by Peter Baxter
Thursday 5 November
The celebratory fireworks were mostly discharged somewhat prematurely, when Kapil Dev looked like taking India to their target comfortably. He perished, though, caught off a skier by Gatting off Hemmings and after that things were always under control for England.
England won by 35 runs and Eddie Hemmings finished with four for 52. England had made it to the World Cup final.
Sunday 8 November
World Cup Final day. I made the rare – for me – decision to go to the ground in the press bus, thinking it might make the journey through the crowds easier. In fact it was quite the reverse. It quickly became obvious that it would be faster to walk, as the bus, which was granted no privileged status, was stuck fast in Chowringhee’s traffic.
I abandoned the bus and struck off across the Maidan to Eden Gardens, arriving a good 30 minutes ahead of the rest of our party, which included a rather unwell CMJ, who was by no means confident of making it through the day. So I scheduled him for shorter spells than the half-hours he had done in Bombay.
Australia got off to a rapid start, but England pegged them back in mid-innings. They still managed to cut loose towards the end to finish with a challenging total of 253.
David Boon had had a good tournament opening the batting and again he had launched the innings with 75. In the latter stages, it was Allan Border and Mike Veletta who secured that score, leaving England needing the highest winning total batting second in the tournament.
Tim Robinson fell in the first over, but Bill Athey and Gooch set up a sound base, which Gatting and Athey built on, to take England to 135 for two after 31 overs. It was looking relatively comfortable.
Allan Border certainly felt the game was getting away from Australia and something different had to be tried. So he brought himself on to bowl his part-time spin. The first ball was drifting down the leg side, but Gatting had committed to a reverse sweep and the ball lobbed up off a top edge and, via his shoulder, was taken by the keeper, Greg Dyer.
If that wasn’t the turning point in the match, it certainly checked England’s progress, which might have recovered its momentum, had not Athey gone for a third run on a Steve Waugh misfield and been run out. After that England were always just off the pace, mainly through the steady loss of wickets, until a miserly penultimate over from Waugh left the ninth-wicket partnership needing seventeen from McDermott’s last over and that proved too much to ask.
Mid-way through that final over, when it became mathematically impossible for England to win, Henry Blofeld – well aware that Australia, with no commentary of their own there, were taking ours – declared, ‘Now you really can start celebrating in Australia. I give you my final, final permission.’
It was a huge disappointment for England, of course, but for Australia, who had not had the greatest of success thus far in the eighties, it was the start of a new era.
Sunday 8 November
After-match interviews and even reports were quickly rendered impossible by the volume of the public address system’s music. But the Australians enjoyed their lap of honour with the cup.
11. The Conclusion
In the summer of 2007 I retired from the BBC after 42 years. For 34 of those I had been producing Test Match Special. That made it more than just a job. It really had been my life. People ask if I miss it and I say that of course I do, but a call from Aggers from some remote airport departure lounge as he waits for a delayed flight makes me miss it slightly less.
I had a pang of regret as I listened to the commentary from the World Cup final in Bombay in 2011. It was the first one that I had not worked at. But then I thought of the post match scramble for interviews and the clearing up of filthy cables, the packing up of equipment and the logistics of getting it all out of the ground and ready for the flight home. It is not all glamour.
Certainly I still dream frequently that I am in some strange foreign commentary box, trying to make it work against the odds. Usually in my dream there is a very restricted view of the game and always the line to London or a few of the commentators are missing.
Apart from the camaraderie of touring with fellow broadcasters, press and players, it has been an enormous privilege to have seen so many wonderful sights. I have visited the Taj Mahal and the spectacular Amber Palace at Jaipur on more than one occasion each. I have carried on up the Khyber Pass, with its forbidding rocky mountainsides. I have marvelled at the towering Himalayas and celebrated just being in the presence of such tourist icons as Table Mountain and Sydney Harbour’s Bridge and Opera House. I have climbed the vertiginous Sigirya Rock in Sri Lanka and admired the Victoria Falls and the mysterious settlement of Great Zimbabwe. All these and more have given me wonderful memories, which I will always cherish.
