Outrageous Cricket Moments by Ian Smith/Joseph Romanos
Lynn McConnell19-Feb-2003
Outrageous Cricket Moments by Ian Smith/Joseph Romanos. Published by Hodder Moa Beckett. Price $29.99.HOWZAT! by Sir Richard Hadlee. Published by Reed. Price $24.95.Canterbury Cricket – 100 Greats by Matthew Appleby. Published by Reed. Price $44.95.All paperbacks and all reviewed by Lynn McConnell.It would be fair to call all three of these cricketing publications athologies – anthologies of incident in the Smith/Romanos case, of humour with Hadlee and of Canterbury characters with Appleby.Smith’s pre-publicity machine for “his” book revolved around his claims about Sri Lankan spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan.Basically Smith put it like this: “I’ve heard all about the Muralitharan defence: how he’s had a deformity since birth and is therefore unable to straighten his right arm. If that’s the case, then that’s bad luck for Murali. But he’s still breaking the laws of cricket and therefore should not be allowed to bowl.”Smith says the International Cricket Council have been “quite weak” in dealing with chuckers.Smith likens Muralitharan’s situation to that of his own thought that he’d love to have been a professional basketballer but because of his lack of height it wasn’t to be and that was just the luck of the genetic draw.While there is little that is new in this collection of cricket moments, the comments of Bob Blair on his reaction to the news of the death of his fiancee in the Tangiwai disaster of Christmas Eve 1953 adds even more dramatic to the history already recorded on the most courageous day in New Zealand cricket history.And it is hard to get beyond the feeling that much of the content in the book has been driven by Romanos.Hadlee has made an art form of squirreling away every cricket story he hears on the cricket after-dinner speaking calendar along with various experiences of his own.Hadlee said former England cricketer David Shepherd (sic) was well known for being a man of the cloth but even the good man himself will be delighted to hear that he has been elevated to Archbishop of Canterbury by Hadlee. He surely meant the Right Reverend David Sheppard, the former Bishop of Liverpool.Sheppard, of course, is the subject of a Fred Trueman story in Hadlee’s latest collection and the occasion was of a fielding mishap off Trueman’s bowling.Trueman’s comment was: “You might have kept your eyes closed when you were praying, Vicar, but I wish you would keep them open when you batted and when I bowled.”There is something delightfully boyish about the A-Z of yachting terms referred to by Hadlee and given a cricketing tweak, if you’ll pardon the pun. For instance, a ‘ketch’ is something an Australian yells when the ball is hit in the air.Appleby has painted across a much greater canvas in his book on Canterbury characters. These 100 individuals were chosen by Appleby alone so all complaints should be addressed to him.Of course, the 12 members of the all-time Canterbury team selected as part of the 125th jubilee by Peter Sharp, Walter Hadlee, Cran Bull and the late Dick Brittenden had to be included. They were: Walter Hadlee (captain), Dan Reese (vice-captain), Graham Dowling, Roger Blunt, Brian Hastings, Nathan Astle, Chris Cairns, Richard Hadlee, John Ward, Dick Motz, Tom Burtt and Chris Harris (12th man).Not all of the inclusions among the ‘greats’ won their place for their cricketing prowess. William Pember Reeves, while a Canterbury representative and cricket enthusiast won greater acclaim for the political contribution he made to the country in the Liberal Government of the 1890s and in which his greatest achievement was the introduction of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. A string of other industrial acts followed, although this has led to some confusion in Appleby’s work.He described Reeves as being minister (sic) of education and of justice (right) and later fulfilling these roles for Labour (wrong). Reeves died in 1932 before Labour came to power. He had, in fact, been appointed Minister of Labour in 1892, the first in the world and introduced some of the radical labour reforms of the era.The inclusion of West Indian fast bowler Michael Holding is an interesting and debatable choice.There are others and while it is commendable that such a book be written to honour an association’s 125 years, it is disappointing that more live interviewing to give the subjects’ own slant on things has not been done. There has been a heavy reliance on other publications, attribution of which could have been better presented.While this approach is required for many of the subjects no longer alive, the heaviness involved in 100 profiles could have been lessened with more ‘live’ quotations.
