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Over the next month cricket’s World Cup marks its 40th anniversary in Australia and New Zealand, still unsure of where it fits into the game’s labyrinthine constellation.

World Cups are supposed to be the showpiece, yet cricket’s version does not even use the format of the game which is still regarded as the pinnacle of the sport, nor that which is its most accessible. Increasingly it risks being lost among a tide of tournaments and matches which dull the senses; these days you can make a reasonable guess that somewhere around the world a one-day international is taking place (there were 450 of them between this World Cup and the last one in 2011). Even those who govern the game have seemed unsure what to make of it, forever tinkering with the number of teams and stretching the quantity of matches so that they appear like dots at the earth’s end.

Over the next few pages Matthew Engel, who was ringside when the World Cup was born, reflects this opinion in his skilful but damning navigation through the last 40 years. As Matthew sees it, a good thing has gone to waste.

And yet if we cast the net back over the first ten World Cups we scoop up – beneath a mountain of dead fish – some triumphant and indelible moments in cricket history. West Indies launching a new era in 1975, India’s earth-shaking victory in 1983, Pakistan reaching fever pitch in 1992, Sri Lanka landing among the elite in 1996, the semi-final thriller between South Africa and Australia at Edgbaston in 1999, Dwayne Leverock’s earth-shaking catch in 2007 (in my mind he is perpetually defying gravity), the coronation of

WisdenEXTRAWorld Cup Special

The show must go on

Eagar’s Eye Patrick Eagar, the doyen of cricket photographers, has covered nine of the ten World Cups since 1975. In that time he has seen some strange things – bizarre dismissals, shock defeats, even a war over stumps. Across these pages Patrick delves into his World Cup collection to find 10 events that took him by surprise.

No. 14, February 2015

Tendulkar in 2011. Plenty to cherish there, and to keep us hopeful.

There is no reason why the World Cup can’t be a lot of fun. Some say the 50-over game is being squeezed out by the shorter and longer formats either side of it, but it is still loved round the world. It binds the eras, long enough to offer the ebb and flow that distinguishes cricket but spiced with a ticking clock.

And only the arch-cynic could deny that, however poorly it is treated, sport still has a mind of its own. As Patrick Eagar’s photographs show in this issue of Wisden EXTRA, you never know quite what’s in store. We might get lucky.

What the World Cup really needs to get it up and running is a good show from its supporting cast, the Associate nations who have too often flattered to deceive. For them, this tournament is the apex of achievement. On page 10 Khurram Khan and Kabir Khan, two Pakistan-born cricketers who have been at the centre of cricket in the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan, speak intimately and insightfully about the particular challenges – political and technical – faced by their adopted nations.

If you feel like Matthew does you can duck the World Cup by dipping into our extract from the new anthology Wisden on Grace, featuring the unlikely trio of Geoffrey Moorhouse, Neville Cardus and Craig Spearman. We also pay tribute to Phillip Hughes by reprinting the report of his twin Test hundreds at Durban six years ago – a match in which short-pitched fast bowling was to the fore.

Benj Moorehead

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151 editions of the world’s most famous sports book

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Matthew Engel wonders what happened to the tournament that had him entranced when it began some 40 years ago

The Big Hit

Patrick Eagar, Getty Images

Clive Lloyd, the West Indies captain, lifts the 1975 World Cup after receiving it from Prince Philip

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The magic of the cup

The first week of June 1975 in England was a very strange one indeed. On the Monday, June 2, cricket was snowed off at Buxton and a few desultory flakes were also spotted at Lord’s – as well as outside my bedroom window in Northamptonshire. This seemed like the continuation of a run of dismal summers, and I remember feeling awfully depressed about the then not unfashionable notion of global cooling.

On the Tuesday play resumed at Buxton: Derbyshire were bowled out for 42 and 87 on the snow-affected wicket to give Lancashire victory by a trifling innings and 348. By the Thursday the weather was starting to perk up and the British electorate, in a mood of sunny contentment, voted by a 2–1 margin to stay inside what was then called the Common Market, and is now the European Union.

On the Saturday cricket’s newest tournament began at four English Test grounds simultaneously, the game’s relationship with the still black-and-white medium of television still being unsophisticated. This was the World Cup or, as the authorities preferred to call it, the Prudential Cup; they were already quite with-it about getting the sponsors’ name up front and centre.

The opening match at Lord’s did not even attract a full house, and after England delighted the crowd with a massive score, 334 for four, India’s captain Sunil Gavaskar bizarrely chose to opt for exaggerated bloody-minded batting practice, scoring 36 out of 132 for three in 60 overs.

But by the time the competition ended just two weeks later it was an unmitigated triumph. The first World Cup final, West Indies v Australia, was both the longest day of the year and the longest day international cricket had ever known. It began with Roy Fredericks hooking Dennis Lillee into kingdom come, but falling on his stumps as he did so. It ended nine and three-quarter hours later after an unforgettable contest, with Clive Lloyd, the man of the match, lifting the trophy. The stars and the weather and the players and the moment had all aligned and cricket, as sometimes happens, had been touched by magic. Another World Cup? Bring it on!

On Valentine’s Day 2015, at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch, cricket’s 11th World Cup begins. There will be huge local enthusiasm: the tournament has not been to the Antipodes for nearly a quarter of a century; the New Zealand team is on a roll; and the populace has no English-style reservations about its preference for one-day cricket. It will finish in Melbourne, not 14 days later, like the first one, but 43 days later. The 2014 football World Cup in Brazil lasted 31 days.

