SAMPLE EDITION SUMMER22 2018 THE NightwatchmanTHE WISDEN CRICKET QUARTERLY SAMPLER THE NIGHTWATCHMAN THE NightwatchmanTHE WISDEN CRICKET QUARTERLY ISSUE 22 – SUMMER 2018 Cricket’s past has been enriched by great writing and Wisden is making sure its future Matt Thacker introduces issue 22 of the Nightwatchman will be too. The Nightwatchman is a quarterly collection of essays and long-form articles and is available in print and e-book formats. Owen W Cameron revisits the image of Australia’s Invincibles Co-edited by Anjali Doshi and Tanya Aldred, with Matt Thacker as managing editor, The The Rev Robert Stanier reconciles professionalism and public shame Nightwatchman features an array of authors from around the world, writing beautifully and Simon Barnes on whom the gods – and the public – seek to destroy at length about the game and its myriad offshoots. Contributors are given free rein over subject matter and length, escaping the pressures of next-day deadlines and the despair The Wisden-MCC 2018 Photographs of the Year of cramming heart and soul into a few paragraphs. There are several different ways to get hold of and enjoy The Nightwatchman. You can The Nightwatchman marks 50 years of overseas professionals subscribe to the print version and get a free digital copy for when you’re travelling light. Jon Hotten on the stellar South Africans of ‘68 If you don’t have enough room on your book case, you can always take out a digital-only subscription. Or if you’d just like to buy a single issue – in print, digital or both – you can Simon Wilde explores the transformative power of visiting greatness do that too. Take a look at the options below and decide which is best for you. Harry Pearson finds lesser lights that still shone bright Richard H Thomas summons the majesty of Majid Khan SUMMER22 2018 SPRING5 2014 SPRING5 2014SPRING5 2014 recalls the high life and fast times of Sylvester Clarke Full subscription Alan Butcher NightwatchmanNightwatchmanNightwatchman Annual print THE WISDEN CRICKET QUARTERLY NightwatchmanTHE WISDEN CRICKETTHE WISDENTHE QUARTERLY WISDEN CRICKET CRICKET QUARTERLY QUARTERLY Digital subscription Charlie Connelly on Ole Mortensen, the tax inspector who bowled with Holding subscription (with Annual e-book only free e-book versions) subscription Dan Waddell celebrates Richie Richardson’s gift to England £27 (+P&P) £10 Rob Smyth watches Carl Hooper make the mundane magical Click to Buy Click to Buy Scott Oliver tracks Imran Tahir, a wayfarer in search of home 50 in the frame: our favourite images of overseas heroes Jamie Reid remembers a meeting with the 1964 Australians Single copy SUMMER22 2018 Single issue (with Rod Edmond tells the story of HG Wells’ cricketing father free with free Digital single copy The Nightwatchman poem – The Spinner by NightwatchmanTHE WISDEN CRICKET QUARTERLY Roger Morgan Grenville Single issue e-book version) £10 (+P&P) (e-book only) Richard Heller visits a reflective Saeed Ahmed £4 Click to Buy Matthew Engel gets boxed in by the press pack Click to Buy Kamran Abbasi unpicks the madness and miracles of Pakistan’s selection policy THENIGHTWATCHMAN.NET SAMPLER THE NIGHTWATCHMAN only to hear the jacket hit the deck It was a blind spot. Backing away once more. Eventually twigging that offended his sense of how the game he’s been done, the joke is taken in should be played and contributed good part, the culprit identified. hugely, and unsurprisingly, to the view that he was brutish and unfeeling. Surrey bat last that day, which gives Interestingly, Clarkey himself wasn’t the star man – no mean joker himself – the bravest with bat in hand, perhaps a chance to plot revenge. At the end of an example of the “you hate in others the day he changes quietly, watching what you least like in yourself” strand Bamber’s progress as he gets dressed of psychology. At any rate, we had the after his shower. Underpants on, socks devil’s own job getting him to bowl on, shirt on, tie neatly knotted. Then Malcolm Marshall a bouncer whereas the trousers. Trousers? There are no Maco had no such compunction and, trousers. Where are the trousers? much to our amusement, regularly FAST, DEADLY, And Bamber begins a frantic search dumped Silvers on his arse. On one for the missing item of clothing while occasion at Old Trafford, when Michael LOVEABLE the star man, shoulders heaving with Holding was working up a head of laughter, is enjoying sweet revenge, steam, Clarke swung wildly at three Alan Butcher on his misunderstood Surrey teammate the trousers fluttering in the breeze at balls in succession, nicking