Proof of Purchase – Taliban and Al-Qaeda Main Beneficiaries of Gambling Accusations.

 

Odd. Mid-offs do not usually look over to the front foot of their bowlers at this stage of a delivery. They are usually looking down the wicket at the batsman.

The News of the World was given proof that a middleman could, for a price, feed them tips about the outcomes of parts of Pakistan v England matches.  The three no-balls ordered up for The News of World were designed to convince the paying ‘punter’ that lucrative outcomes could be and were already being delivered to subscribers to the middleman’s services.  The no balls were proof of purchase.  The real gambling opportunities that they pointed to would be linked to credible betting opportunities, like numbers of wickets to be taken by bowlers, batsmen to score, fifties, or hundreds or dare we admit it 150s.  With spread betting fortunes can be made on unusually high scores and the number of wickets to fall to any bowler staked from any moment in any innings.

Yesterday, Third Man speculated on what might have been had Ian Chappell been Aamir’s captain on Friday.  He did so because at around noon on Friday he thought England would be out for under a hundred, the conditions were so conducive to the undoubted talents of Aamir and Asif.  Even then the disparity between the wickets taken by Aamir and Asif seemed extraordinary.

But he was also increasingly surprised to see Butt take the foot off the England throat.  He could not believe some of the bowling changes and field placings.  Why no sustained attack?  Why no third slip?  Why use your two strike bowlers so sparingly with the new ball?  Why take off Aamir just as Broad reached 99.  Why use a part time leg spinner?  Now, one even has to speculate on the missed chances (two slip chances in an over) and juvenile miss-fields.

That is the effect of the poison that disfigures everything when trust is irretrievably lost in any area of life.

Third Man and many others have been saying that cricket should have been more active in its fundraising for the flood victims of Pakistan.  The immediate misery of close to 20,000,000 people needs to be relieved by rapid global aid.  The medium term consequences to the infrastructure of the areas affected need skills, material, planning, co-ordination and more funds from the international community.  The longer term struggle for the hearts and minds of the Pakistan people needs a global outpouring of goodwill and fellowship.

All three of those necessities to a greater or lesser extent have been jeopardised by these accusations.  

Cricket has not only failed to respond with its full potential, it has conspired to make things far, far worse.

The real winners of these match fixing accusations are the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.  The losers will be the victims of their violence and the victims of their tyranny.

The drive for aid MUST now be redoubled.

What if Aamir had bowled in Sideburns with Ian Chappell as Captain?

In June 1972 hair was long and sideburns even longer.  President Nixon campaigning for re-election in November was pursuing the war in Vietnam with relentless vigour.  For the young in the UK the hope of 1968 and the Summer of Love was fading fast and there was a sense of a long night extending forever. 

Yet Nixon and his team were not so self-assured.  As Third Man made his way to Lord’s to watch the Australians, Nixon and his cronies, who, intent on smearing their opponent  with ties with Cuban election funding, had been caught burgularizing the Democratic National Committee headquarters in a building called Watergate,  were conspiring in the Oval Office to use the CIA to block the FBI’s investigations into the break-ins.

Reaching distant Australia later than San Francisco or Swinging London, the season of young love  lasted longer.   The selectors of the twenty-sixth Australian team to visit England therefore dumped the old generation of Lawrie, Redpath and McKenzie and opted for youth.  Of the seventeen in their tour party only seven had toured England before.  They even ‘cut’ a record, how cool were they?

Having lost the first Test at Old Trafford, the younger generation did not seem to be doing any better than their elders.  Yet a suitably hairy young fast bowler called Dennis Lilley, had swept to the wicket along an irresistible 22 yard run and sent 6 of Old England back to the shed for 66.

But it was not political but meteorological oppression that was to dominate discussion around the ground as the second Test begun under heavy cloud and muggy swing-inducing humidity.  And it was not Lilley but another young pace man who was to dominate the play.

