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So sad. RIP Thorpey.
The world felt a better place when he was at the crease. RIP.
“We are not ashamed of talking about it,” said Thorpe’s daughter Kitty. “There is nothing to hide and it is not a stigma. We were trying to help him get better before and trying to protect him, which is why we said nothing. This is the time now to share the news, however horrible it is. We’ve wanted to be able to talk and share and we’d now like to raise awareness, too.
“He had loved life and he loved us but he just couldn’t see a way out. It was heartbreaking to see how withdrawn he had become. He was not the same person. It was strange to see this person trapped in the body of Dad. That’s why we’ve been so happy that the many reflections have been about his life before this illness took over. I’m glad that’s how everyone does remember him, rightly so, as the complete character he was.”
RIP
A terrible loss, top player, top bloke.
A happier cricket story - it's old but cropped up on my SM feed earlier
**
MARK NICHOLAS for "The Cricket Monthly"
In Swansea in 1993, Viv was on strike to Marshall in a county match between Glamorgan and Hampshire. These were contests to savour, us hackers briefly living in a parallel universe with the greatest players of the day.
Malcolm sprinted in, but at the split second of his delivery stride Viv pulled away, clearly furious. There was silence. We looked at each other, then at him: no one dared say a word.
He marched forward, a smouldering warrior, and screamed, "HEY!" He was most of the way down the pitch now, marching faster with each step, thankfully past Marshall and past the umpire. "YOU!" Nothing, bar the horrified look on the spectators either side of and above the sightscreen. "THAT'S YOU! " He was halfway to the boundary now and pointing to a spot just above the sightscreen, pointing to a man who was sitting alone, lost in the newspaper that hid his face. "YOU! " Alerted by those around him, the man looked up from his broadsheet and, startled, pointed at himself like, "WHAT, ME?". "YES, YOU!!!
"YOU'VE GOT DAVID GOWER AND ROBIN SMITH AT SLIP; YOU'VE GOT MALCOLM MARSHALL, THE GREATEST FAST BOWLER IN THE WORLD, BOWLING TO VIVIAN RICHARDS. AND YOU READING THE F***ING NEWSPAPER!?!
I felt very privileged to see the Hampshire team of the late 80's & early 90's. It didn't do my A-level results much good as we used to bunk off and get a train into Southampton to watch them play!
First first class game I saw was at Southampton in the mid 80's, while Gower was still at Leics. It was a one day cup game, B&H IIRC and my folks allowed me to get the train down there to watch my batting hero.
I had a seat at midwicket / cover so you couldn't see the ball out of the hand very easily; my memory was of Macho bustling in, his fast arm, a languid curly haired waft of a drive, and someone at cover turning to jog after the ball as it raced to the boundary. Marshall looked like he was trying his arse off; Gower like he couldn't care less, this was just a way to pass time before he had a social event to be at later. Two of the Gods of the game, at the peak of their powers, as the article above says descended to play among mortals for a young lad's entertainment.
He made 20-odd if I recall, each run glorious and then a waft too many. Ah well, there was always tomorrow, or the day after. Sadly Marshall did not have anywhere near enough tomorrows. Robin Smith made 80 in the chase; now he did take things seriously.
Lovely story - the cynic in me says check for corroboration if it was told by Oily Nicholas...
I only saw Macco bowling live once - Oval 91. He was quick and skiddy but overshadowed on that occasion by Patterson and particularly Ambrose who went after the batters like fury. Huw Morris in particular stood up to them admirably, but it did no good. Simply surviving at the crease wasn't enough even back then - he was dropped and forgotten soon after. The thing about Marshall is to look at the numbers and also his numbers on the subcontinent. Back in the day before reverse swing was mainstream that speaks of an incredibly skilful athlete. Batters always said they never felt 'in' against Marshall and the numbers bear that out.
Three West Indian cricketers have scored 10000 first class runs and taken 1000 first class wickets…..
And I have heard that story from other sources too
Over by lunch at this rate ......
