I had to attend a very interesting meeting today up in Liverpool Street, so I had a couple of train journeys to continue my reading of Richie Benaud’s magnficent opus “My Spin on Cricket”. You will know that thus far I have not been enthralled by this particular book – please see my thread here.
Today I embarked on a chapter called “Six Australian Innings”, where the doyen picked out six greats from Australia and outlined a memorable innings by each. Bradman’s selection he heard on the radio, which is an interesting method indeed, but no Aussie tome seems to miss out an innings by the Don. But it was the Adam Gilchrist part of the chapter that bemused me. As is his wont in this book, while discussing a topic, Benaud wanders off in the way of an elderly uncle getting side-tracked. For the first couple of times it is a minor distraction, but when it is consistently repeated throughout, it gets a bit dull, and then annoying. However, when the ramble is utterly, totally inaccurate, I get annoyed. As I said in Errors of a Doyen, with his fortune, his kudos, he could have got someone to check his stats, and reinforce his memory.
This was the part that made me think “Really?”
“Pakistan fought back on the first day with a first innings score of 304 that enthused spectators, and then Ricky Ponting hit a brilliant 207. Incredibly he was third out with the score on 257….”
Ricky Ponting, of course bats at number 3, and this seemed somewhat amazing given neither Langer, nor Hayden, nor any other member of that batting order were notable for limpet like scoring. This game took place in January 2005 at the SCG. The scorecard is linked here.
Did Ponting really score 207 before he was out at 257? Er…no.
Damien Martyn was out for 67 at 257. Ponting came in when the first wicket went down on 26, which would have meant he’d made 207 out of 231 runs – phenomenal in the extreme. Added to that one scan of the scorecard shows Ponting facing 332 balls in 491 minutes, so the other batsmen would have made 24 in over 8 hours. Closer inspection shows Ponting actually was 6th out on 529, having shared a long partnership with Gilchrist – one of the innings to which Richie was waxing lyrical. Not only is his memory fading (and at time of writing, this test match was fresh in the memory given the book was released in 2005) but his checker must have been on strike.
There is another less major error, but still one that could have been checked regarding Stan McCabe’s legendary knock at Trent Bridge in 1938 - scorecard here. In his chapter on the Australian Hall of Fame, he says of McCabe that he hit 232 out of the next 277 runs once Australia had been reduced to 134/2. Again, this seemed a remarkably high proportion, but this was a legendary knock. On checking the scorecard, the 3rd wicket went down on 134, not the second, which went down on 111. So McCabe got his 232 out of 300 runs; still massively impressive (unless of course he was 0 not out when the 3rd wicket went down, but I would imagine that was unlikely). A report of this innings can be found here.
I am sad about this book. I know I like a good moan, but I grew up with Richie’s commentary, insight and whimsical delivery and was looking forward to reading it. This book is a blatant mickey-take, and his publisher must have known this combination of anecdote and ramble wouldn’t cut the mustard. It was released as Richie was retiring and the queues at Leadenhall Market the day after the 2005 Ashes were testament to the respect he had here. The poor mistakes are such that I can only view it as a cynical cash ploy. After all, I bought it.
UPDATE – I am being picky now, but this is another statement in the book, this time on the subject of one day cricket. and the Gillette Cup. According to the doyen Ted Dexter….and his Sussex team won close finals in each of the first two years.
In a 60 over contest, if one team were skittled out for 127 and the opposition got them for 2 wickets with the best part of 19 overs remaining, would you call that close? The doyen believes this is a close final.
Maybe it was closer than it looked.
FURTHER UPDATE – Either Richie or Cricinfo is wrong. It was before my time, but Richie states about the 1975 World Cup Final “Viv Richards ran out three Australians and Alvin Kallicharan two.” Check out the scorecard. Ooops. I think, given this book, I know who I am backing to be right.
Why did he not employ someone to check up on these errors?
Minor quibble on the same page – Baptiste and Richards put on 59 for the eighth wicket, not 49 as Richie states in the 1984 ODI at Old Trafford. 161 minus 102 = 59. Unless cricinfo is wrong, of course.
AND ANOTHER – The hits keep on coming. On page 260, in recounting Michael Bevan’s match winning knock against England in Port Elizabeth, he refers to the defeated team as “Michael Vaughan’s England”. Cricinfo confirms what I recalled from Nasser Hussain’s autobiography, and that Insane himself was captain. See here. Again, minor. But annoying. He also states that the game was won with three balls remaining. As you can see from the scorecard, it looks like two balls are left.
I just think this is unacceptable from such a respected cricket commentator.
ANOTHER – In the chapter on Flintoff and Clarke, apart from recalling correctly now what happened in the first two tests of the South African series in 2003, he states that Michael Clarke made 37 not out on his debut in ODIs (against England in Adelaide). Needless to say, according to cricinfo, he didn’t. Again, very minor, but….on page 267 he states that Adam Gilchrist made “106 brilliant runs”. Again, cricinfo begs to differ.
You’ll be glad to know I’ve finished the book now!
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