On that Thursday morning a light drizzle delayed the toss which was won by the dour, battleworn, pugnacious Tyke, Raymond Illingworth, who had lead England to an Ashes victory in Australia in 1970-71 and now, one up in the series, led a confident side.

Yet Australia were soon in the box seat with a 25 year old Western Australian, Bob Massie swinging the ball through Boycott’s defences with late movement.  Lillee trapped Edrich lbw and clean bowled Luckhurst to bring England to their knees at 28 for 3.

What Massie, a young man from Subiaco, Perth, made of this sticky, thick London atmosphere that gripped the ball and made it turn corners is hard to say.  Perhaps it took time for the lacquer to come off the ball and for his opening partner Lilley to get the differential polish on the ball.  Perhaps it took time for him to learn to exploit the swing – for a time he  experimented with bowling round the wicket to control the devastating movement.  But England, thanks to MJK Smith and our old friend Basil d’Oliviera took the score to 54 for 3 in the shortened first session of play and then, after lunch, on to 84.

The sun, masked by thick cloud, was now at its hottest, the atmosphere at its ‘closest’ and Massey gloried in the afternoon, trapping d’Oliveira with a slower ball and bowling Smith, only for Australia to be held up again, this time by the flamboyant Greig and the impish Knott.

Hair on Hair - Massie trims Snow's off stump. A follically challenged Gifford looks on.

It was by no means a rout.  Lilley bowled 28 overs in the innings, Massie 32.5.  The England batsmen showed their native skills but ultimately could not cope with the abnormally late movement.  Indiscrete shots by batsmen getting on as best they could led to the dismissals by Massie of Greig caught behind and Knott caught Colley.  The day ended with England 249 for 7 with only two overs left before a new ball could be taken.

Friday brought that new ball and Massie used it to remove the last three wickets.  Subiaco Man with figures of 8 for 84 walked up the pavilion steps, through the double doors into the Long Room to a standing ovation and, in those far off days, a well deserved hot bath and the merest trim of those whiskers.  

Back in the White House, Nixon and his Chief of Staff, Bob Haldeman forgot to turn the tape off.  The war in Vietnam continued for another three years.

For both Massie and Nixon the Test wasn’t over yet.

Glastonbury, Hambledon and a New Bowling Phenomenon

The trusty time machine has taken Third Man back to 1782.  It is late May and he is sitting at a table in the George at Hambledon, now kept by the redoubtable Richard Nyren, the best captain of the best cricket team in the world.  Or, as his son would later describe him, Hambledon’s ‘head and right arm’.

Nyren is a cricketing entrepreneur.  He is somewhere between a Michael Eves and a Richard Branson. If we are to imagine a fixture played at Broadhalfpenny Down at around this time, there is no better place for the imagination to start than with an image of a Glastonbury Festival; a temporary and tented city built for the enjoyment and entertainment of people from far and wide with all the impermanent infrastructure that is needed to feed and drink and relieve that huge transient community.

For a typical match 20,000 people descended on little Hambledon and camped on Broadhalfpenny Down, two miles outside the village.  They and their horses arrived hungry and thirsty from as far away as Reading, TonbridgeWells and, of course, London Town.  Such numbers needed the services of a city. Tents and pennants and banners advertised food and drink.  The Hutt (later renamed by the entrepreneur The Bat and Ball) was the centre of the hive of activity with fresh made bread and every type of provender.   Bookmakers and bat makers, punch sellers and pie makers set up their stalls.  Smiths and cartwrights set up temporary forges.  Dukes and Earls and Baronets with their VIP ‘all areas’ passes enjoyed exclusive access to the members’ Lodge with its covered seating and expensively covered chairs.

Nyren’s backers have made millions from their wagers won on the backs of the successful teams Nyren has formed and led for a quarter of a century while he himself has prospered from the faire he provides from The Bat and Ball, the commissions he skims from the stall holders and bookmakers, the share of the prize money and the wagers he has won, always backing Hambledon, no matter how dire the situation.  