Funnily enough, I think it was a piece of British engineering that produced the greatest tingle factor of all.
Monday 8 February 1999
Despite last night’s late finish, I was up at 6.30 a.m. to go to the roof of the hotel. It was a grey, drizzly morning, but I was just in time to see the QE II gliding slowly past the Opera House. She stopped when her bows were up to the Bridge and was manoeuvred by tugs back into Circular Quay.
Over the past week we have seen a couple of European cruise liners in the same berth, but this was a serious ship and a hugely impressive sight. I felt quite a surge of pride and a tingle down the spine as I watched her tie up.
The cheeky little ferries carried on buzzing past her, as if they were not going to allow such a monster to disrupt their day.
I have also seen quite a bit of memorable cricket, though I never covered a winning Ashes tour of Australia. The one time England did win down under while I was doing the job – under Mike Gatting in 1986–87 – I was manning the London studio through the night.
Now with an Australian wife, Kim, I divide my time between Buckinghamshire and Brisbane and so, in advance of the 2010–11 Ashes series, the BBC asked me to reprise my reconnaissance tour of four years previously, going round the Test venues to make sure that they would have the right facilities. I had the advantage not only of having a home there, but also of knowing many of the necessary contacts at the Test grounds and almost all those in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
I arrived in Perth for my inspection there at about the same time as England and had the chance to catch up with Aggers and members of the team and the press, some of whom were surprised to see me there. Still, it was a strange feeling to go to the Gabba in Brisbane on the first morning of the first Test as a spectator. After having seen the first ball of the series four years before directed by Steve Harmison straight at second slip, I was determined not to miss the start.
That wayward delivery had seemed to set the tone for the series. This time the shock came with the third ball, which Andrew Strauss cut firmly straight into the hands of the gully fielder. All Englishmen’s spirits quailed.
The traditional pre-series Australian hype – in which the Poms are rubbished and the only question is which of the Australian supermen are going to complete the final line up to carry out the humiliation – had been slightly muted this time, relying on attacking the England players for failing to attend a function they had not been invited to. But it went into overdrive after the first day, when Peter Siddle, on his 26th birthday, took a hat-trick – Cook, Prior and Broad falling, just when England were rebuilding. Australia took a large first innings lead and all the hopes for a successful defence of the Ashes seemed to have been dashed at the first hurdle.
I was at the Gabba for every day of that match, anxiously laying claim to a ‘lucky seat’ as Strauss, Cook and Trott staged the great second innings fight back that set up the chance of the series win. Then I had an engagement that took me to Melbourne conveniently for the retaining of the Ashes there. Maybe as a simple spectator I was able to savour the moment even more than my successors working at the MCG, bu
t in some ways something did seem to be missing. I was no longer part of it.
Over the years the places, the people and the fact of being involved in the unfolding of cricket history have played equal parts in what has been an enduring adventure.
But for all the thrills, the greatest experience of all remained the feel of the aircraft wheels touching down and the disembodied voice announcing, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to London Heathrow. The temperature is five degrees – and it’s raining.’
Index
Note: Hyperlinked page numbers in this electronic version of the index correspond to the page numbers in the printed edition. Since your e-reader may only show a portion of the printed page, you may need to scroll to the next page to find the index topic.
