that. With 20 overs left, Andhra still had six wickets standing and a draw looked certain, but the all-rounder Jai Prakash Yadav conjured up a spell of four for 21 on a dead pitch, helping Railways escape to victory. The team had rediscovered their zest and they would now travel to Bangalore – second-class as usual – with hope. There, their collective efficiency reached its peak against a Karnataka side bolstered by continued overleaf WisdenEXTRA • England v India Test series

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Rahul Dravid. The other results fell their way too. The players huddled round a mobile phone for ball-by-ball updates from Gujarat’s match. A draw in that put them into the semi-finals.

This would not have been considered a surprise at the start of the season: they had been in three semifinals out of four after 40 largely barren years. They won their first-ever title, at the 44th attempt, in 2001-02.

Now they could prove that was no fluke.

The Railways Sports Control Board had acquired a first-class team in 1958. Like Services, representing the armed forces, the sheer size of the organisation meant they had a pool of sportsmen big enough to make them competitive. With a staff of about one and a half million, Indian Railways are said to rank behind the Chinese Army and ahead of the British National Health Service in the list of the world’s largest employers.

Lala Amarnath, the former Indian captain, worked for the Railways (though no one asked him to oil the tracks), and he played a major role in building the side, recruiting well-known names like Dattu Phadkar, Budhi Kunderan and Mushtaq Ali. But at first, Railways were regularly thwarted by Delhi and Services in the North Zone league. Things improved when they transferred to the weaker Central Zone in 1975, but still they struggled to be contenders.

Part of the problem was always money. In contrast to the airlines and banks who have run well-funded teams in Pakistani domestic cricket for many years, Indian Railways could not easily divert funds from oiling the tracks at Kandarpur to running a prestige cricket team.

But in the 1990s the side threw up a nucleus of talented young players like Bangar and Murali Kartik. And once Railways began doing well, players who were struggling to find a place in rival first teams – and were also looking for jobs – began to make themselves available.

They gained men like Amit Pagnis, who moved from Mumbai in 2000. “I wasn’t making it to the Mumbai XI too often,” he explained. “It’s better to play every game for a slightly weaker side than carry the drinks for a strong team.” Pagnis’s 98 sealed Railways’ victory over Hyderabad in the 2005 semi-final.

The next day Punjab stunned Mumbai in the other semi-final. The Punjab Cricket Association showered their team with 1.5 million rupees (about £19,000), and Intikhab Alam, their coach, was awarded the same amount. In Delhi, the Railways coach, Sharma, waited for his salary, 11 months overdue, before the team travelled to Mohali for the final.

Comparing the facilities at Mohali to those at Karnail

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Singh Stadium is like comparing a Mercedes to a cycle rickshaw. Mohali is all affluence – a swanky gym, world-class practice pitches, a bowling machine, and a state-of-the-art health club with sauna, steam room and jacuzzi. You can add to that a groundsman who is up to date with scientific methods of pitch preparation, and an administration that has built perhaps the best junior cricket system in India.

The multi-sport Karnail Singh Stadium is a throwback to the 1960s. It has an eerie gym containing a stepper on the brink of collapse, two dumbbells, five rusty wrought-iron plates for weights, and a dilapidated exer-cycle. The groundsmen, employed by the government, have no clue about pitch preparation, and the Railways players and coach take it upon themselves to tug rollers, water the pitch, and tend the grass.

Practice balls and kit? You must be joking. Speaking of jokes, consider that the Railways board sent two noncricket officials as representatives to the meeting where the Central Zone team for the Duleep Trophy was being picked. Players like Jai Prakash Yadav have been around long enough to know that it is futile to complain. “No point saying they have this and we have that,” he said.

“We made the choice to play for Railways and we have to ultimately win.”

Yadav and his namesake, the left-arm spinner Madan Yadav, did the damage in Mohali that gained Railways first-innings lead; in a drawn game, that was enough to secure the title. Parida, the poor boy from Orissa, was also an established member of the side. But Madan had to spend 2004 undergoing the experience Parida had ten years earlier. For most of the year he was in Bhopal repairing train wheels with massive pliers and monitoring electrical connections – and, between whiles, working on his flight, spin and angle of delivery. When asked about the importance of the title, Jai P. Yadav said, “Class IV employees like Madan will get a promotion and his quality of life will improve. If we win, it will be like our gift for those players and their families.”