For any sporting administrator, this is the template. Football’s ruling body FIFA is a disgrace, yet it runs a tournament that cannot fail, whether it is staged in Qatar or on Mars. The simplicity of the sport, its global appeal and the 85-year patina of tradition all combine to make this the apogee of the planet’s sporting cycle. As an event, the Olympics is No. 1 but most of the actual competition is kak. The FIFA World Cup holds

its appeal throughout even for spectators whose team invariably goes out early (England) or never even gets a sniff of the finals (India). The whole planet holds its breath.

Cricket’s World Cup now has 40 years worth of history. Has it spread the game of cricket? No. Despite mass migration from the subcontinent across the globe, the geography of cricket in terms of competitive power has budged hardly at all, except in the strange and special case of Afghanistan.

Has the World Cup showcased the sport and enthused new generations? Not much. Is it the undisputed pinnacle of the sport? Certainly not. Has it constructed a treasure-house of unforgettable moments? Well, yes, but the contents are a bit of a mish-mash and not all of them are worth treasuring. There have been 352 World Cup ties played so far; the return on capital from this memory-bank, I would suggest, has not been great.

The first problem is that, quite obviously, top-level cricket is not a global game. Actually, this is even more true of rugby union, let alone rugby league. But these two are more able to make a big deal of their quadrennial highlight, because they have nothing else like it.

In cricket there is a World Cup, or something very like it, along every minute. There is the Champions Trophy and the Twenty20 World Cup and various mini-World Cups... and we have only just escaped the loopy idea of a Test match semi-final and final. Modern cricket is mainly designed to provide cheap product for minority TV stations which involves endless reiteration; this is not compatible with world-stopping drama.

Furthermore, cricket is no longer one game but three, and they are becoming increasingly estranged from each other. I would guess only a minority now follow all three with enthusiasm. And some players are finding it hard to excel at everything and have begun specialising.

And then there is the format of the event itself, designed to produce maximum content (about a third of those 43 days will comprise actual playing time) not maximum excitement. There are eight teams out of 14 that matter in the World Cup. In the betting odds, it’s 250 to 1 against the ninth, Bangladesh, and 1000 to 1 anyone else. The whole of the first month will be spent whittling down the 14 to guess how many? Eight.

Logically, this is an even worse system than the Super Eight method dumped after the dreadful 2007 tournament in West Indies. In 2011 England lost to both Bangladesh and Ireland but were still the only one of the three to qualify for the quarter-finals. It is a recipe for boredom, complacency and, dare I say it, potential corruption.

Curiously, cricket’s World Cup has always been

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fairer than football’s. In that World Cup the hosts are perceived to have a big advantage and until 2010 no European country ever won on another continent; cricket never had a home winner at all until 2011. Indeed, in some mystical way this competition has a remarkable way of producing the winner that feels right.

A brief run-through: West Indies’ inaugural win was repeated in 1979 in the same setting but less sun-blessed and messier circumstances: they fielded their Kerry Packer players while Australia sent a second XI. Four years on from that, Clive Lloyd appeared certain to lift yet another trophy until halfway through the final, before his batsmen crashed to earth to give India a most improbable victory.

This was a happy tournament, held in England yet again but this time spread round the county grounds

the norm. It was a wretched loss. Sixty was enough to combine the skills of full-length cricket with the urgency of the one-day game. Cut down, it became something different: more formulaic and one-dimensional as well as less profound – a contest between bat and a number rather than bat and ball. In practice, the advent of floodlights would have made 60 overs possible anywhere. And continuation at that length would have ensured the World Cup’s primacy over all imitations. But it was an idea whose time had gone.

And so the new era began. The subcontinent’s first tournament in 1987 produced the weakest of all winning teams, Australia in a thin year. Pakistan then won at the MCG in the cornered-tiger tournament of 1992. This was the first to be played in coloured clothing so that cricket’s showpiece no longer even looked like what had been previously been regarded as cricket. Sri Lanka reinvigorated the genre in the pinch-hit-dominated 1996 event with their thrilling reinvention of the strategy and a very popular surprise win. Then came three flops in a row, all won by Australia at the peak of their powers with very little challenge. As dud of duds, 2007 in West Indies, a logistical disaster turned to horror by the mysterious death of Bob Woolmer, must get the prize ahead of 1999 back in England, which was merely shabby and half-hearted.

2011 was perceived as a success, mainly because India won it at home: the culmination of their long march to dominance that began at Tunbridge Wells. It marked the apotheosis of both the ludicrous Tendulkar cult and the country’s increasingly alarming grip on the game’s culture.

And so to 2015. Forty years on, one-day cricket has moved into the category of so many other inventions – the steam engine, the bicycle, the jet engine, the web, football, rugby and indeed cricket itself – emanating from Britain but adopted and adapted more zestfully elsewhere. England have still never won this World Cup and are not expected to change that now.

I won’t be spending the English winter nights listening obsessively to hear about distant Duckworth-Lewises and powerplays. I am sure I will start taking an interest after the first month. All the time, though, in my heart, I will always be hoping that somehow this increasingly cynical and introverted game can recapture something of the magic of that distant June.

Matthew Engel is a columnist on the Financial Times. He edited 12 editions of Wisden: 1993 to 2000 and 2004 to 2007. His latest book is Engel’s England (Profile Books)

as well as the traditional Test venues. Thus it was that perhaps the most astounding of all World Cup games took place at, of all places, rhododendron-fringed Tunbridge Wells. It was there that India crumpled to 17 for five against Zimbabwe and the brink of elimination before Kapil Dev smashed an unbeaten 175.

This proved to be a turning-point in cricket history, not just in marking the beginning of India’s ascent but also of taking the tournament away from the rhododendrons and into what even England had to accept was the real world. Never again would England be regarded as the default hosts, a notion based partly on post-imperial deference and partly on the facts of daylight: that the UK in midsummer was the only place with enough of it to allow 60-over cricket.