“Never bet against men such as these,” he once told two members of the Quality with a fearlessness of rank and authority which were at the root of his success.

Nyren is in the process of creating a new venue, close and more convenient to the village, at Windmill Down, and although the wicket will take time to bed in he is already beginning to think highly of it.

Richard is there in person in the George this evening.  He is not serving, but is sitting with some ‘Quality’.  One is obviously a parson.  The others simply exude wealth, position and privilege.  Their talk is loud and indiscrete.

Third Man can make out that they have been playing in or watching a match at Odiham and are taking their ease after a three hour journey home.  The wine and punch is flowing.  Elsewhere the rest of the team are singing. 

But Third Man can see from the intensity of Nyren’s expression that he is in serious discussion. That day he thinks he has has witnessed something special, a new but as yet undeveloped talent, a bowler who with Nyren’s coaching in the new style of bowling could he believes achieve a steepness of bounce, an intimidation and an accuracy that no one in cricket will ever have encountered before.  To Nyren his potential is obvious.

“We must have ‘im for ‘Ambledon, for ‘Ampshire”

The pioneering stalwarts, his great team, are beginning to lose their edge.  If the success of the team and its ability to win big money is to continue, fresh blood must be brought in.  Like a Fergusson operating in the transfer market of today, Nyren and his backers are ruthless in the changes they must make.  

They are in the process of putting together their second great team.  The cream of cricket from Sevenoaks to Dartford awaits the invitation from Nyren. But there that evening the big decision is made.  They are agreed.  This new team will be built around an unknown and a raw and as yet undeveloped talent with the potential pace and bounce to be the scourge of batsman for twenty years.  This new team will be built around David Harris and his extraordinary action.

Crikey it’s 50+ Cricket Consternation

There appears to be dismay and alarm in the normally tranquil world of over 50s cricket.  These brave boys represent their County Boards throughout the season, hacking hell out of each other on a Sunday afternoon for the glory of … yes, a Lord’s Final.

Sponsored by Simvastatin, the sheer majesty of the event, with Motobility scooters parked along the concourse overlooking the McCarthy and Stone Nursery, brings tears to sentimental eyes.

Latest High Tech Ice Treatment as demostrated in the Tented Village at the ECB Over 50s Championship Final

A tented community mushrooms overnight for the sale of athletic supports, embrocation, steroids, retirement homes and discrete escort services. Leslie Philips leads communal singing of Sweet Virginia and other old Rocker favourites.  Pony tails and earings abound as the last of the baby boomers come to terms with their end of youth crisis.

But lo, news has reached Third Man that the 44 members of this year’s semi-final teams have got wind.  They have got wind that their prized ‘Lord’s final’ is to be held in the back field of the Lord Derby public house thanks to the sheer alleged  treachery of Giles Clarke, who is to blame what a lightning conductor is to … lightning.

The Hon Sec of Somerset’s 50 Plusers has fired off a letter to the said Clarke (copy below for those with sufficient stamina to read on).

Could this really be the Surrey Over 50s before changing into their 'Browns'?

Sadly the old timers may have become slightly confused in their twilight world of sagging medium term memories.  As this programme   from last year’s final records, the competition has been played since 1984 and of the 26 previous finals only one,  that of 2008, had taken place on the hallowed Nursery at Lord’s.  

However, those who follow the journeys, explorations and ramblings of Third Man will agree that a man like Mr Clarke every now and then needs to receive a letter from the grass greyroots of the game.  It reads:

Mr Giles Clarke, Chairman of the Board Marylebone Cricket Club, Lords, St Johns Wood, London  (typical EOD confusion of roles here – TM)

Dear Mr Clarke

Firstly may I comment that I have seldom written to someone in such high office that has not been ennobled or, at the very least, received a knighthood. I am sure that this oversight will be remedied come Her Majesty’s birthday honours list.

