Cruel Cricket

[GuyFromLancs]

This. I read an article posted somewhere else here about Boswell, in the Guardian. Absolutely harrowing, albeit captivating reading for a (happily) ex-bowler.

Yeah I read it. It was excellent, and underlines how cruel a sport cricket can be.

 

[Zinzan]

By the end of this game there were plenty of Englishmen who would have been happy to see NZ get those last few runs

I've seen highlights of that game At 414/6, NZ would have been favourites, surely.

 

[sledger]

Watching Graeme Smith bat.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

Watching Graeme Smith bat.

The hunched heave to leg doesn't float your boat?

 

[fredfertang]

I've seen highlights of that game At 414/6, NZ would have been favourites, surely.

It seemed to me, an impressionable 13 year old, that they suddenly realised the enormity of what they might achieve and bottled it - I was supremely confident that Bruce Taylor, who all the commentators talked up as a man to rush them over the line, would do the business, but even he had a "rabbit in the headlights" look about him

 

[Top_Cat]

This. I read an article posted somewhere else here about Boswell, in the Guardian. Absolutely harrowing, albeit captivating reading for a (happily) ex-bowler.

'It took 10 years to recover': the story of Scott Boswell and the yips | The Spin | Sport | The Guardian

Articles like this actually make me quite angry. Worst bit;

Leicestershire lost. "We were playing Gloucestershire on the Monday after the final. Nobody spoke to me, I just wasn't playing, that was it. I wasn't told." Only one close friend, the former England bowler Jimmy Ormond, tried to talk to him. "People would just walk past me. But Jimmy took me out for a pint and he just said: 'What the hell happened there?' He was the only person who confronted me, the only person who I talked to about it.

Ormond aside, and I know this is just Boswell's perspective but it really does suck how bad cricket sides are at dealing with when one of their spearheads has a bad day, let alone gets the yips to degrees like this. Anyone who's played cricket at any level has been in that situation where the **** with the bat in his hand "looked as though he was 50 yards away. He was like a tiny dot. I just couldn't see him." yet what did his team do? A bunch of professionals just pretended he didn't exist. Even after bowling first, they sat in a changeroom with him for hours and apparently noone thought to help him out.

The sport isn't cruel, his bloody teammates and hierarchy were and I wish people would call **** like this out more often.

EDIT: I do hasten to add that he wouldn't have been in the mood for an on-field D&M, given. Also an interesting coincidence the bloke he was bowling to for that over.

 

[Top_Cat]

Decent example of the yips from another sport:

2000 NLDS Gm1: Ankiel throws five wild pitches - YouTube

Just got worse and worse....

 

[BoyBrumby]

His name escapes me for a moment, but there was one England player (IIRC a Glamorgan batsman, so I'll say a Jones, maybe...) who was awarded a test cap when he appeared for us in those "tests" versus the ROTW XI, which subsequently lost their gold standard status, & he never again featured outside of that series.

The way the MCC behaved towards Lol after the 32/33 tour definitely fits too. A noble, decent and proud man was treated as an indentured servant.

&, obviously, Archie Jackson's truncated career is cruel in a way that's above and beyond cricket.

 

[fredfertang]

His name escapes me for a moment, but there was one England player (IIRC a Glamorgan batsman, so I'll say a Jones, maybe...) who was awarded a test cap when he appeared for us in those "tests" versus the ROTW XI, which subsequently lost their gold standard status, & he never again featured outside of that series.

Bit of a big target that one - 'twas Alan Jones - they even asked for the cap back - at least he had the decency to tell 'em to go shag a sheep

 

[wpdavid]

It seemed to me, an impressionable 13 year old, that they suddenly realised the enormity of what they might achieve and bottled it - I was supremely confident that Bruce Taylor, who all the commentators talked up as a man to rush them over the line, would do the business, but even he had a "rabbit in the headlights" look about him

As an equally impressionable 13 year old, I thought they'd make it from 400 for 5, but the wicket of the late Ken Wadsworth was vital.

Great match.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Atherton falling flat on his backside and getting runout for 99

 

[Burgey]

Other countries having to tour India.

 

[Burgey]

 

[adub]

Having to support a team selected by Andrew Hilditch.