Arresting All-Rounders

Arresting All-Rounders

Cricket’s Great All-Rounders by Kersi Meher-Homji. Published in 2008 by New Holland Publishers Australia Pty Ltd. Available on www.amazon.co.uk Pp: 312. Price: $ 45.

Cricket has probably produced more literature than all other sports put together. Kersi Meher-Homji (nephew of cricketer Khershed Me­herhomji) alone has contributed 12 books (including this one) on this sport and is known to specialize in off-beat themes normally not touched upon by other authors.

Meher-Homji’s latest offering Cric-ket’s Great All-Rounders is not only on a very interesting subject, but also a hitherto neglected one, considering that this is the first book to profile all-rounders in Tests and in one-day internationals.

Like his previous books, Cricket’s Great All-Rounders has international flavor: It includes versatile cricketers from nine countries spanning three centuries. Although focusing on Test all-rounders from George Giffen, Monty Noble, Keith Miller and Richie Benaud to Sir Gary Sobers, Sir Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev and Andrew Flintoff, he also covers one-day international all-rounders from Steve Waugh to big-hitters like Shahid Afridi, Andrew Symonds and Sanath Jayasuriya. He additionally features the much-neglected wicketkeeper-batsmen all-rounders from Les Ames, Godfrey Evans, Jeff Dujon and Alan Knott to Rod Marsh, Ian Healy, Mark Boucher and Adam Gilchrist.

Meher-Homji includes 25 Test all-rounders, 15 wicket-keeping Test all-rounders and nine one-day international all-rounders in his book. He admits that any such selection is bound to be subjective. The strictest definition of an all-rounder is someone who is capable of making a team either for batting or bowling. Since these all-rounders are extremely rare Meher-Homji has opted for a more liberal definition: someone capable of turning a match around with bat or ball.

Right: Richard Hadlee in action; Top: Kersi Meher-Homji

On statistics alone Botham wins the day as the greatest all-rounder of all time. But statistics tend to favor those who have played more matches and it is no secret that far more cricket is played today than was the case four or five decades ago. Meher-Homji recalls his conversation with Tony Greig who suggested that perhaps the best all-rounders should be those who have the biggest margin between their batting and their bowling average — a criterion which when adopted yields Jacques Kallis, Sobers, Aubrey Faulkner and Greig himself at the top, all of whom average more than 40 with the bat and less than 35 with the ball. As for Meher-Homji, his vote goes to Sobers who was a batsman par excellence, an athletic fielder in any position, and a remarkable three-in-one bowler who bowled fast medium, orthodox spin and wrist spin with equal skill, a choice with which I am in hearty agreement.

Meher-Homji not only gives us the cricket facts but in some cases also interesting details about the private lives of these great players. He also includes his personal reminiscences of meetings with some of them, bringing both personal charm and authenticity to the writing.

As the Australian all-rounder Alan Davidson points out in his foreword, the book is rich in facts and figures, and Meher-Homji writes with both insight and humor. Some gems from Meher-Homji in this book include: "Bowling was Kapil Dev’s ‘wife,’ his life, his 10 to six job. Batting was his ‘mistress,’ his indulgence. He seldom strayed when bowling and hardly batted with a straight bat, his cross-bat flings giving spectators almost orgasmic delight.” Describing the Windies pace attack of the 1980s he says: "If facing the Windies pace like fire in 1980s was like walking on burning coal, keeping wickets to them was like placing a burning ember on your tongue. Ask Jeff Dujon!”

Meher-Homji brings the all-rounders’ mighty deeds to life and includes some very interesting snippets and less-known facts about some of the world’s most famous players. Some of the interesting trivia includes how the great Sobers was born with 12 fingers. Another anecdote tells the reader how one of Flintoff’s sixes almost landed in his father Colin’s palm in the upper tier of a stand during the 2004 Birmingham Test. The father, lacking the son’s cricketing skills, dropped it and was given a mouthful by his son during the post match press interview!

I especially liked the nugget about ‘Nugget’ (Miller) driving Vinoo Mankad for four sixes which all landed in a pond outside Eden Gardens, Calcutta, in an unofficial Test against India in 1945 with a bat borrowed from R. S. Whitington who had asked him to be ‘careful’ with it! Miller was a glamorous player who exuded both sex and six appeal. It was said of him that every woman wanted to be with him while every man wanted to be him.

Then there is a story about how Benaud hit a dazzling 121 in 85 minutes with two sixes and 15 fours in the Kingston Test against the West Indies in 1955. His century came in 78 minutes, an onslaught which prompted a Jamaican barracker to shout, "Do it to England, man, not to us.” Meher-Homji tells us that the background to this furious hitting was that Benaud had heard that a close family member was seriously ill in Sydney and told his cap-tain Ian Johnson that because of this news he could not concentrate. Johnson told him to "let your head go and hit” which is exactly what he did. Another interesting tidbit is about how a pharmacist in New Zealand gave Benaud a potion which fixed the torn muscles in his fingers. Benaud recalled that it was "the single most beneficial thing that happened to me in cricket and I never had any trouble again.” A side-splitting anecdote is Greig’s gaffe while commentating on Channel 9 during a one-day international between Australia A and West Indies at Sydney in January 1996. He yelled "It’s a huge shit” instead of "It’s a huge six” when a batsman took the aerial route to clear the fence.

For the statistically minded there is a statistics section at the end of the book. This well produced book also contains some excellent photographs which only add to its charm. This book which is an interesting mix of characters and great players is a must read for the cricket fan. It will also be a welcome addition to the book shelf of the general reader.

Bakhtiar K. Dadabhoy