On this day, 1963, the UMPIRES "declared" an innings closed in a County Championship match.

"Lofty" Herman and "Dusty" Rhodes basically did not have an option.

Here is what happened.

Kent were hosting Middlesex at Tunbridge Wells (yes, THE Tunbridge Wells).
+
Kent were bowled out for 150.

Middlesex were 121/3 by stumps on Day 1.

They had lost the Russells (Eric and Sid) and Peter Parfitt. Bob White and Ron Hooker were at the crease.

It was a Saturday. They returned home for the weekend,the rest day.
+
The Monday morning traffic was heavier than usual.

The Kent cricketers, being locals, had anticipated this. They had arrived in time for a 11.30 start.

Not Middlesex.

Only three of their cricketers had arrived before the match started.
+
White, not out overnight, was one of them. No problem there. He walked out to the middle, in full cricket gear.

Sid Russell was there as well, but he had already been dismissed.

The third Middlesex cricketer was twelfth man Ted Clark.
+
Herman and Rhodes, the umpires, had been experienced professional First-class cricketers.

But even they had never encountered a situation like this.

What could they do? These were their (probable) options:
+
1. To rule Hooker out. Hooker was the other not out batter who had not arrived. But timed out applied to new batters...

2. They could award the match to Kent, but on what grounds? Middlesex had three representatives…
+
3. They could force Middlesex to declare. But Colin Drybrough, their captain, was not there. Did one of the cricketers out there have the authority to declare?

Herman and Rhodes thought hard, and officially "closed the Middlesex innings".
+
Wisden added that it was a situation without parallel in the history of First-Class cricket.

But now there was another problem.

After 10 minutes, three Middlesex fielders walked out.

Among them was 12th man Clark, not allowed to bowl or, unless Kent allowed, keep wickets.
+
This would mean White and Russell bowling and keeping wickets in alternate overs.

Kent captain Colin Cowdrey came to their rescue.

He allowed the tourists eight substitute fielders.

He also allowed Clark to keep wickets.
+
Amidst all this, three other Middlesex men showed up, including opening bowler John Price.

However, there were still five Kent substitutes fielding for Middlesex: Derek Underwood, John Prodger, Tony Catt, Alan Brown, and John Dye.
+
Some time later, Don Bennett found Brian Luckhurst's edge.

Prodger took an excellent catch at second slip to dismiss his teammate.

And it was his turn with the bat, Prodger scored 74.

He thus achieved the rare feat of taking a catch and scoring a fifty *in the same innings*.
+
The match ended in a draw amidst rain.

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More from @ovshake42

15 Jun
I saw a video of Ravi Shastri and a dog called Winston on the cricket field.

It reminded me of a story of Trumper.

Francis Trumper, not Victor.

Of Harefield, England, not Paddington, Australia.

Back in 1827, eleven-member sides were still difficult to organise.
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Double-wicket and single-wicket matches were common. And popular.

After all, cricket was largely a betting sport.

Two men from Middlesex challenged our man Trumper, a farmer, in a double-wicket match.

A lot of money was at stake.

A two-innings match, two members a side.
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The two gentlemen of Middlesex versus Francis Trumper and his sheepdog.

The dog would not bat or bowl, but would be the only fielder. Trumper would bat twice.

A huge crowd assembled.

The odds were 5:1 against Trumper and Dog.
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Read 5 tweets
13 Jun
Ray Price was born on June 12, 1976.

There is a delightful story.

But first, a slightly relevant topic.

Delhi had had its fair share of left-arm spinners since the era of Bedi.

Had Maninder not been keen on a comeback, Kartik would probably not have left Delhi for Railways.
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And Sanghvi had arrived by the turn of the millennium.

Zimbabwean toured India in 2001/02.

The squad had an AC and fridge mechanic.

This was Ray Price.

His uncle had won the British Open Golf in 1994, but Ray Price himself had played six Tests without achieving much.
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Very few people in India seemed to have a clue about who he was when the flight landed.

An Indian journalist suggested to another that he might be the team physiotherapist.

So Physio became a nickname.

Zimbabwe played two Tests on that tour, in Nagpur and Delhi.
+
Read 7 tweets
12 Jun
Javed Miandad was born on this day, 1957. We are unlikely to see another of his kind.

Miandad scored 8,832 runs for Pakistan, at 52.57.

Throughout that career his Test batting average never dropped below fifty.
+
There were also 7,381 ODI runs including a World Cup record (at that point) of 1,083.

He remains the only batsman to score nine consecutive ODI fifties.

And there are too many achievements in First-Class cricket to list.
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He is probably the greatest batsman Pakistan has ever produced. Or probably not. But definitely one of the greatest.

And definitely the scariest.

Part of his greatness lies in the psychological pressure he put on the opposition – while batting.
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Read 19 tweets
29 May
Bob Crisp was born on May 28, 1911.

Probably the most remarkable Test player born in Calcutta. Or anywhere. Of any era.

I have spoken and written on him before, but have never done a thread.

Here.
+
First, the cricketing bit, which, while hardly relevant, is actually fairly impressive.

Crisp took 276 wickets at 19.88.

Even today he remains the only bowler to take *four wickets in four balls* TWICE in First-Class cricket.

On another occasion he took four in five.
+
He played only nine Test matches (29 wickets at 37.35), but all of them in the span of a year.

Cricket just happened to randomly cross his path. Thank goodness it did.

The Crisps had moved to Rhodesia when Bob was young.

He went to Prince Edward School, Salisbury.
+
Read 21 tweets
7 May
Rabindranath Tagore's birthday will be celebrated twice this year, on May 7 (today) and Baishakh 25 (tomorrow).

Yes, he had tried to play cricket.

No, he was not quite successful at it. He did not like it either.
+ Image
On January 3, 1962, Jagadish Chandra Roy wrote a first-person account to Anandabazar Patrika. Here is a crude translation.

This was reproduced by Sankari Prasad Basu in his book.

(By the way, Satyendranath, elder brother of Rabindranath, was the first Indian to join the ICS.)
+
"Satyendranath Tagore used to reside in 19, Store Road. He used to spend every paisa of his pension for the country. One of his missions was to hire bodybuilders to help train little children. Rabindranath used to participate thrice a week."
+
Read 14 tweets
27 Apr
Should the IPL continue?

Its existence seems ugly, unwanted, irrelevant, greedy amidst this fear, this gloom, this despair.

It seems unbelievable that high-profile cricket can continue in the country when you are scared to receive a call from a number you know.

And yet.
+
And yet, I do not know whether this season's should be called off.

Too many people look forward to these four hours every day. To escape the crippling fear if not anything else.

And cricket to escape from gloom is not a first.
+
Cricket matches were organised during the World Wars to help boost the morale of the public.

Whether it works is something for psychologists to decide.

There is also the matter of livelihood.

Not mine. I can sustain for some time if the tournament is called off tomorrow.
+
Read 11 tweets

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