them all but the top of a flagpole on the opposite with so much bat speed that they burst side of the ground. through the hands of the slip cordon. He A cricket ground. Somewhere in But the identity of the man in question got to the other end, a wicket fell and he Nottinghamshire. The early 1980s. makes this scenario unlikely. For this The star man is Sylvester Clarke, hurried to meet the incoming batsman. Notts Second XI are taking on Surrey is your main man, your go-to man, Surrey’s feared and ferociously fast “Perce!” he screamed at Pat Pocock with Second XI. Both teams have their usual your star man. You do not inflict the overseas bowler of great legend wild, staring eyes. “Perce, you can have mix of embittered out-of-favour pros, indignity of banishment to a far-flung from 1979 to 1988. I tell this story a piece of he... he comin’ tru like a train!” young hopefuls, desperate-to-impress outpost on your star man without of dressing-room japes and puerile triallists and decent club players. good reason. pranks not so much to amuse as to try But would an unfeeling and brutish man to humanise a teammate who has so inspire the kind of genuine affection But Surrey’s team is slightly different. But that doesn’t mean that your star often been unfairly dehumanised. that his teammates and their families For reasons lost in the mists of time man is immune from having indignity had, and still have, for him? Would the – possibly as a part of injury rehab inflicted upon him in his own dressing- Now I do not wish to give the club’s supporters have taken him so or because regulations stipulate that room. And so it happened that on the impression that Clarke – “Silvers” – much to their hearts? Would so many only one of their overseas players can final day of that second-XI fixture a was not a mean and nasty proposition of his fellow Bajans have turned up to play in the first team – the second XI young Surrey hopeful and renowned for batsmen when he had a cricket fill the sizeable St Patrick’s church not have the most feared fast bowler in practical joker, Martin Bamber, arrived ball in hand. Some batsmen will tell just with people but with respect and county cricket on their team sheet. early in the away dressing-room and you he was the meanest and nastiest love and grief for the untimely loss of a affixed a rubber clothes hook to the of all, and for some reason he hated it 44-year-old man who had stayed true Anyone who played second-XI wall where the star man was changing. when batsmen, usually tail-enders but to his roots, sticking with his beloved cricket at that time would have come not always, backed away from him. Crusaders CC in the Barbados Cricket across many overseas pacemen In comes the star man a few minutes He would openly admit that when it League rather than moving up to a relegated to the stiffs as a result of later, deep in conversation, and hangs happened it upset him so much that more fashionable Barbados Cricket the domestic regulation. It was great his jacket on the peg. Turning to take he would try to “follow” the culprit. Association club? The answer to all of preparation for first-team cricket, off his tie, he hears the jacket hit the Encouragement to bowl straight and those questions is an emphatic “no”. even if some of the club pitches were floor. He picks it up, replaces it on the full and blast the stumps out was met themselves underprepared. peg and returns to the conversation, with: “Nah, I gonna hit he.” • • • THENIGHTWATCHMAN.NET 5 SAMPLER THE NIGHTWATCHMAN The arrival of Sylvester Theophilus and pathetic villagers from the yoke of within the dressing-room we felt like a who was suddenly wide awake. Same Clarke to SE11 in April 1979 was the a band of desperadoes. That would be decent team again. ambling run, same double-whirl, the cherry on a cake that had been baking disrespectful to those such as Robin ball once again steepling over my left since the end of the previous season. Jackman, Pat Pocock, Intikhab Alam • • • shoulder into the gloves of the keeper. Micky Stewart had stepped into the and Graham Roope, who had all toiled “I reckon that’s me done, coach,” I role of cricket manager, the moribund manfully for Surrey – not without The seeds of this revival had been sown said. “He’ll do for me!” Clarke was pitches of the ’70s had been relaid in success – throughout the doldrums of at the end of the previous summer. duly signed, and from 1979 to 1988 he an effort to provide pace and bounce, the mid-70s. But it is fair to say that Word of Sylvester’s exploits in league took 591 wickets at 18.99.