Henceforth 50-over one-day cricket would become

Eagar’s Eye

1975

1I never saw anything else quite like this. It was the third over of the first World Cup final between West Indies and Australia at Lord’s, and Dennis Lillee bowls a bouncer to Roy Fredericks. OK, the hook shot, great, first proper picture. The hook was Fredericks’ signature shot. It went for six. Then, with a bit of a delay, I suddenly realised he had slipped and, without noticing, brushed his stumps. Doug Walters, bless him, has watched the ball all the way to the boundary. Only the square-leg umpire has seen it all. This turned out to be quite the best one-day match I have seen.

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The trouble with Mike Gatting’s infamous reverse sweep against Allan Border in Calcutta was that, as a photographer would say, he was at the ‘wrong’ end. At most grounds photographers tended to gather together at one end based on lighting, background, convenience (how near it is to lunch). You didn’t fancy going all the way to the other end at Eden Gardens. From where I was I wouldn’t have seen it happen at all clearly, so I wouldn’t have taken a photograph immediately. The ball looped up off Gatting’s top edge and Greg Dyer, Australia’s wicketkeeper, jogged to his right to take the catch, and so he is out of shot.

Eagar’s Eye 21987

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From the Archive Wisden 2004

As Bichel and Bevan ran off delirious, England stood still. Hussain was on his knees, his head in his hands; Stewart stood with his back to his team-mates: both would later announce their retirement from one-day matches. How had this happened? How had Australia – chasing 205, in terrible trouble at 48 for four, and again at 135 for eight – won with two balls to spare?

“Bichel” was the short answer. First, he took seven for 20 on a slow pitch and strangled England’s innings; then he struck a granite-willed 34 not out from No. 10 to end their fightback – and, as it turned out, their World Cup. With Australia needing 14 from two overs, Hussain threw the ball not to Caddick (9–2–35–4 at the time) but Anderson (8–0–54–0). It was a hunch he later came to regret: Bichel swung the second ball for six, a four followed, and the game was gone. It was the final twist in a match full of them.

England’s openers had the Barmy Army in raptures

with a stand of 66 in nine overs – milking, seemingly at will, a furious McGrath. In response, Ponting brought on Bichel; half an hour later he had four for ten, having found just enough seam movement to reward his accuracy. Flintoff and Stewart played sensibly, if slowly, adding 90 in just under 25 overs, before Bichel returned and made sure there would be no late surge. In reply, Caddick made early incisions, but it was Bichel and Bevan, with a magnificent 74, who made the headlines. Australia had won their 12th successive one-day international – a record – beating West Indies’ 11 between June 1984 and February 1985.

Defeat was not necessarily disastrous for England – there were tortuous mathematical calculations that suggested it might, in some circumstances, even help their chances of reaching the Super Six. In the event, it did prove their undoing. And it was yet another chapter in the 14-year saga of humiliation against their oldest cricketing enemy.

England may not be favourites when they take on Australia at the MCG on February 14, but it can’t be as bad as this

The Bichel disaster

Tom Shaw, Getty Images

Andy Bichel basks in the glory of a performance of all-round brilliance which sunk England at Melbourne

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World Cup, Pool A, Australia v England, at Port Elizabeth, March 2, 2003. Australia won by two wickets. Toss: England.

Scorecard: click here

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No one has devoted more to the cause of UAE cricket than Khurram Khan, who last November became the oldest man to score a one-day international hundred. Like many of his team-mates, he left Pakistan for the UAE in 1997, since when he has divided his time between working as a flight attendant for Emirates Airlines and churning out runs for his adopted country as a left-handed opener. Now, at the age of 43, Khurram is making his World Cup debut. The UAE’s chief selector called him “our Sachin Tendulkar” in a recent statement – the same statement that announced his replacement as captain by another 43-year-old, Mohammad Tauqir, one of two Emiratis in the UAE squad, by order of the government.

Kabir Khan was a left-arm seamer who played four Tests for Pakistan in the 1990s, but he is better known as the coach who steered Afghanistan as the team bolted onto the international scene. Kabir was born to an Afghan father and grew up in Peshawar, the border city where many of the current players learnt the game in refugee camps. He became coach in 2008, left after a disagreement with the cricket board two years later, but returned again in 2011 to lead Afghanistan to the World Cup, “one of the golden days in my life”. Last September he stood down for personal reasons, handing the reins to former Warwickshire batsman and New Zealand coach, Andy Moles.

Made in Pakistan

For the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan, the World Cup is the biggest stage of all – their chance to prove they can compete with the Test nations. Benj Moorehead spoke to two men of Pakistani origin who have helped to shape the cricket of their adopted countries

Khurram Khan Kabir KhanUAE Afghanistan

What does it mean to you to be playing in this World Cup? For an Associate nation the World Cup is the biggest thing that can happen to you. With the World Twenty20, you always know that it’s around the corner and there are 16 teams in the tournament so you have a very good chance of qualifying. But it’s so tough to get to the World Cup. We were always missing out on qualification by one or two points. So this will mean a lot to me.

Were you surprised that Mohammad Tauqir was chosen to replace you as captain in January? I was shocked. The selectors told me they didn’t know that, when it comes to international tournaments, if there is an Emirati who is in the team then he has to also lead the team. I said well, if it is the law of the country then I can’t do anything about it. It hurts because this is what you play for – to captain your side at the World Cup.