And they did win. Madan Yadav’s days with the pliers should now be behind him. He was said to be earning just 5,000 rupees a month (about £60), nowhere near enough to support a family properly. That should be tripled now, which will at least be enough to supply the necessities, if not luxuries like a car or a computer.

These are the champions of India. Yet for them, the lifestyle of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly is just a rumour. The rumour now is a little less distant than it once was.

Do anything outdoors in the Great British summer and rain will often intervene at some stage. You might think the instant the umpires call off play would be the moment to put down the camera, but sometimes you get intriguing shots, such as here, at Wormsley, the idyllic Chilterns ground created by Sir Paul Getty. In the pouring rain, there’s something forlorn about the soggy sunhat of the thatched scoreboard. And the empty bench suggests spectators huddling elsewhere.

Eagar’s Eye

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Oh this really is the classic English scene isn’t it? Back in 1971 Test matches were the exclusive preserve of agencies such as Central Press and Sport & General, but the upside was I’d have the time to see some recreational cricket in beautiful countryside, such as here at Tilford in Surrey. It’s barely changed in 40 years or more, but the cars have!

If the colours look pretty fresh, that’s maybe because I spent a couple of hours on my computer improving the original. Kodak colour film could be quite variable, and to try to ensure I got a good batch I’d reserve 101 rolls at the Kodak shop in Holborn, pay for one and then ask them to put the other 100 by for me. I’d quickly take the 36 shots and drive up to the Kodak HQ in Hemel Hempstead, which was the only place in the UK where the film could be developed. As long as I got it in by 4pm, I could pick it up the same time the next day. If the colour was good, I’d motor back down to Holborn and pay for the balance. But if it wasn’t, I’d have to go through the whole rigmarole again. Digital certainly has its advantages.

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Benedict Bermange picks out some of the quirkier titbits from England and India’s long Test history

Dot-ball doldrums At home, England have won more than half their Tests against India. But it’s a different story in India, where they have lost more than they have won: Played

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In England

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5

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In India

55

13

15

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Since the start of 2009 India have been almost unbeatable on their own soil, but rather less convincing on their travels: India

Played

Won

Lost

Drawn

Home

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3

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Away

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•G raham Gooch scored 517 runs from the 960 deliveries he faced from Kapil Dev. This is the most in Test history by any one batsman against any one bowler.

• At Mohali in the First Test of the 2001-02 series, debutant Iqbal Siddiqui hit the winning run for India as a makeshift opener. He never played for them again.

•O n the second day of the 1936 Test at Old Trafford, England took their overnight score of 173 for two to 571 for eight declared. Vijay Merchant and Mushtaq Ali then replied with 190 without loss before the close.

The aggregate of 588 runs remains the most scored in one day of Test cricket.

• I n the Fifth Test at Kanpur in 1984-85, India (with three spinners in their side) did not take the new ball until 166 overs of England’s first innings had elapsed.

•B apu Nadkarni recorded the extraordinary analysis of 32–27–5–0 in England’s first innings at Madras in 1963-64. That included 131 balls in a row without conceding a run – the second-longest sequence in Tests. At one stage, Brian Bolus and Ken Barrington failed to score for 79 deliveries.

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• In England’s second innings at The Oval in 1990, Narendra Hirwani bowled 59 consecutive overs – the longest bowling spell in Test history. He ended with one for 137.

•W hen Geoff Pullar was dismissed by Kripal Singh for 89 at Delhi in 1961-62, he became Kripal’s first Test victim, from his 651st ball – the longest wait for a maiden Test wicket.

• In the Golden Jubilee Test at Bombay in 1979-80, Ian Botham took six for 58 and hit 114 to give England a first-innings lead. He then bowled unchanged throughout the second innings, claiming seven for 48 from 26 overs. Expecting a turning track, England had played two spinners, but Derek Underwood bowled seven overs, and John Emburey none.

• In the three-Test series in 1992-93, Graeme Hick was comfortably England’s leading all-rounder, having most runs (315), highest score (178), highest batting average (52.50), most wickets (eight), best bowling average (25.25), best match bowling (five for 28), and most catches (five). India won 3–0.

• During the 1974 series, Bishan Bedi endured a sequence in which he was dismissed three times in three balls. Chris Old enjoyed bowling to him, claiming his wicket with three successive deliveries – at Old Trafford and Lord’s in 1974, then Delhi in 1976-77.