ABC Radio Sport 37
ABC Television 43
Adelaide 46, 51–56, 62, 73, 216, 224, 242, 250, 301–302
Aga Khan 168
Agnew, Jonathan 32, 65–66, 70, 92, 129, 139, 141–143, 151, 155, 173–174, 172, 179–184, 187–188, 190, 202–206, 214–216, 228, 245, 250, 259–260, 264, 267–268, 271–274, 276, 278–281, 284, 300, 318, 327
Agra 178–181
Ahmed, Mushtaq 167
Ahmedabad 6, 9, 83, 172, 183, 201, 238, 245, 309–310
AIR 11, 14–16, 19, 27, 89, 103, 176, 205–207, 210
Akhtar, Shoaib 190
Akram, Wasim 313
Albury-Wodonga 305
Alderman, Terry 38
Ali Baig, Abbas 92
All India Radio 7–14, 84, 89, 91, 103, 121, 173, 176, 183, 205
Allott, Paul 92, 208, 245, 306
Amarnath, Mohinder 102, 107
Amber Palace 335
Ambrose, Curtly 114–115
Ames, Les 137
Anne, Princess 77
Antigua 110, 116–117, 120–123, 130–134, 138, 223–224, 257, 280, 329
Antigua Broadcasting Service 121
Antigua Cricket Association 121–122
Arabia, South 1
Arabian Gulf 86
Arlott, John 187, 237
Aroma, Hotel 315
Arundel 1
Asgiriya Stadium 31
Ashes, the 56, 73, 188, 215, 226, 240, 254, 257, 275, 337–338
Assam 92–93
Associated Press 303
Astle, Nathan 58–59, 158, 220
Atherton, Mike 73–74, 114–115, 129, 132, 153, 159–162, 233, 236, 245, 247–249, 260–262, 285–286, 310–312
Athey, Bill 165, 333
Auckland 60, 219–220, 300, 305–306
Australia -n, coverage of Test cricket 211
Australia, tour of 37, 41–43, 50–53, 60–63,
Australia, Western 37–39, 59, 62
Australian Broadcasting Corporation 337
Australian Cricket Academy 62, 72
Australian Cricket Board 37, 42, 275
Australian Rules Football (AFL) 44, 52, 212
Ayodhya 172
Azharuddin, Mohammed 84, 102
Bacher, Ali 258
Bagdogra 93
Bailey, Rob 124
Bailey, Trevor 42, 224, 231, 293, 297
Ballarat 66, 303
Banda, Lovemore 142
Bangalore 21–22, 33, 102, 179, 202, 313
Bangladesh 82, 92–93, 185–188, 231, 253, 255, 328, 330
Bannister, Jack 151, 187, 203, 214, 295–296
Barbados 4, 110, 115–117, 120, 123, 125, 127, 130–131, 138, 221–223, 244, 255–257, 279, 280, 330
Barbados Cricket Association 222
Barbados Test 115, 131, 280
Barclay, Johnny 254
Barker, Lloyd 124–126
Barmy Army 45, 154, 234, 236
Baroda 1–2, 6, 101, 191, 196, 309
Barossa Valley 53
Barrington, Ken 4
Basin Reserve 59
Baxter, Peter 5, 11, 31, 37, 80, 95, 290, 312
BBC
Asian network 195, 205
Delhi 77
Outside Broadcasts 3, 145
Radio 2 19, 28, 112 166, 202, 212, 215, 231
Radio 3 300
Radio 4 75, 77, 79, 84, 124, 155, 187, 205–206, 215, 218, 228, 260, 279
Radio 5 69, 183, 190, 195, 205, 216–218, 226, 230–231, 259
Radio 5 Live 25, 40, 70, 190, 216, 226, 265, 276, 321
Radio Leicester 66
Radio London 207
Radio Wales 205, 271
Sport 7, 195
Television 6, 143, 214, 258, 278, 295
World Service 204, 207
Bedser, Alec 252
Bell, Ian 197
Bellerive Oval 63
Benaud, Richie 299–300
Bendigo 66–68
Bengal Cricket Association 184
Bennett, Bob 174–176, 182
Bhogle, Harsha 207
Bhopal 88–89
Bhubaneswar 21, 97, 174
Bhutto, Benazir 320
Bird, Dickie 297–298
Birmingham 68, 100
