No. 8 - Winter 2014 The Newsletter of Stourbridge & District Cricket Society Founded 1972 Season’s Greetings to All Members and Friends! Shakib joins famous Test Chairman’s View Double Duo ith the annual Northern hemi- angladesh and former Worcester- W sphere of gloomy autumn turn- B shire all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan ing into winter we in England need the has become only the third player in his- vibrancy of Southern summers to keep tory to take ten wickets and score a cen- 63 not out alive our cricket passion. Around the world countries are tury in Test cricket. He scored 137 and had match working together to promote our game, figures of ten for 124 which enabled Phil Hughes produce fine athletes and present cricket in the best possible way with his team to beat Zimbabwe and take a 2-0 lead in the three-match series. The some exciting Test and ODI's sched- match was played at Khulna in Novem- 1988-2014 uled throughout our winter culminating ber 2014 in the ICC 2015 World Cup. I wrote some time ago that in His performance has been R.I.P. achieved only twice before. By a happy my opinion, and I have had no reason coincidence, each of the other achievers to change that view, Test Cricket is at a also have strong Worcestershire links. very high level around the world and The first man to complete the for that reason is very watchable. Test Double was Ian Botham (114; 6/58 Where then I might ask are the & 7/48) v. India in 1979/80. He was West Indies ? The missing piece in the followed by Imran Khan (117; 6/98 & jigsaw. The WICB are currently sitting 5/82) v. India in 1982/83. Who was the best? on their hands doing nothing but de- stroying potentially the most untapped Although Alan Davidson can By Ken Workman claim to be the first man to complete the landmass of cricket talent in the world. Test double, he did not actually score a omparing the performances of players How on earth have the WICB century in the match. Playing at Bris- C from different eras is problematic. The been allowed to mismanage such po- bane, Davidson scored 44 & 80 and had accepted criteria for assessing the quality of tential? Why have they not built on, figures of 5/135 & 6/87 v. India in ‘all-rounders’ is the difference between promoted and sold West Indian cricket 1960/61. their batting and bowling averages, subject around the globe? We are talking of Shakib Al Hasan played nine to certain minimum achievements. rich areas of talent waiting for opportu- matches for Worcestershire in 2010 and If we apply the formula to Worces- nity. once in 2011. He scored 412 runs (av. tershire players who have completed their Islands which have produced so 27.46); HS 90 v. Derbyshire. He took careers in first class cricket, assuming they many cricket knights and many of the 42 wickets (av. 21.66). His best bowl- have scored at least 4,000 runs and taken greatest fast bowlers of all time. Clive ing to date is 7/32 against Middlesex. 200 wickets or more, the following table Lloyd put the West Indies at the fore- Both performances occurred in his first enables us to compare players from differ- front of World Cricket making them season with Worcestershire. ent eras. the most feared and formidable oppo- nents of any world sporting arena. To Bat Ball Difference then allow inferior minor American BL D’Oliveira 38.16 24.95 +13.21 sport to infiltrate into West Indian SCS member now on G A Hick 52.23 44.43 +7.80 schools is a crime. WICB choose to do E G Arnold 31.34 23.73 +7.61 WCCC Board! nothing, they neither coach or market M J Horton 29.04 26.33 +2.71 cricket with any degree of intent and, im Jones has been elected to the R Howorth 20.22 21.36 -1.14 as a result, cricket is suffering. board of Worcestershire CCC. R Jenkins 21.88 23.72 -1.84 T At this moment in time after As Chairman of the County S Martin 26.36 29.16 -2.80 nearly one month WICB have no idea Club’s Heritage Group, Tim has played F Root 15.67 20.52 -4.85 how they are to meet the demands of a leading role in creating the superb D Slade 18.06 22.94 -4.88 the Indian Cricket Board BCCI in pay- displays in the foyer of the Graham F Pearson 24.43 29.70 -5.27 Hick Pavilion. ing the £26.2m penalty for not com- Tim is currently writing the Members are encouraged to submit their pleting the India tour. There has been biography of the legendary Don Ken- views on the above. intervention from several Prime Minis- yon; it is surprising that no such tribute Does anyone have any other method of ters around the Islands, but there is still