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The man who hurried Viv
Wisden CricInfo staff - February 23, 2002

Sunday, March 3, 2002 The column in which our database director answers your queries, large or small, about the history of the game

  • Whatever happened to Viv-busting Duncan Spencer?
  • Meet the only Test cricketer to be born in Brazil ...
  • The last of the lobbers
  • India v West Indies 1983-84 - what happened?
  • The BBC's regal commentator
  • Fred Trueman: spinner extraordinaire? I remember Duncan Spencer of Kent causing a stir when he bowled very fast at Viv Richards at Canterbury a few years ago. What has happened to him since? asks Richard Smith

    Although Duncan Spencer was brought up in Western Australia he was born in Burnley (Lancashire) in 1972, so he was able to play county cricket without being considered an overseas player. He announced himself to Kent followers with that rapid spell at Viv Richards when Glamorgan were trying to clinch the Sunday League at Canterbury at the end of 1993. They did win, with Richards making 46 not out, but Spencer made his mark – literally, as he hit the Master Blaster on the chest. Viv was also caught off a no-ball. But the effort of bowling searingly fast took its toll on Spencer's small frame, and he suffered a succession of back injuries. In 2000-01 he seemed to be making a successful comeback with Western Australia after seven years out. He took 4 for 43 in a one-day game against Victoria, and finished with 11 wickets at 22 in the competition. But then a drug test revealed that medication he was taking to treat his back injuries was on the banned list, and in April 2001 he was suspended from Australian state cricket for 18 months.

    In a recent quiz we were utterly bamboozled by a question asking for the name of the only Test cricketer who was born in Brazil. Who is it? asks Suresh

    This mystery man is Ashok Gandotra, a left-hand batsman who won two Test caps for India. He was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1948. He played for Delhi and Bengal in the Ranji Trophy, and hit 169 for Bengal v Gujarat in 1974-75. In October 1969, with the Indian team in something of a state of transition, Gandotra made his Test debut against New Zealand at Hyderabad, and made 18 and 15 from No. 7 on a pitch which had been treated with powdered cow-dung. They should have used some on the spectators, because some unruly crowd behaviour (and lots of rain) prevented a probable New Zealand victory. Gandotra also played against Australia at Kanpur a month later. This time he made 13 and 8, and bowled one over. He wasn't selected again.

    Who was the last lob bowler to play in a Test? asks Mike Walker

    One or two people have bowled underarm in Tests over the years, usually in protest about a late declaration, but the last person to be selected primarily as a lob bowler was George Simpson-Hayward, who toured South Africa with England in 1909-10. In the first Test at Johannesburg he took a wicket with his fifth ball, and finished with 6 for 43. In the five-match series – the only Tests he ever played – he took 23 wickets at 18.26 each, usually coming on as first change. His Wisden Almanack obituary (he died in 1936, when only 61) says Simpson-Hayward "was one of the last underhand bowlers in first-class cricket. He seldom flighted the ball like the ordinary lob bowler, and did not often use spin from leg. In fact he was quite unusual with the speed at which he could make the ball, delivered with low trajectory, break from the off."

    What was the score in the Test series between India and West Indies in 1983-84? asks Chandra Prakash Jhajharia from Calcutta

    West Indies, who were undoubtedly the leading side in world cricket at the time, won that five-match series 3-0. It was payback time for the 1983 World Cup in England, where India had pulled off a sensational victory over West Indies in the final. West Indies won the first Test, at Kanpur, by an innings and 83 runs, thanks mainly to 194 from Gordon Greenidge, and eight wickets for Malcolm Marshall, including the vital one of Sunil Gavaskar in both innings (for 0 and 7). The second match at Delhi was drawn – Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar got hundreds this time, while Clive Lloyd hit 101 – but West Indies made it 2-0 by winning the third Test, at Ahmedabad, by 138 runs. In a low-scoring game, West Indies' fast men combined to shoot India out for 103, chasing 242, in their second innings. The fourth Test at Bombay was another draw, with Vengsarkar and Viv Richards trading hundreds, but West Indies rounded off the series with another innings victory at Calcutta. After Marshall got Gavaskar again, with the first ball of the match, Lloyd made 161 not out. And Marshall struck again in the second innings, taking 6 for 37 as India collapsed for 90.
    click here for the Wisden Almanack reports and scorecards from that series.

    I seem to remember an Indian commentator on the BBC's Test Match Special in the 1970s who the others referred to as "Prince". Was it the Nawab of Pataudi? asks Eric Gledhill

    I think the Indian nobleman in question was the Maharajah of Baroda, also known at Fatesingh Gaekwad. He did some commentary for the BBC during the 1974 Indian tour of England, and had earlier managed the 1959 Indian team to England. In his book Ball by Ball: the Story of Cricket Broadcasting, Christopher Martin-Jenkins wrote: "The late `Jackie' Baroda, a delightful man inclined to giggle and possessing a deadpan sense of humour, was referred to, by directive from on high, simply as `Prince', which I always thought sounded rather as if one were addressing a dog."

    Is it true that the first mention of Fiery Fred Trueman in the Wisden Almanack describes him as a spin bowler? asks Geoff Matthews

    Embarrassingly, it is true. Fred Trueman made his first-class debut against Cambridge University at Fenner's in 1949, and the match report announces that "Yorkshire gave a trial to three young players, Lowson, an opening batsman, Close, an allrounder, and Trueman, a spin bowler". Whoever wrote that match report couldn't have been watching the game very closely, as Trueman bowled the first over of the match, and took his first wicket with a bouncer that the batsman fended to square leg. At least the Almanack's overall review of Yorkshire's season – one in which they shared the County Championship with Middlesex – got it right, and called him "a newly found fast bowler". Incidentally, all three of those young trialists had played for England by the end of 1952.

  • If you have a question, e-mail it to steven.lynch@wisden.com. We can't normally enter into individual correspondence, but a selection of questions and answers will be published here each week

    More Ask Steven columns
    February 24, 2002
    February 17, 2002
    February 2, 2002
    January 2002
    November 2001
    October 2001

    © Wisden CricInfo Ltd





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