You may remember me, I once offered my services to one of your former employees, Pete M, who didn’t even give me the courtesy of a reply. And I made a particular mention of my NVQ level 2 in coaching and leadership. Water under the bridge, let’s not dwell on the past as it is the near future that I wish to discuss with you.

When Somerset Over 50s set out on the journey to Lords, I, and I think I can speak for the rest of the squad, made the assumption that the final would be at Lords. I am hearing ugly rumours that the venue for the final may now be held at Derby. The reason put forward is that, too much cricket is being played at Lords. As  honorary Assistant Groundsman at Baltonsborough Cricket Club (Somerset Shrubbery Hotel League Division 5 winners 2009), I know the work load requires total commitment. We’ve got the Baltonsborough Show this weekend, and last year our Chairman got pissed and somehow set fire to the wicket. I bet Mike Hunt hasn’t had to contend with that one, well not since George Innocent Davis got banged up anyway. 

Now, although it is not in my gift to get you into the squad for the final, we’ve got a friendly coming up and I could have a word with Captain Ashbon. ( By the way, I had a look at your web site and note that there are 16 on the Cricket Committee, 12 on the Board, 6 on the Audit Committee, 3 on the Commercial Committee and 3 more on the Remuneration Committee, I’m staggered that any decisions get made with that lot. It must be like herding cats) . Paul Ashbon is a member of the M.C.C. and I only mention his name so that you can interrogate your data base to find out just how important he really is. You may find him under Ashton, he briefly adopted the ‘T’ to get his Equity Card.

Mrs S would also be grateful for a final in St Johns Wood. As a loyalty gold card holder at Matalan, she has been invited to the “In Store Cava and Brown Buffet” opening of their new store at Brent Cross. It’s being opened by Ken Barlow off Coronation Street, I don’t know his real name, but she’s really keen on him, more so than the clothes if I’m a good judge.

If you can swing it for the over 50s final to be held at Lords we have only a few requests to make the occasion complete:

1. My Gloucester Old Spot, Rita, will need a farrowing pen as her ‘confinement’  is due to end that weekend.

2. Don’t go to any trouble with any of your fancy wines, we always bring our own Natural Dry “On The Levels” cider.

3. Do you have any advice (a pamphlet would be nice) on areas where we can pick a good fight?

4. Please ask Mick to leave some grass on the wicket, the bowlers could do with the help, and the batters just twat it.

5. If you’re looking to change your motor, just give me a call.

6. I would like to pitch my yurt on the Saturday before, I trust the lavvies will be open.

Sir Giles, I know you’ll do your best. Don’t delegate this to anyone. If you can sort a bung for yourself by selling the TV rights to Sky, then fair play to you. I wont mention it.

Yours truly,  AS, “Nice Areas”, M3 Corridor of Uncertainty, BA1 1NO

Swann and Smiley’s Way – the Search for Lost Time

Graeme Swann is an old fashioned off-spinner.  His action as illustrated in the stills above produces lots of rotations on the ball giving a high probability of turn.  This allows him to aim the ball to pitch wide of the off-stump with the intention of letting any resulting turn challenge the inside edge of the right hander’s bat as this film of a Swann delivery to Ponting illustrates.

But this film also reveals a slight ‘wobble’ on the ball as it spins slightly out of the line of its axis.  Amercian quarter-backs reckon that this wobble helps their throwing accuracy.  

In cricket it also provides the bowler with random variations that affect the degree of resulting turn.   Depending on how much of the wobbling seam makes contact with the pitch, the ball’s sideways movement can range from the prodigious of the sharply turning delivery to the minimal of the ‘arm ball’ that skids onwards along the line of the incoming ball this time to challenge the outside of the right-hander’s bat.   Wobble also randomly affects the direction and extent of any drift, dip and bounce.

With a typical ball from Swann pitching a long way outside the line with off stump, a batsman finds it hard to control the ball with the sweep shot.  Subtle variations of flight deter him coming out of the crease to the pitch of the ball.  A lap towards cow corner is discouraged by a fielder placed there.  (A boundary fielder can be as much attacking as a short-leg.) 

