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14 Monday 3rd January, 2011 fter four decades, celebrat- photo, it puts the beholder in a block - in both a physical and ed cricket photographer time and place - thick sweaters mental sense. ‘’It’s no good say- APatrick Eagar is readying betray a faraway land’s summer ing, ‘I’m looking for the catch’, to put the lens cap on for the last chill; the starch in Greig’s and missing the batsman.’’ time. upturned collar permeates his Eagar’s archives contain half If you’ve read Wisden or enormous pads, mitten gloves and a million images from more than Cricketer magazines since the clean blade; the Australians are four decades of squinting 1970s, or flicked to the photo hairy; pitch and outfield a deep, through viewfinders around the inserts of cricket books, your seaming, sloping green; rows of world. Now 66, the ‘’godfather of view of the game will have been heads bob above the whitewashed cricket photography’’ has cap- informed by the pictures of parapets of a sightscreen like no tured the spectacular and the Patrick Eagar - from the grainy other. serene better than any. monochrome of newsprint to ‘’I think you’ve got to be as Fittingly in this age of rich, brilliant colour on glossy broad-minded as possible - it’s English celebration, Perth was pages. what’s in front of you,’’ Eagar his 100th England-Australia Test For a young boy drawn to says of the cricket photographer’s match, a catalogue that stretches cricket’s contrasts, the images conundrum of where best to take back to Old Trafford, 1972 FFaarreewweellll ‘Mr. Click-it’ Patrick Eagar ‘Mr. Click-it’ (‘’Australia had the better of a on turf as left leg is thrust seem- ‘’Ironically, this is where I came draw … I imagine there was ingly halfway down the pitch. in.’’ rain’’). Two Centenary Tests and Elbow points skyward, eyes are The strength of his work is He framed a young a couple of other one-off contests fixed on the ball beneath baggy that it records cricket’s passage. leave him a handful shy of an green cap, bat is angled such that ‘’I’ve got a lot of stuff which is and dashing David Ashes century, a shortfall that contact sends the ball to ground. probably historically important, Hookes, Rick doesn’t bother him; Eagar is Jack Russell awaits the chance because I was there,’’ Eagar says. winding down, with plans to work that never came; their evening ‘’Occasionally the photographs McCosker with his on his golf handicap. shadows accentuate an image of are OK, too. But the very fact that bandaged jaw, As England closed in on impenetrable batting perfection. you were there - like the Wednesday, he assessed the right- Waugh was making hundreds Centenary Test, I shot it in colour, Derek Randall doff- handed batsmen at the crease, the for fun, but the picture says more and you look back and think, I ing his cap to crowded slips cordon and posi- about his dominance than the probably shot it better than the tioned himself to capture cliched bat-raised-to-heavens ever other guys.’’ Dennis Lillee. Other England’s first lifting of the could. ‘’What’s he good at?’’ Eagar He framed a young and dash- Ashes away from home since says of images that define a bats- ing David Hookes, Rick McCosker pictures of a time 1986-87. He was happy. man. ‘’I mean, what’s the shot with his bandaged jaw, Derek before the dressing Sometimes, like his shot of that actually killed the bowlers? Randall doffing his cap to Dennis Andrew Strauss’ airborne That’s important.’’ Lillee. Other pictures of a time room door was screamer to remove Adam Kim Hughes was a favourite before the dressing room door closed to all but the Gilchrist at Edgbaston in 2005, subject, his improvisation at the was closed to all but the chosen the waiting is rewarded. Like the crease never better captured than feature Ian Chappell celebrating chosen feature Ian Marsh catch, Eagar says the a square-drive during the 1980 with beer and cigar, Doug Walters Chappell celebrat- result was exactly what he was Centenary Test, struck while fac- playing cards and smoking, a hoping for, but you can do no ing the point boundary; it’s as if spent Ian Botham, still wearing ing with beer and more than put yourself in the Hughes has been cut out, rotated pads and sweater, looking shell- cigar, Doug Walters right place and in the hands of clockwise 90 degrees and dropped shocked at what he has just done Lady Luck. back onto the pitch. ‘’He had to Australia. It is, of course, playing cards and His chosen media - shooting more instant imagination than Headingley 1981. for magazines and books rather almost any batsman I’ve ever ‘’There was a time over proba- smoking, a spent than newspapers - have suited his watched,’’ Eagar says. ‘’He was a bly a 20-year period where almost Ian Botham, still gentler approach. ‘’A modern pic- joy to photograph, an absolute every Test player seemed to know ture editor in a newspaper, all he joy.’’ who I was. I was lucky.’’ wearing pads and wants is a really good celebration Eagar’s late father, Desmond, Converting half a million sweater, looking photograph to put on the front or was a long-time captain and sec- images from 35mm film into digi- back page, the bowler with his retary of Hampshire, but Patrick tal format for his website is no shell-shocked at hands up and mouth open. You go knew his calling in the game lay overnight exercise; the craft’s what he has just to a Test match and end up with elsewhere. Working for a London digitisation has enhanced Eagar’s five days of celebration pictures, agency, he spent five months in affection for his older body of done to Australia. It but you haven’t got any narrative. Vietnam in 1966, photographing a work, although he cherishes his is, of course, What actually happened? Who British medical team at the chil- pictures from the 2005 Ashes took the catches? How?’’ dren’s hospital in Saigon. ‘’The series. Then, the breaking of Headingley 1981. Studies of great players patients weren’t all coming in for England’s drought overcame all. underscore his point. Eagar is measles and mumps, sadly.’’ ‘’I think I was almost screaming Ian Botham’s Headingley heroics in the 1981 Ashes Test after being pleased Steve Waugh likes the His cricket breakthrough at one point.’’ educated and enchanted. Rod sacked as captain and the quiet moments he spent in the dressing image of him batting at Lord’s in came with the relaxation of Eagar does not pretend he will Marsh diving full length in front room smoking a cigar still wearing pads and sweater was one of 1989. It is the second Test, exclusivity arrangements at Test ever see cricket in perfect focus. of Ian Chappell to catch Tony Patrick Eagar’s all time favourites. The fifth Ashes Test that starts England is yet to capture Waugh’s matches in 1972, a noose that is ‘’It’s a lovely game. But it’s very wicket, and here is why: right toe again tightening and pushing him complicated - no one’s ever Greig at Headingley in the 1975 today will be the last of the renowned British photographer who grounded behind the crease, knee towards the golf course. worked it out.’’ (SMH) World Cup is not just a classic clicked cricket pictures for four decades. Welcome to 2011 and while the “Sprinkler Dance” Dreaming is one thing, achieving it is another. It is It begs again the question of why is it no one has away from Colombo as they are a callow bunch of craze, as exhibited by the England team at the G&G doubtful if those in Beijing or Moscow, Copenhagen sat with Jayasuriya and Vaas for that matter and viewers in the island’s capital with its pretentious at the end of the fourth Ashes Test, has not caught on or Bangui, even Hanoi, have heard of Jayasuriya or given them a timeline on their careers. After all, they image. here as yet, it is time to reflect on more serious sub- recall his 1996 explosive exploits. But it is still deserve far better treatment than they have received. One of the technology plans for the CWC11 is that jects. recalled in misleading headlines as a talisman saying Neither has been honoured by the government there will be a form of UDRS (umpires decision refer- First, Yahaluweni, there is this question of selec- that Sri Lanka will win the next World Cup. All appointed Interim Committee for their years of hon- ral system) will be in place. It was trialled in a sense tion policy for this year’s World Cup; followed by the heady stuff; dangerous too. ourable service to the game. in 2002 at the Champions Trophy and was used again over-hyped image of the so-called “Final Frontier”, Just as Lord’s and left-arm seamer Alan Mullally That particular committee has been far too both- in 2004, 2006 and in South Africa in 2009. then there is something emerging called the X-Factor. ered by trying how best to improve their own sorry Anyone watching the Ashes Tests to those in As all this comes across as meaningless media South Africa where India are now involved would see jargon, it has that formulaic sameness about it which the major difference in how the referrals and deci- is a tad boring.