by John Wisden
DALVI, MADHAV MANGESH, who died on October 1, aged 87, made a remarkable start to his first-class career late in 1947, following innings of 81, 63 not out and 67 in a Bombay festival tournament with 150 not out on his Ranji Trophy debut, for Bombay against Sind, then hitting 143 against Maharashtra. Thus after four matches he averaged 168. He couldn’t keep that up, although he did score 110 in the 1948-49 Ranji Trophy final victory over Baroda. He lost his place in a strong side in the late 1950s, but reappeared as Vidarbha’s captain in 1961-62, making centuries in what turned out to be his last two first-class games before a car accident ended his playing career.
DHARMA, PANDIAN KUMAR, was found dead at his home in Chennai on June 20. He was 20, and had seemingly committed suicide. Dharma made two one-day appearances for Tamil Nadu, and the day before his death had been playing a club final at the Chidambaram Stadium, in which he was apparently disappointed to take only one wicket. “He was a promising youngster who turned into a fine all-rounder,” said Sridharan Sriram, the former Indian one-day player who was Dharma’s club captain.
DICK, IAN ROBINSON, died on September 5, aged 86. He captained the Western Australian Colts against the 1950-51 MCC tourists, and later that season played as a batsman against Queensland in what was to be his only state match, despite scoring nearly 9,000 runs for his club, South Perth. A gifted hockey player, Dick played for WA from 1946 to 1959, and represented Australia in all their internationals for a decade from 1948, captaining them in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, when he scored the first goal of the tournament. His brother, Alec, played once for WA in 1948-49, and he was a cousin of Alex Robinson, who also died in 2012.
FORMSTONE, GEORGE HAYNES, died on December 30, aged 81. Haynes Formstone, from Wrexham, devoted his life to cricket in Denbighshire, where he was honorary secretary for more than 50 years and rarely missed a game. A special match to celebrate his half-century was staged at Brymbo in July 2006.
FORTE, Major JOHN KNOX, MBE, who died on August 9, aged 96, kept cricket alive in Corfu, where he was the British vice-consul from 1958 to 1971. His initiatives included an appeal to readers of the Daily Telegraph, which produced 50 bats and 350 balls, and a pleasant history of cricket on the island, Play’s the Thing, in 1988. This included tales of a batsman who was a heavy scorer, even though his ample stomach forced him to bat one-handed, and an unsuccessful attempt to introduce women’s cricket, which was soon banned by the military governor after a lady batsman was smacked on the nose by a bouncer. By 2012 there were 14 cricket clubs in Greece, 11 of them on Corfu. Forte (pronounced “Fort”) also produced several travel books and guides, which helped popularise the island as a holiday destination. As a 15-year-old Bradfield schoolboy, he had taken two for four at Lord’s.
FUARD, MOHAMED ABDAL HASSAIN, died on July 28, aged 75. Abu Fuard was a prime mover behind Sri Lanka’s push for Test status: he enlisted the help of prominent politicians, including the cabinet minister Gamini Dissanayake, who joined the national cricket board and added gravitas to the Sri Lankan delegation at the ICC. Sri Lanka finally became a Test-playing country in 1981-82 – “the greatest day in the life of Abu Fuard”, according to his friend, the journalist Elmo Rodrigopulle. As a player, Fuard had been a tall, canny off-spinner, armed with what would probably now be called a doosra. In April 1961 he impressed the Australian team en route for England, dismissing Bill Lawry and Bob Simpson; their captain, Richie Benaud, said he wished he could take Fuard with him for the Ashes. In all, he represented Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) for 15 years, taking six for 31 for the Board President’s XI against an International XI, composed mainly of English county players, in March 1968. He was Sri Lanka’s manager/coach at the inaugural World Cup in 1975, and assistant manager for the next one, in 1979, when they beat India; he was also in charge when Sri Lanka won their first Test, against India in Colombo in September 1985. Fuard had a ten-year spell as a national selector, for a while chairing the panel, and was also instrumental in redeveloping grounds – particularly the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy – to make them suitable for international cricket.