Could you understand the reasons for the change?I had only one issue with the decision, which I told the chief selector. There are some players who have been playing for a very long time but they don’t bother to come to practice with the UAE national team. Then suddenly they see a major big tournament coming and want to be part of the team. There has to be the same rules for everyone. Come to practice, prove your fitness, get into the team. We qualified for the World Cup without Mohammad Tauqir. After that he showed his interest and he was at least coming to all the practice sessions. The UAE team has been criticised for being a team of expatriates from the subcontinent. What do the players think of that? I think it’s a little unfair to call us expatriates. I’ve been living here for 18 years. My kids live here, they go to school here. The UAE is my home away from home. If it was any other country I would have had a passport and been called a national a long time ago. But I accept these are the rules of the country. The problem is that

What were the biggest changes in Afghan cricket during your tenure?When I began, the northern areas of Afghanistan around the Russian border used to hate cricket but now it is a game of the whole country – not just for Pashtuns right on the border of Pakistan. The game has brought the nation together. People of every culture and language are playing it. I can only think of South Africa, and the way rugby brought the nation together, as a comparison. The grounds and infrastructure in Afghanistan are now very good. There are eight or nine grounds with turf pitches and one National Cricket Academy in Kabul. They’ve got their own domestic cricket up and running, which is lovely to see. And they’ve introduced cricket as part of the school curriculum.

What has the support been like in Afghanistan? Even after winning the first two ICC World Cricket League trophies, the players were already treated by the Afghan people as stars and the president was inviting them to dinners. I would say 75% of the people did not know what we had achieved, what it was all about, but it was enough to know they were the champion of something. When we beat the USA everyone in Afghanistan reacted as if we were the world champions of cricket. People came out onto the streets. They didn’t know how bad the USA are at cricket! The supporters who travelled to watch us used to clap and dance when our batsmen were getting out. They had no idea whether we were losing or winning, they were just too busy celebrating.

The 2019 World Cup will feature ten teams, rather than 14, although Associate nations will be able to qualify. How important is that? It makes me sad to think why the big cricket nations would be against it. In the football World Cup, even the winners have to qualify for the next tournament. If the ICC want to globalise this game, why not give equal opportunity to each and every one? Teams like Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland and other teams are improving day by day and should be given a chance.

Should international teams tour Afghanistan? I think that it would be quite possible now for an international team to play in Afghanistan. They have had domestic tournaments with crowds of 15-20,000 and they have done it safely. I don’t think we’re too far away from it because security is much better now.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the team? The fast bowling is very good – Hamid Hassan, Shapoor Zadran and Dawlat Zadran. If Afghanistan win games it will be because of their bowling. The batting was a problem at times. We struggled against left-arm spinners

Khurram Khan Kabir Khan

For us it’s strange to play cricket during daytime

continued overleaf

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Pal Pillai, IDI/Getty Images Arif Ali, AFP/Getty Images

mostly. Coping with bouncers was also a problem. It will be tough for them in Australia on quick, bouncy pitches against Test-nation bowlers. But Afghanistan’s strong points are greater than their weak points. And the smaller teams have nothing to lose.

Afghanistan is known for its attacking, unfettered cricket. What about the technical and tactical aspects of the game? I wanted to target under-17 players, and have English and Australian coaches teach them for five years. Let them learn right from the beginning so that they can find it easy to adapt the way they play. But not the current players. They are at that stage of their career where their habits are cooked. Trying to change it can end up as a disaster. The new regime have tried to change things over the last few months and it hasn’t worked. They were beaten 3–1 by the UAE and they were bowled out for 63 against Scotland. Soon after that

even guys born and raised here are called expatriates. That’s a little tough on us.

What will it mean for you to play against Pakistan in the World Cup? It is something special to play against the country where you were born and brought up. But you have to understand that it will be a great honour for us if we can do something for sport in the UAE, where many of us have chosen to come and live. That’s what I’m looking forward to most.

Are there signs that more Emiratis are playing cricket? To be honest, there is only a minimal number of young “locals” coming through. Most have been playing cricket here for a very long time, like Mohammad Tauqir. But even for young expatriate cricketers it’s very hard. The rule of the country is very different for them. As soon as you turn 18 you have to have a visa or find a job. Most of the them will look to go abroad to continue their studies and that way we lose the youngsters.

Khurram Khan Kabir Khan

1990 Become Associate nation.

1994 Beaten by India in their first one-day international.Led by the eccentric Sultan Zarawani – the only Emirati in a team of expats – the UAE win the ICC Trophy to qualify for their first World Cup.

1996 Beat the Netherlands but lose all the rest of their games in the World Cup. Zarawani, batting in a sunhat, is hit on the head by Allan Donald.

2004 Beaten by India and Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup.

2008 The board announces that at least four Emirati cricketers must be chosen in the squad for the Asia Cup, where the UAE are beaten by Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

2014 Qualify for the 2015 World Cup. The squad chosen features nine Pakistanis, two Sri Lankans, two Indians, and two Emiratis.

The UAE: a short history

1995 The Afghanistan Cricket Federation is founded by Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

2001 With the Taliban’s blessing the national team is formed and becomes affiliated with the ICC.

2009 After successive promotions from the ICC World Cricket League, Afghanistan narrowly miss out in the World Cup Qualifier but gain ODI status.

2012 Beaten by Pakistan in their first one-day international against a Test nation.

2013 Become Associate nation.Beat Bangladesh in the Asia Cup – their first victory in any format against a Test nation. Qualify for the 2015 World Cup.

2014 Play their first ODI series against a Test nation, drawing 2–2 with Zimbabwe.

Afghanistan: a short history

continued overleaf

Eagar’s Eye 3

West Indies played Australia in a group match at The Oval before they met again later in the final. Towards the end of the West Indies innings Dennis Lillee came back on and you thought, ‘He’ll quieten things down’. But Alvin Kallicharran took him on. The last 11 balls he faced from Lillee went 44444146.4W. The West Indian crowd were yelling at Lillee, “Bowl ‘im de bouncer man!” And the more bouncers he bowled the further the ball went.