Midwicket is positioned on a line with the bowler’s crease and a few pitch widths across from the wicket to stop any pressure relieving single.  The scoring option is a cover drive but this must be played against the rotations of the fast spinning ball. This is what Ponting attempts but fails to achieve in the YouTube clip.

These physical and tactical skills have taken Swann over a dozen years to hone – years exploring a lost art – a Search for Lost Time – as can be followed on these two further clips.  

In this winter’s Ashes series, Swann and England have tried to add the threat of a ‘Special Ball’ which moves away from the right hander because of the different direction of rotations to his normal ball.  Whether the England spinner has this delivery at Brisbane and, if he has, when he decides to use it will be the subject of bluff and counter bluff that makes Watson’s mental assault on Finn look as crude and thuggish as it is.

Swann and England’s psychological assault on the Australian batsmen, begun months ago with carefully leaked and indiscrete remarks about a ‘dousra’, is worthy of a John le Carre novel.

How fast did they bowl on Broadhalfpenny Down?

What would it have been like to face Thomas Brett, Hambledon CC’s first strike bowler in the 1750s?  Or the daemon David Harris later in the century when he was aiming at a helpful bump on a ‘length’ on a pitch he’d carefully selected ?

Forget the idea of the sedate approach to the wicket and the arm trundled down with a slight whip of the wrist. Their deliveries would have been ‘full on’ underarm bowling from people who had spent their lives as labourers, potters and smiths.    

If the above photograph of the Olympic Softball star, Jenny Finch, is anything to go by their method of delivery would have been built on a huge delivery stride and a perfected body and wrist action that produced speeds of around ninety miles per hour; no doubt with a huge and intimidating grunt to rival that of any Wimbledon server of today.

Still images of Jenny Finch give an idea of the athleticism, skill and speed, but this film of her by Sport Science on YouTube (below) shows her in action and reveals the extent of the force generated by her ‘bowling’ at 70 mph with pinpoint accuracy.

Third Man suggests you drag quickly to 45 seconds for shots of Jenny in competitive action before moving on to 4 minutes, 20 seconds to see her in the ‘lab’.  

There is also some interesting analysis comparing the difficulties faced by baseball and softball hitters.

On Top of the World – Bashing Out A Cricket Thriller Thanks to Road Builder Blind Jack Metcalf

 

Some find Baxenden Cricket Ground hard to reach - others revel in its lofty location.

Clitheroe still tops the Ribblesdale League after a dramatic tie against the 2009 champions, Baxenden, known in these parts as Bash.  Both sides may have felt disappointed with the result, but ‘at the end of the day cricket won’.

Clitheroe had made another solid start, not losing a wicket until 96, but could manage a total of only 154 which against a batting line up that included Babar Naeem and Ian  ‘Oscar’ Austin looked inadequate even on a wicket that seamed extravagantly throughout the day.  

But then Bash got off to a shocker when four of their batsmen were back in the shed for 15.

The village of Baxenden is high on the moors and those wishing to see any cricket must climb further along a steep lane to reach the ground at over 300 m above sea level.

It can be bleak here, but, on a relatively fine and warmish day like yesterday it is an airy perch with an open, stimulating ‘good to be alive’ feel.  To the north the view opens to the Yorkshire Dales and their Three Peaks; to the West, Pendle Hill and the Bowland Fells dominate; to the East, the Pennine uplands seem to go on forever, and to the south the great expanse that holds Manchester spreads into the distance.

Rain is never a surprise here.  It can be seen approaching from every quarter and it often does approach from every quarter … at once. Eventually this rain finds its way into Warmden Brook or Woodnook Water (left), which merge beneath Accrington before running into the River Hyndburn, that itself feeds the River Calder and in time joins the Ribble at Mitton.  