• At Madras in 1981-82, Graham Gooch reached three figures with England on 126 for none. His 101* constituted 80.1% of the total. His partner Chris Tavaré hit (if that is the right word) 35 in six hours 32 minutes.

• In the same Test, Gundappa Viswanath and Yashpal Sharma batted throughout the second day. Their thirdwicket stand of 316 remains India’s highest partnership against England. The population of India was said to have risen by 75,000 while they were at the crease.

Benedict Bermange is the cricket statistician for Sky Sports.

Now this is one of the laziest photos I’ve taken as it’s taken only a few yards from my front door in Richmond, where Surrey meets London. I was walking past the green one day, and saw a group engrossed in what was happening in the middle, so I made the most of the opportunity. The standard of the cricket is probably as variable as the pitch, but the proximity of The Cricketers pub ensures a good time is had by all. It doesn’t matter a jot that there’s no pavilion or that the scoreboard is a touch rudimentary.

Eagar’s Eye

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WisdenEXTRA • England v India Test series

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WisdenEXTRA • England v India Test series

There was a time when Indian batsmen had a reputation for getting bullied by fast bowlers.

Ian Gray recalls the day he watched a 17-year-old rubbish the stereotype

Little Big Man Scorecard: click here

On July 16, 1990 I was straining to convince landlocked pupils in north-east Derbyshire of the usefulness of having a smattering of a foreign lingo. But the academic year was drawing to a close. A celebratory, holiday feeling was abroad. My wife and I had just toasted our 20-year-old marriage. Ah yes… 1970 – the year of Arthur Penn’s Little Big Man, with its fresh take on the “injuns”. (The following year, Ajit Wadekar’s team would make us reappraise the subcontinental Indians too.)

Five minutes to the bell and my mind was wandering.

Should I, or shouldn’t I? Senior staff and local parents were known to keep eyes peeled for teachers zooming first out of the car park. The nine till four merchants.

The mark of dishonour. But, just this once? And for what better cause?

I’d had a soft spot for the Indians ever since 1959, when, despite being outplayed, they had given a West Riding street-cricket urchin a whiff of the exotic and brought a full hot dry Indian summer with them. And now they were but ten miles away, in action this very minute, warming up against Derbyshire at picturesque Queen’s Park, Chesterfield, prior to the first Texaco Trophy match at Headingley.

“Right. Pack away! I want you out sharpish. I’ve an important appointment. Anyone blocking the car park exit is dead meat!” No second telling was required. At the first ding we were off like a shot, with me in pole position. Fortunately in those days there were no speed cameras, and I was soon parked up and installed on a bench in the temporary stand.

The scoreboard told us the county had made 235 for six from their 55 overs, mainly through 115 from captain Kim Barnett. But I was there for the Indians, soon to be reduced to an unpromising 81 for four by a strong Derbyshire attack led by the fearsome Trinidadian, Ian Bishop. Indian batsmen had improved their technique against fast bowling since the debacle of Fred Trueman blowing them away in the 1950s, but would the present crop be able to withstand the distinctly unsaintly Bishop?

Well, one of them could. This was my first sight of young Sachin Tendulkar, and one shot in particular marked him out as someone rather special: a hook for six off Bishop that sailed over the trees at square leg. He hit the winning run to finish with 105, but it was the sheer class and audacity of that one stroke that made me an instant and hugely expectant fan.

I saw Sachin once more that summer, in the Indians’ final fixture, against Michael Parkinson’s World XI at the Scarborough Festival. I watched the Indian team emerge from their coach one morning and half-expected the curly-haired lad to rush into a corner shop for a stick of rock instead of entering the ground with the adults. The match was eventually saved by Little Big Man’s 108.

In his review of the tour for Wisden, R. Mohan wrote that “there should be many more Test hundreds for Tendulkar”. The evidence was there in one stroke at Queen’s Park.

Ian Gray came third in Wisden 2014’s writing competition. To enter this year, click here.

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Eagar’s Eye

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Talk about a yard of ale – there must have been hundreds here! You might not be too surprised to learn the scene is a Saturday afternoon on Headingley’s Western Terraces, where attention has wandered from the entertainment in the middle. (It was the 2008 Test against South Africa, who won by ten wickets.) I don’t think the English are alone in constructing these snakes, but the fancy dress element – there are ten or so WGs sporting the bushiest of beards and yellow-and-black caps – probably is peculiar to these shores. Part of the fun, of course, is baiting the poor old stewards, always roundly booed for breaking things up.