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match I called the CEO, the chairman and the captain and told them, “Look, you’ve learnt your own way of playing, and you are good at it. You are not channel bowlers, you are not batsmen who leave the ball or play correctly ‘in the V’. Why not do what your best at and play your own attacking game?”

What about the next generation? Afghanistan will continue to produce cricketers – but how they groom them will the key. Peshawar, the border city, produces a lot of players for Afghanistan cricket. There are still a lot of Afghan refugees there benefitting from better coaching facilities and standards of cricket. But the political situation is changing and it doesn’t look like it will be so easy for Afghans to play across the border in Pakistan as they do now. That would mean they won’t get those ready-made players. Now they need to develop their own homegrown players. It’s about the quality of cricket they will be playing. Afghanistan has 34 provinces and they all play a different standard of cricket. There is a domestic cricket structure in place – but if the players are not being filtered properly it will be difficult. That should be the board’s next mission.

How do politics and cricket mix in Afghanistan? Cricket has become a ministry in Afghanistan. When there is a new president he also becomes the patron of the cricket board as well, and he brings his own team. The problem with Afghanistan is that it is still relatively a new sport for the country. Whoever comes into power will believe anybody close to them. But I don’t think anyone in Afghanistan is at this stage good enough to be advising the president about cricket.

What is the next step for Afghanistan? Other Associate teams have achieved the same things but they couldn’t sustain themselves. Afghanistan need to concentrate on staying where they are right now. If they don’t achieve Test status over the next ten years I don’t mind that. Afghanistan has not yet proved it can consistently compete and sometimes achieving things is much easier than maintaining that level.

How do you manage to balance your day job and international cricket?Every member of the team has a job outside of cricket and we all have different working hours. I work for an airline. I often have to travel and whenever I am available I come to practice. It’s quite hard. You finish your day’s work and then have practice. And some of us have to travel far to get there. We always used to practise at night so for us it’s strange to play cricket during daytime. In the World Cup qualifiers in New Zealand last year we dropped two or three catches because the guys were not catching sight of the ball in daylight. So now we have started practising in the day as well.

What has been the influence of your Pakistan coach, Aaqib Javed? He has completely changed the way we think about the game. We used to attack with the spinners, which was effective in the UAE. But we used to get into trouble outside the UAE in different conditions. Aaqib looked around the country and saw guys who could bowl fast. If you want to play international cricket competitively you need to have good fast bowlers. Now we have guys who can bowl over 140kph (87mph).

Does the team get much support? That’s one thing we miss a lot. We don’t have any real following. If we are playing against Afghanistan or Nepal in the UAE you will see a crowd of 5,000 – and they will all be supporting Afghanistan or Nepal! They both have lots of expatriates living in the UAE. But we’re just happy to have crowds watching us.

What’s the biggest difference between Test and Associate nations? Fitness. Most of us are working all day so our fitness training is obviously not going to be up to a professional level. Out of 2-3,000 youngsters playing cricket in the country, I can virtually count on my fingers the guys who are fit enough to play at this level. Most of the Afghanistan team play cricket full-time, and it shows. Cricket has to become professional in the UAE. At the moment there is no guarantee that your employer will give you leave to play in the World Cup.

How best can a team like the UAE develop? I want Associate nations to play a lot more against the A-teams of the Test nations, playing more first-class games. A couple of months ago we had a wonderful tour to Australia. We went to Darwin and Perth just to get to know the conditions and the pitches. I’m not in favour of just throwing ourselves into a big international game when we are not ready.

Khurram Khan Kabir Khan

When we beat the USA everyone in Afghanistan reacted as if we were the world champions of cricket

A confession: this picture is taken by a colleague of mine called Jan Traylen. I had sent Jan off to the ‘less important’ game, India v Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells, and said to him, “Just get the rhododendrons in the background.” India were in deep trouble before Kapil Dev saved the day and they famously went on to become champions. No one expected it. I needed player portraits for the final programme, but I didn’t have India. As they closed in on victory in the semi-final against England at Old Trafford, I went up to the Indian dressing room. “Can I come in and take your photos?” “Of course Patrick, off you go”. This was in the middle of the World Cup semi-final, and I march into the dressing room with my camera! At that time a photographer’s relationship with the players was a vital part of the job.

Eagar’s Eye 41983

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Duncan Fletcher collects his Man of the Match award at Trent Bridge after Zimbabwe pulled off a shock victory against Australia in their first-ever World Cup match. Pretty much everybody in that picture is happy – except for Fletcher! There’s also a man resembling an umpire from the 1920s who looks a bit glum. He’s actually one of the Nottinghamshire stewards. The boy on the far right is clearly an Aussie fan, and he doesn’t look too pleased. In the middle a woman is using a Kodak 110 camera, which was popular at the time.

Eagar’s Eye 5

1983

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Eagar’s Eye 6

This is a photographer’s dream in a way. Stumps being ripped out of the ground are two a penny – but stumps being splintered? There are six or seven bits there. It was very early on in the days of stump cameras and microphones. In those days they hollowed out a proper wooden stump but now they use a pre-prepared strong fibre-glass tube that looks like wood.

1992

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As the years pass it becomes harder to see the man for the beard. Wisden on Grace, edited by Jonathan Rice, draws on the Almanack’s rich reserves to recall the real WG. Here are some choice cuts

Gentlemen v Players of England, at Lord’s, July 3, 4 and 5, 1876.When the luncheon bell rang at 2.30, the Gentlemen’s score was: One wicket down … 174 runs scored. Mr. W. G. Grace, not out 119 … Mr. Webbe, not out 14.