Bishen Bedi Stadium 19
Bloemfontein 152, 157, 324
Blofeld, Henry 8, 38, 147, 184, 210–213, 218, 222, 230, 293, 297, 305, 323, 223
Bombay Cricket Association 177
Bombay Test 105
Bombay, see also Mumbai, 1, 5–9, 37, 82–92, 100–101, 105, 177, 185, 191, 194–197, 201, 234, 250, 298, 314, 332–335
Bondi Beach 43
Boon, David 331–333
Booth, Peter 303
Border, Allan 49–50, 70, 333
Botham, Ian 3–5, 10, 15–16, 33, 47, 49, 64, 238, 240–243
Bourda 118–119
Boxing Day Test 47–50, 154, 215
Boycott, Geoffrey 5, 23–26, 33, 96, 128, 204, 228, 241, 259, 276–277, 281
Boyle, Andrew 260
Boyle, James 260
Brabourne Stadium 191, 201
Bradman, Don 52–53, 70–71, 211, 272
Brandes, Eddo 235, 305
Breakfast Creek 70
Brearley, Mike 5, 208, 240, 242
Brewongle Stand 217
Brisbane 43–45, 56, 64, 68–73, 218, 301–302, 337
Broad, Chris 165
Brown, Jim 269
Brown, John 183
Brown, Tony 79, 81, 92, 95, 101, 235
Bulawayo 143–144, 147–149, 230–233, 324
Burlton Park 19
Bush House 125
Butt, General Safdar 170
Butt, Ijaz 170
Caddick, Andrew
Cairns, Chris 59, 69
Cake Tin, see Westpac Stadium
Calcutta 22–24, 33, 94, 98, 101, 108–109, 163, 174–176, 179, 183, 203, 206, 215, 241, 245, 298, 307–309, 312, 314–315, 331
Calcutta Sports Journalists’ Club 176
Calcutta Test 24, 176
California 58
Camacho, Steve 122–123
Campbell, Alistair 146, 234
Canberra 71
Cape Town 150–153, 157–158, 261, 281–282, 321–323
Capel, David 113
Carey, Michael 11, 93–95, 102, 209, 213–214
Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation 222
Caribbean Broadcasting Union 126
Caribbean, the 3–4, 8, 110–137, 192, 197, 211, 221–224, 255, 269, 276–281, 288, 309, 325, 327
Carisbrook 304
Carter, Roy 87
Castle Brewery 158
Centurion Park 261
Chandigarh 103, 173, 193,
197, 205–206, 312–318
Channel Nine (television) 51, 211–213, 249, 300, 319
Chappell, Greg 48–49, 53
Chedwin Park 127
Chenab Club 190
Chennai, see also Madras, 101, 191, 202
Chepauk Stadium 178
Chittagong 188, 231
Chowringhee 94, 176
Christchurch 57–58, 305
Claremont 151
Clicquot, Veuve 160
Collingwood, Paul 56, 197–198
Colombo 29–36, 54, 182, 210, 224, 231, 240, 250, 268, 274–275, 287, 308
Commonwealth Games 91
Coney, Jeremy 219
Cook, Alastair 192, 197
Cook, Geoff 240
Corbett, Ted 164
Cork, Dominic 159
Cowans, Norman 48–49, 107
Coward, Mike 320
Cowdrey, Chris 87, 97, 105, 231, 245, 259, 264
Cowdrey, Colin 241
Cozier, Tony 138, 220, 280
Crafter, Tony 293
Crawley, John 69, 233, 235, 250
Cricket World Cup
1979 206
1983 207, 213
1987 90, 163, 203, 288, 298, 331–332
1992 45, 57, 219, 306–307
1996 172, 307
1999 258, 321
2003 157, 227–229, 281, 325
2007 119, 327
2011 202, 335
Cricket Writers’ Club 272
Cricketer (magazine) 3, 211
Croft, Colin 223
Croft, Robert 233
Cronje, Hansie 157, 262–263, 313
Cuttack 20–21, 97, 209
Daily Express 123
Daily Mail 3, 141
Daily Mirror 18, 149, 242, 272
Daily Telegraph 11, 65, 93, 140, 209, 214, 248, 251
Dalmiya, Jagmohan 308