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England v India QUIZ

by Steven Lynch

Answers on page 29

1

The Maharajah of Porbandar was the official captain of India’s 1932 tour, although he stood down from the inaugural Test against England as he recognised his shortcomings as a player.

He was said to have collected more what during that tour than first-class runs?

2

On India’s 1952 tour of England, one batsman was in dreadful form during the Tests, making just 43 runs at 6.14. But in the other games, he crashed 1,645 runs at 58.75 including five hundreds, three of them doubles. Who was he?

3 4

What unique feat befell India in the 1959 Test series in England?

5

Who captained India to their first series win in England, in 1971, but resigned after losing 3–0 three years later?

6

Who is the only visiting batsman to score three Test centuries at Lord’s, doing so for India in 1979, 1982 and 1986?

7 8

Which Bombay-born spinner made his Test debut against India at Edgbaston in 1996?

9

Which player, who never scored another fifty and averaged 16 overall, hit a century for India in the 2002 Lord’s Test?

10

India’s first Test win in England, at The Oval in 1971, was set up by which unorthodox spinner’s superb spell of six for 38?

Two Indian greats made their Test debuts at Lord’s in 1996. One made 131, the other 95. Who were they?

Which England player, part of an Australian bowler’s hat-trick in 2010, took one himself against India at Trent Bridge the following year?

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My First Test In the 1970s, a young Robert Winder contrived two separate trips to his first Test. And when the weather cleared, he saw the Master Blaster dismiss England with trademark insouciance

Rain, rain, go away.

Come again another day Scorecard: click here

The first time I went to a big game I didn’t see a thing.

It was raining at Lord’s, so we gave up and went off to a nearby cinema. But while this was dismaying at the time, it did turn out to have one pleasant consequence.

Since it meant I had the rare excitement of going to my first Test twice, it turned out to be a decent slice of luck.

It was the summer of 1974, and I was an eager 14-year-old with the usual schoolboy enthusiasms: I liked playing, watching, talking and dreaming cricket.

So when my father produced tickets for the Lord’s Test against Pakistan I was thrilled. We caught an early train to London and sat swaying in one of those carriages with blue-upholstered compartments smelling of tobacco and cleaning fluid, and with the familiar sign saying “Do Not Lean Out Of The Window” above the door. We journeyed from our home in the Surrey/Hampshire badlands to (as one did in those days) “Camberley, Brookwood, Woking, Surbiton aaaand Waterloo”.

It was a commuter’s journey, which also involved passing mysterious signs to the line routinely known as the “Drain” – to my young mind it sounded like a sewer down which the menfolk of the Home Counties had to crawl to become something in the City. Once we had thundered up the underground to Lord’s it felt even more like a man’s world: serried ranks of white benches fragrant with cigar smoke, beer, sawdust, sweat and hair tonic – and rain spattering on dark umbrellas. Even the advertising boards that fringed the grass made the home of cricket feel like a DIY outlet: garish signs for building companies, central-heating systems, shelving units, toolkits and carpets jostled for space with placards for motoring clubs and cigarettes.

After Pakistan had made 130 on the first day, England scrambled their way to 270, largely thanks to a typically fighting 83 (the kind the papers liked to call “impish”) from Alan Knott, my father’s favourite player.

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WisdenEXTRA • England v India Test series

Pakistan were doing better second time around, but the script, on the Monday, was that England would have an easy target for victory… and John Edrich (my favourite) would do the rest.

It didn’t turn out like that. The rain just fell and fell, and after eating the last crumbs of our Enid Blyton picnic – pork pies, apples and ginger beer – we drifted south into central London. With no mobile phones to guide us, we stopped at the first picture house we came to, in Baker Street. It was showing The Day of the Jackal, about an elegant English assassin slipping through France, with General de Gaulle in his rifle sights.

