The Reverse Sweep

An XI of Cricket Heroes

 
This week saw the publication of our 1000th post since we started The Reverse Sweep in 2009, which we suppose is cause for some mild celebration.

Cricket Heroes & Zeroes is perhaps the most prominent feature of this blog, so here is a team of our cricket heroes to muse over whilst we sip our celebratory glass of Bollinger (and no Doug, we don't mean you).

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Jack Hobbs

The Master. We were in awe of his staggering accomplishments as a youngster and we still are.

See Cricket heroes: Jack Hobbs

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Victor Trumper

The thinking man's Bradman. Stylish, effervescent and with all the strokes. The first batsman to hit a Test hundred before lunch.

See All-time Australian Ashes XI: The Openers

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Viv Richards

Sachin acolytes will doubtless disagree, but King Viv is the not only the most destructive but the best batsman we've seen in 30 plus years of watching cricket.  And what about that swagger?

See Cricket heroes: Viv Richards

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David Gower

Our first cricket memory that really resonates was our boyhood hero Gower nonchalantly dispatching his first ball in Test cricket to the boundary.

See cricket heroes: David Gower

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Douglas Jardine (Captain)

England's greatest captain and the foe of Bradman in the notorious (and ultimately successful) Ashes expedition of 1932/33.

See cricket heroes: Douglas Jardine

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Keith Miller

Flamboyant cricketer? Check. War hero? Check. Alleged dalliances with Princesses? Check. What's not to like?

See Keith Miller: Champion all-rounder, war hero & raconteur

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Ian Botham

He may divide opinion as a commentator, but for any English born, cricket loving child of the late seventies and early eighties, Beefy was the original comic book hero.

See All-time England Ashes XI - All-rounder, plus Botham's Ashes and 10 reasons why Ian Botham may have worn sunglasses at the premiere of 'From the Ashes'

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Henry Blofeld

Don't laugh. Until he lost an argument with a bus, Blofeld was a promising enough schoolboy wicketkeeper to be talked about as a future Test player. But it is Blofeld's eccentric, irreverent and unmissable commentary on Test Match Special that gets him in here.

See cricket heroes: Henry Blofeld

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Hedley Verity

England's greatest ever spinner died a hero leading his men into battle in the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943.  1956 first-class wickets at an incredible 14.90 is the ultimate evidence of Verity's genius.

See cricket heroes: Hedley Verity

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Malcolm Marshall

If Richards is the best batsman we've ever seen, then Marshall is the best bowler. Marshall had everything. Express pace, a nasty bouncer (just ask Mike Gatting and Andy Lloyd) and the ability to swing the ball both ways.

See cricket heroes: Malcolm Marshall

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Harold Larwood

Bodyline's scapegoat is reputed to have been the fastest bowler ever and he certainly executed Jardine's cunning plan to the letter. His dignified response to being ostracised by the establishment proved he was as brilliant a man as he had been the most fearsome of fast bowlers.

See All-time Ashes XI and also Bodyline and nine other Ashes controversies

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Where next?

Cricket Heroes: Graham Dilley R.I.P

Check out all our other Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

Cricket heroes: Henry Blofeld

 
He may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the splendidly eccentric Henry Blofeld is an unadulterated commentary hero here at the Reverse Sweep.

Whilst Test Match Special remains the pinnacle of sports broadcasting in our view, it has lost some of its intrinsic character in recent times. That could be something to do with the sharp increase in the percentage of its team who have recently played international cricket. Selection seems to be based on this more than on the skill of actually commentating.

However, its lustre is quickly recaptured whenever ‘Blowers’ makes one of his all too irregular stints in the TMS commentary box. Blofeld, who was actually a decent cricketer at Eton and was even tipped to play for England until he lost an argument with a bus whilst riding his bike, is a shining example of why not all commentators should have played the game at the highest level (obviously Charles Colville isn't). 

Charisma, character and hi-jinks drip from almost every word and whether it is his quaint references to pigeons or London buses, or his many gaffes and mistaken identities, Blowers could never be accused of being boring.

Unfortunately, with the inverted snobbery that is all too sadly prevalent in today’s society, Blofeld’s privileged background, education at Eton, clipped vowels and old-school eccentricity are all seized upon and sneered at by the critics.

But not by us and the more we get to hear Blofeld’s japes and unique brand of joviality in the TMS box, and general 'splendid form' the better.

Where next?

Cricket Heroes: Test Match Sofa

Cricket Zeroes: Charles Colville

Cricket Zeroes: Bill Lawry

Check out all our other Reverse Sweep heroes and zeroes

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

Adelaide Zero: Ashley Giles

 
Now normally we wouldn't accord zero status to the 'King of Spain'. On the contrary in fact. For his unheralded role in the 2005 Ashes -  including seeing a nervous England over the line at Trent Bridge and for helping tie up one end whilst Messrs Flintoff, Harmison, Hoggard and Jones wreaked havoc at the other - Gilo is closer to a hero than a zero.

