W G Grace

Let the Spirit of Cricket reign

I will not be responsible for my actions if another cricket enthusiast confides in me that he is not sure if Ian Bell was run out but wasn't it wonderful for the Spirit of Cricket.

Before I bite through my nearest hard back Wisden, however, I will ask him one question. Can he imagine one of the real tough guy captains of any era withdrawing an appeal in these circumstances? I think not.

W.G. Grace maybe? ‘The Old Man' as he was known in the 19th century was not above ignoring the official rule book when it suited him. “This lot,” he said pointing to the crowd, “came here to see me bat not see you umpire.” True it was not a vital match but I'm sure you get the picture.

Uncompromising

I reckon the deputation from England who knocked on the Indian dressing room door during the tea interval would have had very short shift from men like the uncompromising Steve Waugh, the Bodyline captain Douglas Jardine, Michael Atherton, who declared when Graeme Hick was two runs short of a desperately-needed century, and as for Arjuna Ranatunga, my guess is that his answer to a request that he withdraw an appeal would have been nothing short of blistering.

Nasser Hussain, Walter Hammond (“my father never enjoyed his cricket under Hammond,” Denis Compton's son once told me), Brian Sellers of Yorkshire who in his first match as captain reminded the godlike Wilfred Rhodes “I make the decisions round here, Rhodes” and Peter May, who, so Richie Benaud told me, “was a tough opponent.”

I can't make my mind up how Benaud might have reacted but when he was told that one New South Wales chucker was selected for the next match replied: “You can pick him, but I will not be bowling him.” On the other hand Benaud was a firm supporter of the Spirit of Cricket and he was a very fair man too.

Ian Botham was once recalled – by the late David Hookes, then captain of South Australia – after some confusion about a hit-ball-twice decision and that day the England manager Doug Insole told me he had withdrawn appeals three times in his spell as captain of Essex. It happens and so it should.

I saw Australian batsman Dean Jones given out in the West Indies after he had been bowled by a no-ball. Typical Jones, he saw the wickets down, tucked his bat under his arm and headed for the pavilion, pulling off his gloves.

From W.G. Grace to S. Tendulkar « Ducking Beamers: A Cricket Blog

, A part-memoir, part-post-colonial analysis and history of cricket. Even though I’ve owned the book for more than four years now, I confess this evening was the first instance I sat down to give it a good go — and I’m so impressed I promise to go back to it for more. For starters, take this excerpt about W.G. Grace on the eve of scoring 100 centuries in 1895, at the age of 47:

“Burly as [his] figure was, [Grace] was sustained and lifted higher than ever before by what has been and always will be the most potent of all forces in our universe — the spontaneous, unqualified, disinterested enthusiasm and goodwill of a whole community….Never since the days of the Olympic champions of Greece has the sporting world known such enthusiasm and never since. This is accepted and it is true and it is important — I am the last to question that. What I take leave to ask even at such a moment is this: On what other occasion, sporting or non-sporting, was there ever such enthusiasm, such an unforced sense of community, of the universal merged in an individual? At the end of a war? A victorious election? With its fears, its hatreds, its violent passions? I have heard of no other that approached this celebration of W.G.’s hundredth century.”

W.G. Grace

W.G. Grace, a biography ... with a treatise on cricket

WG Grace, An Intimate Biography

W. G. Grace, A Life

W.G. Grace, his life and times