Ken Barrington vs Younis Khan

[BazBall21]

Not the best player of pace. Struggled massively against WI with Hall, especially at home and was said to be suspect against the short ball.

That is all lost to time though and YK looking inept against lateral movement is still fresh as you say. Tbf, he did really suck in NZ. Looked awful.

It was Griffith that sorted Barrington out in England mate. The more aggressive of the two. Barrington was pretty much remorseless on the road but his home record is a bit dodgy.

 

[BazBall21]

Yeah I kinda agree, he wasn't the best player of lateral movement. But anyone else feel comparisons like this always expose how difficult it is to be fair to the more modern guy in comparisons like this? Barrington had obscene stats but I'm sure he had his own weaknesses (every batsman does), they're just not brought up because people who haven't watched them play can't make any kind of judgement. Whereas with Younis all his strengths and weaknesses are relatively fresh in the memory, so they're going to be brought up.

Never been entirely convinced what to make of Barrington's career tbh. He has a very large disparity between his FC and test stats and he had a pretty short career by ATG standards. Abundance of high scoring series and mediocre attacks in his era too.

Yeah but if you dig into his record, you find he clearly had some problems against pace. Dodgy record at home to Aus/SA/WI, the teams that had good pace bowlers. Barrington is a strange case. Overrated and underrated.

 

[Coronis]

Interesting thing I read recently “This was coupled with a change of attitude encouraged by Alec Bedser and Jim Laker”. Apparently it was those other England ATG’s who helped push Barrington to change his style.

 

[Line and Length]

The disparity between Barrington's Test and FC averages is quite easily explained. He put a far higher premium on his wicket when playing Tests than he did in lesser games.
I forget who made the remark, but it was an Australian commenting on sledging. He said there were players who dug in even deeper if 'verbaled'. He cited Walters and Barrington as two examples. He likened Barrington's arrival at the crease as that of a bulldog with a union jack around his shoulders.
Whilst regarded an ultra-defensive bat by some, it should be remembered that Barrington brought up 4 of his 20 Test centuries by hitting a six.

 

[Coronis]

The disparity between Barrington's Test and FC averages is quite easily explained. He put a far higher premium on his wicket when playing Tests than he did in lesser games.
I forget who made the remark, but it was an Australian commenting on sledging. He said there were players who dug in even deeper if 'verbaled'. He cited Walters and Barrington as two examples. He likened Barrington's arrival at the crease as that of a bulldog with a union jack around his shoulders.
Whilst regarded an ultra-defensive bat by some, it should be remembered that Barrington brought up 4 of his 20 Test centuries by hitting a six.

Oh yes he could definitely play some shots if motivated.

 

[BazBall21]

Barrington belted a fast Test hundred in Australia.

 

[BazBall21]

115 off 153 at Melbourne.

 

[Days of Grace]

Barrington scored at a rate of about 42 runs per 100 balls (sourced from Charles Davis’ z score site). This is actually the same as Denis Compton and Peter May, two batsmen who had the reputation of being much more entertaining or pleasing to the eye.

 

[Coronis]

Barrington scored at a rate of about 42 runs per 100 balls (sourced from Charles Davis’ z score site). This is actually the same as Denis Compton and Peter May, two batsmen who had the reputation of being much more entertaining or pleasing to the eye.

Some more modern batsmen with similar rates: Chanders (43), Dravid (42), Border (41)

 

[BazBall21]

May was elegant but not fast, his tempo was classical like his technique. That stat on Compton is obviously a lot more surprising on the surface but a lot of his knocks with balls faced availability on howstat were actually quite slow. I love his Adelaide 1947 magnum opus.

 

[BazBall21]

Barrington getting dropped for slow scoring was poor. He never really gave an impression of being too selfish like Boycott probably did.

 

[Coronis]

Barrington getting dropped for slow scoring was poor. He never really gave an impression of being too selfish like Boycott probably did.

Its an interesting story tbh.

English cricket was now entirely professional and cricketers like Barrington and Geoff Boycott ground out long, defensive innings for the maximum of runs and the minimum of risk. With slow over-rates, negative fielding and time-wasting, it was thought that cricket was dying a slow death as spectators found other entertainment. The exception was the colourful West Indies team under Frank Worrell and to fit in an extra tour in 1966 South Africa had theirs moved to 1965 and for the first time since 1912 two Test series were played in an English summer, with John Reid’s weak New Zealand team having its five Tests reduced to three. Barrington was out of form, and had been berated by the Surrey captain Micky Stewart for slow scoring, but was retained in the England team for the First Test at Edgbaston.

This was the most controversial of his career as he played himself into form by taking 437 minutes to make 137 against a poor bowling attack and "almost brought the game to a standstill". Coming in at 54/1 he spent an hour without scoring even though Mike Smith asked him to hurry up. As if to show that he was wilfully obstinate he hit 2 fours and a six in one over to bring up his hundred after six hours and was the last man out in a total of 435.

Though England won by 9 wickets Barrington was dropped for slow-scoring "for the good of cricket" and the Chairman of Selectors Doug Insole wrote to him "it is the only practical way of demonstrating that we're not prepared to condone cricket of the Edgbaston variety". Barrington was depressed and even considered retirement, but worked on his batting and made 70 and 129 not out for Surrey against the tourists.

This was in 65, he was only dropped for the one test, Boycott and Ted Dexter were injured for the 3rd. Barrington scored 163 off 290 in this test.

It feels harsh, if you’ve had a bad run of form I feel theres no issue with grinding out a quality innings to play yourself back in, which I think he did well (337 balls to reach 100, 37 runs off his last 33 balls). Its not like the other other English bats were scoring at a fast rate either and dropping your top scorer is stupid af imo. Seems he was made a scapegoat for the team’s playstyle that the board didn’t like.