Brooks, streams, rivers must each in turn feel very proud of themselves until that is they turn in their beds and see the approaching oblivion into which their being is inevitably to be submerged.  Even the mighty Ribble, over-proud but naïve, is heading for the Irish Sea.

The old form of the village name, Bastanedenecloch, derives from bæc-stan meaning baking stone,  denu meaning valley and clōh meaning ravine.  And the village is the home of Holland Pies, which those taking tea in the club house will soon encounter.  There is no such thing as free sponsorship.

This is hill faming country but industry took a grip here when Blind Jack Metcalf o’ Knaresborough, the first of the professional road and turnpike builders to emerge during the industrial revolution, built one of his roads through the village in 1791.  Alongside this new road print works, mills and coal mines developed with their demands for housing for the growing workforce.  A cricket club was founded in 1868.

This is another tightly formed community with a loud, challenging and, by 7 o’clock when ‘Bash’ needed only three runs to win with four wickets remaining, well lubricated following. 

Their enthusiasm for dumping the league leaders was muted only slightly by a late fall of wickets and the linguistic assault on Clitheroe’s virtues continued, unabashed.

With one to win, two wickets in hand and seven balls remaining, number ten skied the ball and the inexperienced batsmen assayed a run, so that when the catch was taken the new batsman was left to face the last over and score the winning run. 

The first two balls from ‘Big Red’, Josh Marquet, once the fastest bowler in Australia, and still far too good for this Number 11, rapped the batsman’s pads.  As Clitheroe’s appeals resounded across the moorland, the home crowd’s contempt for these ‘cheating sons without fathers’ reached new heights of loathing.

But when the third ball smashed through the batsman’s feeble guard, leaving the match tied, the mood altered immediately to one of satisfaction that cricket had won and that they had all seen a good match which neither side deserved to win.

In such communities watching cricket is a pressure valve releasing tensions built over the week – and the months and years of structural economic decline.  It is not a pleasant sight (or sound) but to ignore it would be to turn ones back on reality.

Cats, Elephants and Flex Testing in Cricket

The cat is finally out of the bag.  At 12.30 yesterday on the third day of the third Test, Sky broadcast contrasting clips of the actions of Graeme Swann and Saeed Ajmal.  Under the direction of commentator and former umpire David Lloyd, the editor froze the action when their right arms were showing a quarter to three in their deliveries.

Lloyd said, “You see the bent arm of Saeed Amjal – it’s within the 15 degrees allowed by the law, it’s legal – this is the reason why Amjal can bowl the doosra and Swann can’t.”

And with this admission by a senior member of the commentariat (and without contradiction from any of his colleagues) the elephant had finally been acknowledged to have been in the room all the time.

The game of cricket has evolved a further step.  The Laws of Cricket had ‘jerked’ on to accommodate 15 degrees of flex in 2005 like a straightening arm catching up with practice and now, when sufficient time has passed to allow us to forget the strange anatomical and skeletal fictions that had previously been peddled before the amendment, everyone can be open and above board; The Special Ball Cannot Be Bowled, it Can Only Be Thrown, But That’s Legal.  

Anatomically the only way sufficient momentum can be given to a ball released with counter-clockwise rotations with the back of the hand facing the batsman is to jerk the arm straight from a bent position.  Provided that straightening is no more than from 15% of bend the ball is a legal delivery.  This flexing also allows more rotations to be placed on the ball for the clockwise ‘off-spinner’ (counter clockwise for ‘slow left armers’) as countless practitioners of erroneously called finger spin has known for many years; increasing dramatically the potential for drift, dip, turn and bounce.

When in May 2009 an ICC sponsored biomechanical report cleared Amjal’s action the ICC spokesperson was emphatic in stressing that the report “simply confirms that Ajmal is capable of bowling with an action which complies with ICC Regulations” and therefore  “whenever Ajmal bowls in a match in the future, his action will be under the scrutiny of the match officials”.