But at Adelaide in 2006 - the scene of the lowest of a series full of lows for England - the King lost his crown with one simple act that if he had executed it properly would likely have led to glorious victory rather than the most ignominious of defeats. And we are picking an Adelaide zero...

Giles was a controversial pick in the series with Duncan Fletcher preferring him to Monty Panesar despite the Warwickshire man having had little or no cricket for 12 months and his erstwhile replacement having made a promising start to his test career. That wasn't Giles' fault, but what he did, or more precisely failed to do, was.

For those with short memories, the Adelaide Test of 2006 started very well for England. Paul Collingwood (206) and Kevin Pietersen (158) compiled a 4th wicket partnership of 310 as England posted 551/6 declared. Then England made inroads with the new ball to reduce Australia to 65/3 and with a scratchy Ricky Ponting looking like getting out at any moment, more joy looked imminent.

And then Gilo's big moment came as Ponting mistimed a hook off Hoggard towards Giles on the deep square leg boundary. But Giles, never the most co-ordinated of cricketers - Henry Blofeld often called him the "wheelie-bin", fluffed his lines hopelessly misjudging the trajectory and clumsily dropping the Australian captain - and some said the Ashes - into the process.

Ponting went on to make 142 as Australia limited England's first innings lead to just 38 and the rest is as they say history. England wouldn't have won that series in a million years, but without Gilo's spill they wouldn't have lost this Test and at least saved England's cricket fans from the most depressing of defeats.

It also proved a sad epitaph to the King of Spain's England career as first serious illness to his wife and then persistent injuries meant that the Adelaide Test was his last. But reluctantly, we have to make Gilo a Reverse Sweep Adelaide zero for his integral part in England's downfall in this Test match.

Where next?

Read all the latest from our Ashes 2010/11 coverage

An unreserved apology to James Anderson

Adelaide Hero: Wally Hammond

Check out all our other Reverse Sweep heroes and zeroes

Follow the Reverse Sweep on Twitter

The Boundary View: No luck for Strauss again, Lord's, Day One

Strauss' sad waltz plays on

Though he hid it well, Andrew Strauss will have been particularly disappointed to have lost the toss under doom-laden skies at Lord's yesterday. He came into the match with questions hanging over his form, although to be fair it has been a particularly difficult series to open the batting where for the most part, high-quality seamers have had both pitch and overhead conditions in their favour. Sure enough, Strauss got an absolute beauty from Mohammad Asif that was full, swung and then nipped back to catch the England captain's inside edge and bowl him through his gate. It was a wonderful delivery from Asif and in a series of great balls of fire, it is right up there with the best of them.

But in contrast, Cook's leprechaun continues to work his magic

Whilst his opening colleague's poor run of luck continues, the leprechaun on Alastair Cook's shoulder continued to work its magic. After enjoying several large slices of luck at the Oval, before he got going in his place-saving hundred, Cook would have been inwardly smiling at the good fortune that came his way yesterday. Dropped on one by the butter fingered Umar Akmal, Cook was also reprieved by the review system on nine after a ridiculous caught behind decision by Billy Bowden. There were also a number of other edges and Cook again looked anything but assured at the crease. If Cook's luck continues today then the sun will be shining come the start of play and he will go on to make another significant score.

Keeping it in the family

The Pakistan fielding this summer, the Oval apart, has been atrocious and could have even prevented them from winning the series. The worst offender was Kamran Akmal at Trent Bridge where he dropped a series of sitters, missed a straightforward stumping to dismiss Paul Collingwood and took an edge on the bounce from Eoin Morgan because he was standing too far back. So perhaps it was no surprise that the culprit yesterday at third slip who dropped a sitter to reprieve Alastair Cook was none other than Umar Akmal. Definitely a case of keeping it in the family.

It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world

So sang Eighties cyberpunks Sigue Sigue Sputnik about the city of Rio, but they could just as well have been singing about the schedule produced by the ECB this summer. It was bad enough that England played no test cricket in July, and that Edgbaston was given a test match despite resembling a building site more than a cricket ground. We had thought that the final straw was taking away the last test of the summer from its traditional home at The Oval. But it would seem that staging a test match at Lord's this late in the season has upset the Gods evn more given the dreadful weather yesterday. At this rate the ECB will make their PCB counterparts look competent.

The day Blowers nearly played for England

One of the few good things about rain interrupting play is the material that both television and radio commentaries use to pass the time. The banter was particularly good on Test Match Sofa and the original TMS yesterday. On the latter, Henry Blofeld regaled the time that he nearly made an emergency debut for England during a series in India in the sixties. The England touring party had gone down with a particularly nasty bout of Delhi Belly and had only ten fit players standing the day before the Mumbai test was due to start, So with no-one else to turn to, Blowers, a highly-rated schoolboy cricketer at Eton before losing an argument with a bus, was asked to standby, which he agreed to do providing that if he scored a fifty he would be retained for the next test at Kolkata! In the event, on hearing that England were a man short (and perhaps aghast at the prospect of Blowers playing), Micky Stewart roused himself from his hospital bed and was named in the XI. And the moral of this story? It's not just radio and television cricket commentaries that can pad things out when rain stops play!