They went at it again at 12 past 3, and by 25 minutes to 4 they had made the 200 with only one wicket down, the delighted thousands present giving vent to their

pleasure in a roar of cheers when those three figures were hoisted – cheers that were vigorously renewed again and again, and still again, when, shortly after, Mr. W. G. Grace drove the first ball of an over grandly to the on past the skeleton stand for 6, and – with a terrific smack – drove the third ball of the same over as far as it could go past the little chestnut trees for 7. Ah, that 7 was a hit! The ring of it tingles in this compiler’s ears whenever he recalls it to mind. Truly wonderful hitting

‘ Ah, that 7 was a hit’

was those 13 runs from two balls of one over. Emmett was then (very properly) rested...

At 262, another capital catch at slip – this time by Hill – settled Mr. W. G. Grace for 169 – one of the very best innings the great batsman ever played – wonderful as much for its powerful hitting as for that old, marvellous, unrivalled skill in placing the ball out of danger, for which his batting has ever been, and ever will be, famous.

England v Australia, Third Test Match, at Kennington Oval, August 11, 12 and 13, 1884.All 11 England players bowled during Australia’s first innings and when Alfred Lyttelton, the wicketkeeper, went on to bowl, WG took his place behind the stumps. His old Gloucestershire friend and sometime England team-mate Billy Midwinter, was out “c Grace b Lyttelton 30”, caught off the first ball of WG’s wicketkeeping stint. This is yet another record for the Champion – nobody else has ever taken a catch or made a stumping or run-out from his very first ball as a Test wicketkeeper. Jonathan Rice, 2014

A hand of whist appears to have marked the limit of his capacity for cerebration, and if one wished to be rude to suburbia one might identify Grace as suburban man incarnate, fluctuating mentally as well as physically between the fringes of Bristol and the London Counties, ultimately coming to rest in Eltham. His one inherited asset was that he came from a clan which was dotty about a great game and dutiful (but in some cases no more) about the general practice of medicine, with no doubt in its collective mind which came first at all times and in all places. His brother E. M. Grace, who was a coroner, once had a corpse put on ice until he could attend to it at close of play, and WG himself must have had one of the most prolonged medical trainings in history because he so frequently interrupted it in order to exercise his major talent at the crease. He began to study as a bachelor of 19, and was a father of three in his thirties before taking his final qualification at Westminster Hospital. His most conspicuous act as a doctor is thought to have occurred when an unfortunate fieldsman impaled himself on the boundary fence at Old Trafford. From ‘W. G. Grace: 150 years on’ by Geoffrey Moorhouse, Wisden 1998.

In a way he invented what we now call modern cricket. His national renown packed cricket grounds everywhere. He laid the foundations of county cricket economy. The sweep of his energy, his authority, and prowess, his personal presence, caused cricket to expand beyond a game. His bulk and stride carried cricket into the highways of our national life.

He became a representative Victorian, a father figure. People not particularly interested in cricket found the fact of WG’s eminence looming into their social consciousness. The Royal family (in those days too) inquired from time to time about his health – a formal request, because WG was seldom, if ever, unwell.

We must not remember him as the Grand Old Man of his closing years. He was an athlete, a champion thrower of the cricket ball, a jumper of hurdles. Yet, though I have seen portraits of him taken in early manhood, in his late teens in fact, I have never seen a portrait of a beardless WG. Is such a one in existence anywhere?

Ranjitsinhji wrote in his Jubilee book (or C. B. Fry wrote it for him) that “WG transformed the single-stringed instrument into the many-chorded lyre”, which, translated, means that WG elaborated batsmanship, combined back-and-forward play for the first time, and perfected the technique of placing the ball.

When he began to play cricket, round-arm bowling had been the fashion for some 30 years. He inherited a technique formed from an obsolete attack and soon he was belabouring over-arm fast bowling at ease – often on rough wickets. He murdered the fastest stuff right and left.

He kept his left leg so close to the ball when he played forward that an old professional of the late 1900s told me (long after his retirement) that “WG never let me see daylight between pads and bat. Ah used to try mi best to get ’im out on a good wicket, then suddenly summat ‘give’ in me, and we all knew it were hopeless.” From ‘Six Giants of the Wisden Century’ by Neville Cardus, Wisden 1963.

Gloucestershire v Middlesex, at Gloucester, June 9, 10, 11 and 12, 2004.At 2.36pm on the sunny third afternoon, Craig Spearman pushed through midwicket to reach the highest score in Gloucestershire’s 135-year first-class history. It was two and a half years after he was lured back from a planned career in the city, and 498 minutes after his epic innings began. Along the way he eclipsed two towering giants: the previous record-holder was W. G. Grace (318 not out against Yorkshire at Cheltenham in 1876); four balls earlier Spearman had passed Jack Hobbs’s record for the biggest first-class innings against Middlesex (316 not out for Surrey at Lord’s in 1926). “You are talking about the father of cricket as he is known the world over,” said Spearman, who admitted targeting Grace’s record, “so it is quite something.” Even umpire Kitchen shared his pleasure. “Get rid of the old man,” he said. “He used to pick up the bails and put them back on the stumps.”

Wisden on Grace is published by Bloomsbury on April 1, priced £17.99

Grace in his early 30s

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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Adam Gilchrist had just reached a brilliant, match-winning hundred in the World Cup final, and then he turned to the TV cameras and kept waving his glove. I had no idea what he was doing. None of us did. It was bizarre. But if you look carefully there is a bulge in the palm of his glove. Unbeknown to us, a coach back in Australia had suggested he put a squash ball in his left glove to that he had better control of his bottom hand, and Gilchrist had promised to prove he was using it if he scored a century in the final.

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This was the sort of thing that meant stewarding became much tougher at international grounds. Pakistan have just beaten New Zealand at Trent Bridge and their fans are desperate to grab a stump as a memento. Poor old umpire David Evans is down on the ground. Mervyn Kitchen has still got one set of stumps – and is using them to defend himself – but Evans has lost his three, one of which is disappearing to the left, and another in the hand of the grinning man running off to the right. I suppose the logical thing to do was give them the bloody stumps!