The spokesperson continued, “according to the ICC regulations, the match officials will use the naked eye to determine whether his action complies with the Laws of Cricket. The permitted degree of elbow extension is 15 degrees and the level of tolerance was set at the point at which such elbow extension will begin to become noticeable to the naked eye. Accordingly, any degree of extension which is visible to the naked eye must and will be reported.”

This of course provides the match officials with an enormously difficult challenge and the game will soon have to accept that a method of adjudicating each delivery will have to be implemented. 

At present the ICC maintains that beyond 15 degrees of flex the ‘the throw’ is visible to the naked eye, but most cricketers will continue to believe that a ‘throw’ can be spotted at degrees of flex lower than 15 degrees.  

Lloyd’s assertion that Amjal’s bent arm for that particular delivery is within the 15 degrees tolerance is exactly that; an assertion.  Big Cricket must now bring in technology to adjudicate on the degree of arm straightening by bowlers.  

Lovers of the game, many of whom still find it difficult to accept the 15 degree tolerance should nevertheless be supporting Shane Warne and Terry Jenner in their campaign for on field testing recently reported in the Daily Telegraph.

This is not the first time that forms of release have been experimented, perfected, performed, protested against, ignored, tolerated, accepted, and finally accommodated in the Laws of Cricket. 

In or around the 1750s Richard Nyren either before coming to Hambledon or soon after his arrival, (probably responding to the demands of ‘bowling’ against John Small (Snr) on practice nights), decided to raise his arm from the grubber ‘bowling position’ at the moment of release to somewhere around waist height – how awkward it must have felt and looked!  How vexing to the ‘legitimate’ bowlers from Slindon, Dartford and Sevenoaks!

It was twenty years later that Nyren’s apprentice, David Harris, took the action to its extreme, to terrorize the poorly protected batsmen of his day by jerking the ball out from a position under his armpit with a mixture of push and flick worthy of a juiced up East European shot-putter from the 1960s.

Again in the 1790s Tom Walker – Old Everlasting – practicing during winter in a barn worked out that he could generate even more pace and bounce than Harris by letting the arm swing out sideways in a ‘round arm’ fashion with the release at or around shoulder height.  

Cricketing authorities first banned the practice with a Law prohibiting ‘round arm’ bowling in 1816: The ball must be bowled (not thrown or jerked), and be delivered underhand, with the hand below the elbow. But if the ball be jerked, or the arm extended from the body horizontally, and any part of the hand be uppermost, or the hand horizontally extended when the ball is delivered, the Umpires shall call “No Ball”.

Gradually this form of bowling burrowed its way into the game and by 1826 Wm Lillywhite and Broadbridge were winning the County Championship for Sussex with round arm bowling.  Batsmen among the legislators were losing their rear-guard action against the practice and in 1835 the relevant part of the Law was amended to read: if the hand be above the shoulder in the delivery, the umpire must call “No Ball”. 

A voluntary code was soon made mandatory when in 1845 the umpire’s view of the incident was made final.  Ho! Ho!

Our story now moves on to the 26^th August 26, 1862 and The Oval where the England bowler Edgar Willsher deliberately bowled overarm to the Surrey batsmen.  In a foretastee of the 1995 Boxing Day Test, Willsher was no-balled six times in succession.  He and his eight fellow professionals in the England team then walked-off the ground in a suspiciously orchestrated protest.

This time the authorities rushed to catch up with practice and in 1864 amended the Laws to allow the bowler to bring his arm through at any height providing he kept it straight and did not throw the ball.

Strictly, cricketers stopped ‘bowling’ the ball the moment two hundred and sixty years ago when Richard Nyren ‘stood up’ to release the delivery, stopped bowling the ball (along the ground) and ‘pitched’ the ball at a length between himself and the batsman adding an extra dimension to the problems of striking a ball with a bat.

Innovation is driven by the tussle of ball and bat.  There are many social and political forces behind the acceptance or the prohibition of innovation but once acceptance has been codified a further difficulty arises over enforcement.   It is a truth universally acknowledged that an unenforced law is irrelevant to the actions and consciousnesses of those to whom the law is meant to apply.

