Re: Indian Cricket Thread
Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 2:47 pm
I sometimes forget how popular cricket once was, because now it is is a minority sport in UK. Between the wars, cricket was the summer sport and everyone knew who the players were and it was widely played for recreation in towns and villages. Particularly in the north. Even in my lifetime, the Yorkshire league was said to be of a high standard.
With all that cricket being played, and with the benefits of avoiding working in heavy industry, it's possible that standards were higher than we now expect. Cricket wasn't professional in the way we think of it now- players had winter jobs- but the talent pool was much bigger. Anecdotes about whistling down a mine for a fast bowler are fanciful, but may hold a germ of truth.
The footage that exists of Larwood doesn't look like a medium pacer at work. As I've mentioned before, I think he looks like a- shorter- Brett Lee. And I remember when even in middle age, Devon Malcolm was still the fastest bowler in England, suggesting there modernity hadn't brought a democratisation of pace and that real speed is unusual and personal. Malcolm was a graduate of the Derbyshire leagues, not elite coaching.
I say this not to defend the past, but to suggest that the truth might not be found in a relatively extreme view..
With all that cricket being played, and with the benefits of avoiding working in heavy industry, it's possible that standards were higher than we now expect. Cricket wasn't professional in the way we think of it now- players had winter jobs- but the talent pool was much bigger. Anecdotes about whistling down a mine for a fast bowler are fanciful, but may hold a germ of truth.
The footage that exists of Larwood doesn't look like a medium pacer at work. As I've mentioned before, I think he looks like a- shorter- Brett Lee. And I remember when even in middle age, Devon Malcolm was still the fastest bowler in England, suggesting there modernity hadn't brought a democratisation of pace and that real speed is unusual and personal. Malcolm was a graduate of the Derbyshire leagues, not elite coaching.
I say this not to defend the past, but to suggest that the truth might not be found in a relatively extreme view..