Given the times we were living through – these were the halcyon days of industrial disputes and IRA bombing campaigns – this was thrilling and evocative stuff, so by the time we blinked back out into the wet streets we were almost glad the cricket had been cancelled. But at Waterloo we picked up an evening paper and saw to our horror that play had resumed, and that Derek “Deadly” Underwood had taken eight wickets, including one super-hot streak of six for nine in 11.5 overs, to put England on course for near-certain victory. (Not absolutely certain, because the same awful weather assassinated the entire last day…)

It hurt to have missed such a shivering passage of play, and in the days that followed my head spun with a confused jumble of images. In my mind’s eye I saw Edward Fox sidling to the wicket, blond and splayfooted, left wrist cocked in deadly intent. And was that Dennis Amiss speeding through the French countryside in a luscious blue convertible, Mike Denness romancing a French comtesse in a refined hotel, or Keith Fletcher limping down a Paris boulevard disguised as a war veteran, leaning for support on the custom-tooled, highcalibre rifle hidden in his aluminium crutches?

The upshot was that two years later I journeyed up to London for my first Test all over again. This time I

went with a friend, and at Waterloo we turned south to see England play the West Indies at The Oval. We were junior Surrey members and had attended nets, so we hugged our green booklets and went for two days. It was summer 1976, the year of sunshine and the minister of drought, and The Oval was parched and brown. For a day and a half we watched the game’s newest and brightest star, Viv Richards, make his second double-century of the series by plundering 291 stylish and unhurried runs. It was a masterclass, and in case anyone thought it had been achieved on an ideal batting surface, Michael Holding would soon tear England’s batting to ribbons, collecting eight wickets with the playful air of a fox among chickens.

I was dimly aware that there were historical resonances here. I had not read C. L. R. James or been to the Caribbean; I knew nothing of Britain’s slave plantations in the tropics or the way cricket had been carried around the far-flung empire. But I did know that England’s South African captain, Tony Greig, had made an embarrassing pledge to make these fabulous West Indians “grovel”, and could see that Viv was making him eat his rash words. So I was happy, and proud, to be there.

But I was aware of a disturbing contrary emotion too. It was magnificent, yes, but it was also (whisper it) a bit of a yawn. Sun-baked over followed sun-baked over.

Here was a four cuffed through midwicket… there went another, eased behind square. Time after time, Richards settled into that perfect swaggering stance, haughty

and scornful, touching the peak of his cap, chewing his gum, rolling his shoulders, despatching Underwood once again. It was superb, but also cold and relentless.

Without the element of a contest, it felt more of an exhibition than a game.

It taught me, as cricket does, several lessons. I learned that “bad” wickets were more exciting than so-called good ones. I learned that low-scoring games could be more dramatic than high-scoring ones, bowling sprees more startling than run-feasts, and that cricket could be magic even when you missed every ball. I learned – since the same bowler (Underwood) had been unplayable in one session, unthreatening in another – that the weather gods ruled all. I learned that I cared more for narrative excitement, the game’s power to surprise, than I did for monumental feats. And I developed a mild national inferiority complex: how come they had swaggering geniuses like Richards and Holding, while we had greyhaired bank-manager types like David Steele?

And of course I learned the importance of patience.

Walking out of Lord’s that day turned me into one of those dreadful bores who spend hours on wet cricket grounds saying, as they squint optimistically at the clouds: “D’you know, I think it might be clearing.”

Robert Winder, former literary editor of The Independent, is the author of The Little Wonder: The Remarkable History of Wisden

The chap on the right contemplating the chocolate cake is my son Will, and the girl in the blue sweater is my daughter Kate, so it’s something of a family snap. This cricket tea was enjoyed in Andover in 1985, and is the focus of an image that just shouts Englishness (though not too loudly).

The lighting works well, and everyone was so used to my taking photos all the time that the picture has a natural feel to it.

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WISDEN NEWS U

nusually for a Championship match in the 21st century, there was a sell-out at Headingley in early June. What sold out, however, were in fact copies of 10 for 10, being signed by the author and Yorkshire Post cricket correspondent, Chris Waters. His book tells the story of just under 20 overs of leftarm spin bowled by Hedley Verity and summed up in the figures 19.4–16–10–10. Verity’s miracle came for Yorkshire against Nottinghamshire at Leeds in 1932 – and remain the best figures in all first-class cricket. The signing appropriately took place during Yorkshire’s 2014 Championship match against Nottinghamshire.

Click here to read a sample of 10 for 10, and here to order it.

A

run of the first nine leatherbound editions of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack (1995–2003) were recently auctioned by Knights, in their regular Leicester sale. The 1995 leatherbound, limited to 100 copies, sold for £2,300, while the other eight (150 copies each) fetched a combined total of £1,430. To find out more about limited-edition leatherbound Wisdens click here.