I love test cricket, but if they can't do something to make these series more competitive it's hard to see it flourishing. Same when England go to India or Australia and get thrashed. The only "good" series these days seem to be when a stronger nation tours to a weaker one.
I have tickets for Saturday and even with the 3 day results we’re seeing more regularly I thought the weather might guarantee some viewing but maybe not!
RM.
Sri Lanka showing some fight, good to see.
Yes, good to see, but to be honest mopping up the tail has been a bit of an issue for England for a while now. Not sure if they just get too cute. You'd think having the option of Mark Wood steaming in at the number 10 would be simple enough.
A good game brewing, with some big hitting and Aussie wickets falling. Livingstone hit Starc for 28 from the final over - most ever in an international oner at Lords.
Sounds like some needle in the commentary box between Geoff Lemon and Sir Alistair.
2-2, series set up nicely.
yep - shame the weather's not better for Sunday. I'd have settled in with a cuppa and some cake to watch it
Also worth bearing in mind Aus had won 7 or 8 in a row or something, so good to break the run, and even better put them on a losing streak
7 or 8 in a row or something
I think the run was 15 wins in 50 over ODIs
Marsh wicket from Jofra was a beaut.
Was just typing how Salt was peppering the boundary.......as he was caught on it. Good start.
Damp squib ending to the international home game cricketing summer
let's be fair, the 'season' ended about 3 or 4 weeks ago. Why we're still playing international games with a potential for clubs to spend loads in prepping grounds on the last weekend of September is daft.
What on earth is the point of this game being played on this wicket? How mind-numbingly dull.
Hot hot hot. Some stint by root.
Draw?
If they just keep going, Root could be in second place by the end of this test!!
Yet another England collapse. When will they learn?
Getting interesting now
41/3
Edit***
41/4
I don't get the negative talk about a collapse - they made 823 and declared, one batter scored over 300 and another over 250, it's a non-issue for me. Once root was gone the best thing to do was be aggressive, add as many runs to the total as possible, declare and put ****stan straight in to bat when they were tired and conditions would hopefully be favourable for bowling later in the day.
****stan now 41-4 with their opener dismissed with the first ball of the innings - looks like it worked...
Agreed - finishing on 823 dec can hardly ever be called a collapse – in the run-up to the declaration the pitch had started to turn a bit so I assume Pope decided it was time to make the best of the conditions and, as stated above, it was clearly the right decision.
Regulation catch, flew through some hands. 🙂
RM.
^^^^^^
You do realise the “collapse” comment was a joke don’t you?
Personally I’d like to have seen them written the game off as a draw and go for 1000 runs. But from a winning point of view then declaring looks like it was a smart move.
I hadn't spotted that, no - my bad! I'd just read/heard a similar serious comment elsewhere so perhaps wrongly assumed Simon was serious too.
59 for 5!
You do realise the “collapse” comment was a joke don’t you?
DOH!
There's a collapse coming alright.
I'm not sure Multan is high up the list of places that budding young seam bowlers would like to visit. But, then again, they aren't playing in Faisalabad this tour...
I notice the 2nd Test is also being played in Multan.
It is now very apparent why a par score in the PSL is often 200+.
Nice to see the Aussies under the pump. Some turnaround by India!
Well it looks like both sides decided they wanted a one innings game instead. From what I could tell, the Aussies bowled both sides of the wicket too much and the green zip seems to have gone out of the pitch.
Jaiswal is a lovely batter, though.
Well this is rather exciting!
I'm struggling with the tension here...I bloody love test match cricket.
oh poop 😫
Who said cricket was always boring!
I had to turn on TMS just for the last few overs. Madness!
Great series and 2-2 probably a reflection. England too casual I think - somehow drew after being 2-1 up and having India 0 for 2, 300 odd behind in the fourth test.
yeah, I was listening to Agnew interview the players afterwards, he kept basically saying, "you needed 70 to win, with 7 wickets in hand. Should probably have managed that?"
And all the players were like, "er, yeah, ahem".
Can't help but wonder if Gill deliberately set his field to leave the single available in the last ball of the last 2 overs so they didn't have to bowl at Woakes.