1983

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A match that followed a similar pattern to the First Test ended in emphatic victory for Australia 15 minutes before tea on the final day, giving them their fourth consecutive series win in South Africa. The key architects of their success were Phillip Hughes and Mitchell Johnson. The left-hander Hughes, the son of a banana farmer from near Macksville in northern New South Wales, became the youngest batsman to score two hundreds in the same Test; at 20 years 98 days, he was nearly six months younger than George Headley when he achieved the feat for West Indies against England in 1929-30.

Hughes’s often violent assault on some particularly poor bowling on the opening morning helped provide the springboard for Australia’s triumph. He raced to 75 out of 119 by lunch, capitalising on the generous width he was given, as well as a surfeit of overpitched deliveries. Some of his powerful driving down the ground showed he possessed more than just a devastating cut shot. Morne Morkel suffered particularly badly, conceding six fours to Hughes in his first two overs.

the rest of the series. It was the second time in three Tests that Johnson had inflicted a fracture on Smith, whose left hand was damaged at Sydney in January.

When de Villiers was beaten by a Hilfenhaus off-cutter in the sixth over, South Africa were effectively six for four. Kallis and Duminy put on 50 before Johnson, returning for a second spell, also forced Kallis to retire hurt, hitting him under the grille with a nasty bouncer. While Kallis went off for three stitches in a bloody chin wound, Boucher had his off stump flattened by a Johnson yorker. Kallis returned when Harris was fifth out, but lasted only two balls before clipping McDonald to short midwicket. The innings was beyond repair, South Africa finding themselves 214 adrift, although Ponting again declined to enforce the follow-on. He had good reasons for his decision, primarily niggles that his three pace bowlers had carried into the match, as well as the fact that so much time still remained.

South Africa could match neither the excellence nor the hostility of Johnson’s bowling when Australia batted again. Hughes galloped to his first fifty from 78 balls, but then showed his adaptability by grafting hard over

Hughes went from 93 to 105 with successive sixes off Harris, reaching his hundred from 132 balls. In doing so, he became the fourth-youngest Australian to make a Test hundred. His domination of a first-wicket stand of 184 in 44 overs was such that Katich’s contribution was only 59, although he did have less of the strike. Katich, badly dropped when 55, went on to complete his own hundred from 177 balls, two-thirds of his runs scored through the off side.

Although Australia contrived to lose their last six wickets for just 23 in seven overs on the second morning, Johnson quickly wrecked the South African top order with some devastating new-ball bowling as he found some inswing. McKenzie, surprised by extra bounce, fell to the third ball of the innings and Amla to the fifth, playing across a rapid full-length ball which pitched on middle and would have hit leg stump. In his second over, Johnson, hitting the deck hard at around 90mph, extracted spiteful bounce from back of a length and hit Smith on the top hand as he tried to fend off. The knuckle above his right little finger was broken, forcing him not just out of this match but also

his second, which took him a further 169 deliveries. Harris, bowling into the rough outside off stump, tied him down. Ponting, however, could not be restrained, playing some fine attacking strokes, including a dozen fours, in his 106-ball 81. Once past his twin-ton landmark, Hughes accelerated to score his third fifty from 65 balls. When he was finally out, sacrificing his wicket with a declaration imminent, he had batted for six and a quarter hours, faced 323 balls and hit 15 fours and three sixes.

Left with 170 overs to survive, and a notional target of 546, South Africa battled hard, reaching 244 for two after 80 overs by the end of the fourth day on a pitch offering little to the pace bowlers once the ball lost its hardness. The second new ball, however, brought Australia the breakthroughs they needed. Kallis was undone by Johnson’s extra bounce, his 93 having come from 175 balls, and de Villiers fell soon afterwards to the impressive Siddle. With his seamers sore and tired, Ponting was grateful to his part-time spinners for mopping up, North taking a brilliant two-handed return catch to dismiss Boucher to atone for dropping Kallis before he had scored.

Phillip Hughes burst on the scene in 2009, when he scored twin hundreds in only his second Test to help trounce South Africa. Australia’s other match-winner was Mitchell Johnson, who produced the type of hostile fast bowling that seemed unthinkable in the days after Hughes’ death last November. Geoffrey Dean was at Durban

All guns blazing

From the Archive Wisden 2010

South Africa v Australia, Second Test, at Durban, March 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 2009. Australia won by 175 runs. Toss: Australia.

Phillip Hughes displays the unorthodox batting style which brought him two hundreds at Durban in his second Test

Lee Warren, Getty Images

Scorecard: click here

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In the 1979 final Geoff Boycott and Mike Brearley put on 129 for no wicket chasing 280-odd – but god knows how many overs had gone by then! [38.] Even the umpire has a fed-up pose. In fairness it was against Roberts, Croft, Holding, Garner. On the other hand Viv Richards bowled ten overs of his little dolly drops and didn’t go for many – and you can see why here. I would like to have shown a colour shot of this but in those days you would decide whether to shoot colour or black and white, using one of two cameras, before the ball was bowled. The choice depended on many factors, especially the amount of light available.

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QUIZAnswers on page 31

Which Englishman has played in three World Cup finals – and lost the lot?

Who captained England in the first World Cup in 1975?

When England walloped Canada in 1979, who took four for eight, and who took four for 11?

Who kept wicket for England throughout the 1983 tournament, but never won a Test cap?

How many of England’s team in the 1992 final were not born in England?

Which team, containing three Burgers, did England play for the only time in a full international during the 2003 tournament?