has appeared before. comparison? no conclusion. Â Turn to page 2 The opinions expressed in Boundary View are not necessarily those of Stourbridge Cricket Society Dave Nicklin (President) Committee Members: Mike Tomkins (Chairman); Craig Smith (Secretary); Ken Workman (Treasurer); Terry Church (Programme Secretary) Glenn Turner back at New Road Mike Tomkins recalls a memorable meeting Christmas / New Year Quiz lenn Turner and his wife Sukhi were visi- Questions by Ken Workman G tors to New Road this summer during one of our county games having travelled from their CONNECTIONS home in New Zealand. Together with a couple 1) What connects the following places? more GMT fans, I was privileged to chat and Evesham, Bournville, Halesowen, listen while Glenn reflected on his playing ca- Hereford. reer. His passion for Worcestershire Cricket What connects the following people? coupled with desire, dedication and sheer hard work, I thought gave him the platform to play 2) Harold Bache, Christopher Collier, internationally at such a consistently high level. John Winnington, Bernard Nevile. He made centuries in each innings of 3) Louis Vorster, Damien D’Oliveira, games at Gisborne, Dunedin, Stourbridge, Sid Martin, William Greenstock. Worcester, Edgbaston and Christchurch. I was, however, most interested to ask Glenn about his 4) Ted Arnold, Dick Howorth, Fred first innings score of 168 at Stourbridge in 1981 Root, Martin Horton. against Northants, who had a strong opening A boyish-looking Kiwi prospect of attack led by Kapil Dev. He said, “I remember 1966 5) George Chesterton, Imran Khan, the wonderfully hot three days, what a crowd R.E. Foster, ‘Barmy’ Gilbert. and, of course, that reception walking to the pa- 6) Maurice Nichol, David Banks, vilion on reaching my century before lunch – Charles Fiddian-Green, Collis King. they must have enjoyed that - they were cer- 7) Doc Gibbons, Eddie Cooper, tainly entertained!” Ron Headley, Alan Ormrod. He also mentioned the square cut at Wan- tage Road off Bishen Bedi to bring up 1,000 runs 8) What connects the following scores? before the end of May 1973, whilst batting for 134, 101 not out, 140, 172 not out. New Zealand. I prompted Glenn on his association with A bottle of something alcoholic to the Midlands, his grandfather having played the highest scoring answer. football for the Albion. I asked also of his asso- ciation with Billy Ibadulla and at the time the Entries on a postcard to Ken Workman possibility of him signing for Warwickshire. to be received at the meeting on From then on, Warwickshire always seemed to 15th January 2015 make headlines whenever confronted by GMT. “Ton again Turner slams Warwicks” and Chairman’s View [from page 1] “Turner hits Warwicks yet again”. Glenn’s reply “That’s how it happened”! The picture tells the story! Where is this all going? I cannot Some of Glenn’s achievements are stun- understand how the ICC can allow such ning and surpass most professional cricketers’ Glenn Turner stands in front of muddling along ie: (bad management) achievements by some distance. I still find it the scoreboard after he set a new without doing something about it. remarkable that Worcestershire were fortunate record for the highest innings by We are talking about one of the enough to unearth such a magnificent overseas a Worcestershire batsman in a most important cricket areas of the player and that some of us were lucky enough to first-class match, when he scored world. We do not want to loose the West witness those glorious innings during the 1970’s. an undefeated 311 against War- Indies as a strong cricket nation, they are I must highlight, apart from Glenn’s cen- wickshire on 29 May 1982. far too important for this to be allowed. tury of centuries, the 19th to achieve this feat, Turner eclipsed Fred Bowley’s For the sake of cricket two of his records – Guyana 1972 with the tour- record of 276 which stood for 68 supporters worldwide let us hope and ing New Zealanders, he scores 259 and then years. Glenn’s record was over- pray that the WICB can find a President equals that same score during the Fourth Test v taken by Graeme Hick in 1988. who will totally rebuild West Indian West Indies days later, taking him past 1,000 cricket and restore it back to its former tour runs. glory. In 1977, Glenn astounded the cricket world by carrying his bat for 141 not out through Worcestershire’s innings of 169 against Glamor- Second Cricket Fatality gan at Swansea to set up a world record for the highest percentage total of 83.4%.