by Arthur Crabtree » Sun Dec 22, 2013 1:21 am
This feels like a Diana moment for England cricket fans. It's a shock, and a disappointing end, for one of the best bowlers to play for England since I started watching, and almost certainly the best spinner (and a handy second/slip, lower order batter).
It feels all wrong. Not least that he retired at midnight. Like the death of Caesar, it's the wrong time for a eulogy (!). A key player in a great period for England. A spinner who helped revitalise the role of the orthodox finger spinner (and seems to be influential in that respect) I'll never see him hit that 80 ball Test ton that I thought was in him.
A craftsman, and a great worker out of batters. Absolutely irreplacable. Even slightly underrated by the UK press. The late flowering Swann gave hope to county players for whom the call refused to come, and who absolutely made the most of his delayed chance in international cricket. In all formats. And a personality, that it was always a pleasure to hear from, who never took for granted his sporting fortune.
Things will feel very different without him.
I always say that everybody's right.