Who, at 20 in 2003, is the youngest man to play for England in the World Cup?

Who kept wicket for England throughout the 2007 tournament, aged 36, but never played a Test?

Only nine centuries have been scored for England in the World Cup. Who made two of them?

And who scored England’s only century of the 2011 tournament, with 158 against India?

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by Steven LynchEngland in World Cups

WINNER of the British Sports Awards Cricket Book of the Year

WINNER of the MCC/Cricket Society Book of the Year

WINNER of � e Cricket Writers’ Club Book of the Year

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WINNING WISDEN SPORTS WRITING

A newly devised rain-rule was used for the 1992 World Cup. (This was pre-Duckworth-Lewis.) In the semi-final between England and South Africa at Sydney there was an interruption right at the end of the match, when South Africa needed 22 off 13 balls. When they came back on the scoreboard said 22 runs were needed off one ball. The moment it flashed on the scoreboard, I began hurriedly changing lenses. I didn’t have a zoom lens back then. Apparently Brian McMillan, who was batting at the time and wasn’t very pleased about the revised target, has this photo in his front porch.

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In Tendulkar’s footsteps England’s Moeen Ali has been unveiled as the cover star for Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2015, published on April 9. Editor Lawrence Booth writes: “In a difficult year for English cricket, Moeen Ali was often a ray of light – whether taking 19 Test wickets against India to help plug the gap left by Graeme Swann, or racing to a 72-ball one-day hundred in Colombo, the third-fastest by an England batsman. He also happened to be that most elusive of creatures – a genuine sporting role-model, not just for young British Muslims, but for aspiring cricketers of any nationality or religion. But he would not be on the cover of Wisden without his on-field exploits, which he always carried out with skill, flair and a smile.”

New bookThese days it seems like Australian cricketers turn up on our shores every summer, but it was something completely new back in 1878. Drunk on ignorance, the British public assumed WG and friends would wipe the floor. Then, at Lord’s, MCC were bowled out for 33 and 19 during “arguably the most momentous six hours in cricket history”. The story of this historical event and rest of the first Australian tour of England are told in John Lazenby’s superb new book, The Strangers Who Came Home.

Wisden in WestminsterOn Monday January 19 Wisden editor Lawrence Booth addressed the All-Party Parliamentary Cricket Group in Moncrieffs Restaurant, the former dining

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS

QUIZ ANSWERS See page 28

1 Graham Gooch. 2 Mike Denness. 3 Chris Old; Bob Willis. 4 Ian Gould. 5 Six (Graeme Hick, Allan Lamb, Chris Lewis,

Derek Pringle, Dermot Reeve and Phillip DeFreitas; Robin Smith was also in the squad but didn’t play in the final).

6 Namibia. 7 Jimmy Anderson (Stuart Broad was also 20 in

2007, but 100 days older than Anderson was). 8 Paul Nixon. 9 Kevin Pietersen (both in 2007). 10 Andrew Strauss.

room of the press gallery at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. Among the 20 guests were former chancellor of the exchequer – and Trent Bridge regular – Ken Clarke, the former secretary of state for Wales John Redwood, Sir Alan Haselhurst, and Lord Morris of Handsworth, who sits on the ECB’s management board. Once dinner was over, Booth spoke to the room about the impact of the ECB’s deal with Sky on the English game, and the role of Wisden in cricket’s fast-changing world. He then took questions from the assembled MPs, Lords and one Lady – Baroness Massey of Darwen.

Wisden no-balledAfter a spell on the sidelines with a hairline fracture in his right tibia, we are happy to report that ‘Wisden’ – the racehorse trained by Sir Michael Stoute – is sound and healthy after a few weeks at Brian O’Rouke’s rehabilitation yard in Lambour. However, after much discussion the decision was made to neuter Wisden since he is not a stallion prospect and has been, of late, quite a handful around the yard. This will also reduce any unnecessary weight on the horse. The operation was carried out successfully and Wisden was due to return to the Wiltshire yard of Malcolm Bastard as Wisden EXTRA went to press.

Doppelgänger“It’s not about the money, is it? It’s about revenge. Revenge on a family that destroyed your father, allowed him to die a penniless, syphilitic drunk!” The words of Sherlock Holmes as he unravels the mystery of the Hound of the Baskervilles at the end of the 2002 BBC drama of Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous tale. Holmes, played by Richard Roxburgh, is explaining why the villain, Jack Stapleton (Richard E Grant), wanted to murder the rest of his family (via a very large dog). As Holmes lands his judgement, the scene cuts to a sepia photograph showing a group of men on a boat, zooming in to a headshot of Stapleton’s father. But hang on. One of the men is holding a cricket bat. Isn’t this the 1859 England team which toured the USA? And isn’t the man they identify as Stapleton’s father none other than John Wisden himself? It seems that Conan Doyle’s soft spot for cricket was not lost on the producers of the film. Just to add to the intrigue, Conan Doyle was born in 1859. With thanks to the sharp eye of Nigel Davies. Have you spotted Wisden on TV or in the movies? Please let us know: almanack@wisden.com

And the winner is…To celebrate the rare five-Test series between England and India last summer, Wisden EXTRA ran a competition to win two cases of wine from our sponsors, Hardys – the official wine of English cricket. The competition was launched in Wisden EXTRA No. 12 (July 2014). Entrants were asked to correctly answer the question: who took 12 wickets in India’s maiden Test victory over England? The answer was: Vinoo Mankad. First prize, a full case of Hardys Wine, was won by Alison Campbell. The two runners-up each receive six bottles. They are Katarzyna Piasecka and Barrie Copeland. All entrants had to be aged 18 or over, resident in the UK, and comply with our terms and conditions. The decision of the Wisden editorial team is final. A big thank you to everyone who entered.

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