In David Lloyd’s low key admission, yesterday, cricket admitted that it cannot stuff the cat back in the bag, but it has yet to shoot the elephant.

Kwik Cricket Festival for Flood Victims and Let’s Make it Inter-National

They always say, “Think Global Act Local”, so, thanks to the quick feet of Farouk Hussein, Clitheroe CC is doing exactly that by holding a Kwik Cricket Festival on September 1^st to raise funds for the victims of floods in Pakistan.

Reaching out to the 150 parents of 5 to 11 year old children who attend the regular Clitheroe Cobra  coaching nights, Farouk wrote, “You will have all witnessed the horrific devastation caused by the recent floods in Pakistan. People living in poverty have had their loved ones, their homes and livelihoods snatched cruelly from them. It is at times like this that we all begin to appreciate how fortunate we are and grateful for everything that we have.

“The DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee) are doing a terrific job in getting aid to the needy but funds are limited and they need all the support they can get.

“I have arranged for a Kwik Cricket Festival to take place – similar to our own annual event to raise funds for the DEC. All funds raised through entry fees and on the night as a result of Raffles / Auctions / BBQ will go directly to the DEC and no monies will be for the benefit of the club.”

Third Man hopes that Clubs everywhere can hold similar events before the end of the season.  In fact, what is to stop cricket clubs world-wide following this lead.  Think Global: Act International.  What a good lesson for us all.

The Disaster Emergency Committee’s web page is here.  And the Facebook group for Cricket Action for Pakistan Flood Vicitims is here.   

Thinking of lessons:  On the more mundane level:  Notts Under 17s thrashed Lancs U17s in a semi-final of the National 2 Day Championship.  

Notts made 432 in 93 overs on Wednesday with two batsmen making centuries another 85 and a fourth who coming in at No.4 made 45, but looked the best of the lot.  On day two, yesterday, the Lancashire ‘lads’ could muster only 245.

But Third Man feels that Lancashire will have learnt more from the experience.  Their ‘dispatch’ of weaker sides from Durham, Derbyshire and Cheshire, and their harrowing of Yorkshire before the rains saved the Tykes, had taught them little, or more precisely had taught them the wrong lessons.

It is a very odd thing but defeat often makes you stronger when victory always makes you weaker.

The Missing 5,000

Yesterday there were reported to be 5,000 unsold seats for the opening day of the Oval Test match – 5,000 empty seats.  This was said to be the first time since 1986 that Day One of an Oval Test had not been a ‘sell out’.

But the Missing 5,000 could be seen as a sharp symbol of the lives being lost in Pakistan on a day when the UN prepared to go into emergency session to boost international aid to flood victims and as the numbers of those showing early symptoms of cholera fuel concerns.

 The UN reports that it has raised just half of the $460m (£295m) needed for initial flood relief efforts and is concerned that the response remains slow.

The number of people in need of immediate assistance in Pakistan has now risen to eight million, but, according to the UN, fewer than a million of these have received basic supplies such as tents or plastic sheeting.

Cricketing Authorities should be counting the cost of letting the marketeers run the show.  They have missed two important tides in the affairs of man: the impact of the recession on people’s willingness and ability to pay and the opportunity for cricket to take a lead in raising funds for flood victims: using cricket to connect with those who are suffering.

As Peter Roebuck posted at Cricket Action for Pakistan Flood Victims http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=140319736005386  yesterday, “Sport can draw attention to the plight of millions and also assist them in practical ways as well as in morale.”

When a form of cricket cuts itself off from its community it rightly loses the support of that community.  Cricket, even Big Cricket, is a social phenomenon in every sense of the word.

But cricket can begin to reconnect by using its enormous power to raise the issue of aid, to raise cash and to raise morale among those most deeply affected.

The Disaster Emergency Committee’s web page is here.