T

om Köhler-Cadmore’s 1,409 runs for Malvern College in 2013 – a record aggregate for a

school season since the start of the millennium – earned him the Wisden Schools Cricketer of the Year award. In May, playing a three-day game for Worcestershire against Cambridge University at Fenner’s, he made his maiden professional hundred. KöhlerCadmore faced the first ball of the match, bowled by Zain Shahzad, a graduate of the Wisden City Cup inner-city programme.

T

he Wisden City Cup was renamed the Lord’s Taverners City Cup in 2013, reflecting the Taverners’ generous funding.

The aim remains the same: to give inner-city cricketers aged 16 to 22 in eight urban centres the chance to play competitive Twenty20 matches on good club wickets – and hope to lessen the English professional game’s overreliance on the middle-class and privately educated. Each season, MCC award a place on their Young Cricketers scheme – giving City Cup players a clear route into first-class cricket.

The sixth season of the City Cup began in June. For more information, click here.

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he Wisden 150 Club, founded in 2013 to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden, continues its popular series of lunches, in which

ex-professional cricketers discuss the challenges of playing at the top level. Former spinner Graeme Swann and national selector Geoff Miller were guests in the last lunch, held in the Long Room at Lord’s on June 18 and hosted by Mark Butcher. The topic for discussion was “England Cricket: Moving On”.

The next lunch, also to be held in the Long Room, will be on July 23.

Find out more here.

D

uring the England–India Investec Test series, Sky Sports scorer Benedict Bermange will introduce a feature on A. E. J. Collins, whose 628 not out as 13-year-old in a house match at Clifton College in 1899 remains the highest score in cricket history, and on Colin Blythe, one of the finest bowlers of the Golden Age. Collins and Blythe died in the First World War, and are two of the most renowned players to appear in Wisden on the Great War, edited by Andrew Renshaw. Click here to read a sample

T

he 2015 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack will include a supplementary obituary section for those whose deaths have been overlooked. Suggestions for this, and information on those who died in 2014, should be sent to feedback@wisden.com. Many thanks for your help.

Win a case of Hardys Wine!

To celebrate the rare feast of a five-Test series between England and India, our sponsors Hardys – the official wine of English cricket – are giving away two cases of their excellent wares. First prize is a full case; two runners-up will each receive six bottles.

To enter, all you need do is answer this question: who took 12 wickets in India’s maiden Test victory over 28

WisdenEXTRA • England v India Test series

England? You’ll find all the details – including the terms and conditions – here.

The winners will be announced in the first Wisden EXTRA issue of 2015, released on February 13. All entrants must be aged 18 or over, and resident in the UK. Closing date for entries is February 2, 2015. The decision of the Wisden editorial team is final.

Do you know these men?

This, like a Chris Gayle drive sailing over the sightscreen, is a long shot. Still, as many a bowler has pondered, you can but try…

What I’d dearly love to unearth is the identity of this group of 19 chaps who, I think it’s safe to assume, together made up a cricket club 100 years or so ago.

They have looked benignly down on my desk in the Wisden offices for the past few years ever since my daughter found the print in a Basingstoke junk shop and gave it to me for my birthday.

The mount on which the print sits has been cut to fit it into a frame. Just visible in one corner, however, is a crown, a fragment of a flowery typeface – it looks as if it might have ended “ck” – and the green letters “OYDON”. I imagine that must have been the

crest of Croydon-based photographer, but I could be completely wrong.

The fellow on the right who’s either dapper or shifty (I’m never sure which), the various owners of a fine titfer (and even finer tache), the studious one in glasses in the middle at the back, the roué with a centre parting, messy tie and half-smile… Who are they all?

Does anyone have a bright idea?

Identified or unidentified, there’s a beguiling immediacy to the image. And if you’d like to send in a scan of a similarly old photograph, whether or not you know its history, we at Wisden would be delighted.

Send files (no greater than 5Mb, please) to feedback@wisden.com, and we’ll do our best to publish one or two in the next edition of Wisden EXTRA. Hugh Chevallier

QUIZ ANSWERS See page 25 1 Rolls-Royces (he made two runs) 2 Polly Umrigar 3 They were the only visiting team to be whitewashed 5–0 by England 4 Bhagwat Chandrasekhar

5 Ajit Wadekar 6 Dilip Vengsarkar 7 Min Patel 8 Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid 9 Ajit Agarkar 10 Stuart Broad WisdenEXTRA • England v India Test series

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