Cricket XXXX Cricket (29 page)

A few inspired pieces of advice had also helped matters along. Until then, I had never known that it had been Phil’s idea in Brisbane for Gatt to move himself up the batting order to number three. Early on in the tour, the opening batsmen were looking a bit dicey, and David was struggling at that position. Phil argued that Mike had always done a good job for Middlesex at number three, and should in the circumstances be trying to do the same here in Australia, with David at number five. The new permutation worked wonderfully well, helped by the fact that the opening partnership, the combination England had striven so hard to find, also came good.

Here again the difference between England and Australia was fundamental. Broad and Athey soon melded together to form an extremely solid opening pair, and their stability provided an excellent platform on which other stroke-makers could build. The Aussies, on the contrary, were in trouble for most of the series, with Boon so badly out of nick. The Australians were constantly chopping and changing in increasingly more desperate efforts to find an acceptable batting line-up, whilst England had the luxury of consolidating into a well-balanced squad.

This line-up was in marked contrast to last tour’s hokey-cokey style team. Because the batting was so positive in Australia, England could afford to play five genuine bowlers, with a balanced attack of three seamers and two spinners. The two spin-twins, Edmonds and Emburey, accounted for a good fifty per cent of all the bowling, which meant that England had long periods of control in the field. In the West Indies, on the other hand, England, in ever more frantic attempts to shorten a tail which refused to wag, were obliged to slot in the extra batsman at the expense of a specialist bowler, and the mere memory of Viv Richards smashing a century in about half an hour at Antigua is sufficient commentary on the wisdom of such a four-bowler approach.

Success, naturally, feeds upon success in the same way defeat feeds upon defeat. Moods and attitudes, for better or for worse, tend to infiltrate the entire team. The England batsmen were feeling good and this rubbed off on the bowlers. Dilley in particular went from strength to strength. He started off with five wickets in Brisbane, and gradually perfected those outswingers to become a genuinely top-class bowler. DeFreitas too did well in Brisbane, and when Gladstone was suddenly given his chance in Melbourne, he grasped it with alacrity.

Man-management, too, has undergone a welcome change since last year’s tour. In fairness to England’s management in the Windies, it is clearly easier to manage a buoyant and successful team than it is to manage a disheartened, disaffected side. The unfortunate Tony Brown was trying to deal with a team who were being massacred on the pitch and flagellated in the press, and half of whom were making no secret of the fact that they did not want to be on tour in the first place. At least there was none of that kind of nonsense for management to contend with this time.

It would be quite wrong, however, to suggest that this management team did better merely because external circumstances were easier. In effect, even in absolute terms, they did a far more professional job. This was probably due, in no small measure, to the fact that every member of the management in Australia had a specific job, a well-defined remit, and an awareness of the confines and the boundaries of his competence. Micky Stewart, for instance, was ‘cricket manager’; he dealt specifically with everything appertaining to cricket. Last year Bob Willis’ job was always completely vague, and it was difficult not to feel a trifle sorry for him when he ended up as little more than a glorified baggage manager.

Micky has certainly played a major role in the team’s organisation. When England lost in Brisbane in the State match before the Test, for example, it was he, not the captain Gatt, who led the short postmortem. If David had had that sort of counsel and support in his day, there is little doubt he would still be captain of England now.

Good old Fender. He certainly was never one to go overboard about the value of externals. When hammered by the press in Antigua for failing to insist that the team should practise in unplayable conditions (the ‘cow patch’ was the woefully apt appellation of the nets), his reply was quite simply, ‘If you want cosmetics, go to Boots.’

At the time, I had thought that an inspired
bon mot:
smoke presumably emanating from his ears. P. B. H. May had not.

No, David never really saw the value of public relations, a discipline based more not on doing the right things, but on being
seen
to do them. Micky on the contrary had a very shrewd idea of the value of externals. In Australia the team was always on the field at 10 am for an 11 am start, ostentatiously running, sprinting and stretching while the spectators and press were supposed to be filtering in. (I use the word ‘supposed’ because most of the press would in fact be watching proceedings on the television from the comfort of their hotel rooms until TV coverage stopped, when they were positively
obliged
to go to the ground.) The point is that De Freitas, Dilley and Botham had already been in the nets bowling their hearts out since 9.15 am, a patented recipe for pulling a muscle – bowling first and stretching later. Nevertheless, it was imperative to do the physical jerks whilst everyone was at least
thought
to be watching.

Of course, it is easy to act the overtly professional part at Australian grounds, where facilities are second to none. Although the early morning aerobics were basically for public consumption only, practice arrangements, with plenty of enthusiastic club players and excellent net bowlers putting the team through their paces, were extremely useful. Subsequently, when the team was on a winning streak, and everyone was trying one hundred per cent, just about everything on the field looked good. England’s catching and fielding, for example, were never better.

The greatest triumph of the entire tour, however, and for once Phil and I were in total agreement, would have to be the unsung hero, manager Peter Lush. His personality and common sense have been the bulwark of the team’s success. I, for one, shall certainly treat the next ‘scoop’ he gives me with the deepest suspicion, but when the bouquets are being handed out for this Grand Slam victory, he deserves the largest.

By this stage, Phil had started to give me yet another ball-by-ball account of his five Allan Border wickets, and his strained groin muscle in Sydney. I fell asleep instantly. Meanwhile, somewhere over Heathrow, a British Airways flight from Sydney was stacking to land, and England’s victorious cricket team were preparing for a rapturous welcome.

1. England retained the Ashes and won the series 2–1

2. England won the Benson and Hedges Challenge

3. England won the Benson and Hedges World Series Cup

4. Dennis Conner and
Stars and Stripes
won the America’s Cup

5. Alan Bond took over Kerry Packers’s Channel 9

6. Rupert Murdoch took over the
Herald and Weekly Times

7. William Heinemann Australia were granted permission to publish Peter Wright’s memoirs. The decision went to appeal

8. Malcom Fraser never did find those trousers

This ebook edition published 2015 by

Elliott and Thompson Limited

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www.eandtbooks.com

First published 1987 by The Kingswood Press

Epub 978-1-78396-169-6

Mobi 978-1-78396-170-2

Text copyright © 1987 Frances Edmonds

Preface © 2015 Frances Edmonds

Cover artwork by Tony Brooks

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.