Can Anyone Hear Me?

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