GAUNT, RONALD ARTHUR, died on March 30, aged 78. Red-haired and robust, Ron “Pappy” Gaunt – whose nickname came from the American bantamweight boxer “Pappy” Gault – was arguably the cream of the crop of fast bowlers who made life miserable for visiting batsmen on the peppery Perth pitch in the second half of the 1950s. Broad-shouldered and unrelenting, he had a smooth action which hid a wicked bumper among his customary outswingers. John Rutherford, Western Australia’s first home-grown Test cricketer, remembered him as “fit as a bull and the quickest bowler in the state team of his time”. He recalled the 20-year-old Gaunt’s first match, against Queensland in 1955-56, when he bowled Neil Harvey’s older brother, Mick, with a lightning full toss which sent stumps and bails hurtling towards the keeper. The following season he cut a swathe through New South Wales at Sydney: a career-best seven for 104 was made up exclusively of Test players. As a left-handed batsman, he generally aimed to hit the ball as hard as he could in the arc between long-on and midwicket; occasionally it worked, and he took 20 off an over of Ian Crowden’s off-breaks at Hobart in 1961-62.
But it was Gaunt’s misfortune to be competing for a Test spot with Alan Davidson, Ray Lindwall, Ian Meckiff and Graham McKenzie: his three caps were spread over six years. Called to South Africa as an injury replacement in 1957-58, he bowled Dick Westcott in his first over at Durban, but had to wait nine hours for his next success, eventually removing the somnolent Jackie McGlew. A side strain robbed him of a month’s cricket early in the 1961 tour of England, but good form later on, including six for 50 against Somerset, earned him a chance in the final Test at The Oval, where he removed Raman Subba Row, Ted Dexter and Ken Barrington. John Arlott enthused that Gaunt “made the ball dart and dive about like a swallow chasing flies”. And finally, at Adelaide in 1963-64, after being flayed by Eddie Barlow and Graeme Pollock, Gaunt rebounded by dismissing Colin Bland and Peter Carlstein in successive overs. These three appearances, plus two second-string tours of New Zealand were scant reward for his talents.
In 1960 Gaunt, who worked as a sales representative for Walpamur Paints, took his colour cards across the Nullarbor Plain to Melbourne, in search of further employment and cricket opportunities. There he cut his run-up significantly – and his pace slightly – without reducing his effectiveness, and became an important element of the Victorian attack for four seasons. He remained a significant influence at the Footscray club, where his wise advice helped shape four future Australian bowlers in Alan Hurst, Merv Hughes, Colin Miller and Tony Dodemaide, who praised Gaunt’s “patient and knowledgeable” skills as a coach.
GHOSH, HAROLD, who died on January 17, aged 75, had a long career in Indian domestic cricket, which stretched from December 1951, when he was 15, until 1974-75. Initially a left-arm spinner, Ghosh became a solid left-hand batsman who made four Ranji Trophy centuries, the highest an undefeated 166 for Railways against a Delhi side including the young Bishan Bedi, on Christmas Day 1965. The nearest he came to representative honours were two matches for North Zone against touring teams in the 1960s.
GIBSON, DAVID, died on June 7, aged 76. Tall, well-built and able to generate pace and bounce from a rhythmic run-up and a side-on action that made the purists purr, David Gibson had what it took to become a fast bowler at the highest level. He was useful with the bat, too, and his athletic movement around the field hinted at a man who had represented England schools’ rugby XVs at full-back. But Gibson’s career was stalled at a key moment by a knee injury, and he was never quite the same bowler. Instead, he became a respected coach, all the while leaving former Surrey team-mates to wonder what might have been. The full promise of Gibson, who hailed from Mitcham, was underlined on his Championship debut, at the age of 21, against Gloucestershire at Bristol in July 1957. He took ten for 132 but, such was Surrey’s strength in the year of a sixth successive title, that he played just once more that summer; they were match figures he would never be
tter.
He made a more substantial contribution in 1958, deputising when illness sidelined Alec Bedser. He claimed 37 wickets, and came to the fore as Surrey began to rebuild when their years of domination ended. In 1960, Gibson took 90 wickets at 17, including seven for 26 against Derbyshire at The Oval. It remained his career-best, and earned him his county cap. There were 95 wickets in 1961, when he was in with a chance of international recognition. “The selectors were certainly looking closely at him after those two outstanding seasons,” said Micky Stewart. But he suffered his first serious knee injury in 1962, and attention switched elsewhere. He recovered sufficiently to have another magnificent season in 1965, taking 86 wickets at 20 and scoring 996 runs at 34. Against Leicestershire at The Oval he was bowled by Peter Marner two short of what would have been his only first-class century. “He had the ability to bat at six or seven if he had really wanted to,” said Stewart. Further knee trouble in 1966, however, more or less put paid to his career. There were just a handful of appearances thereafter, including a remarkable performance for the Second Eleven at Guildford in 1969, when he finished with figures of 16.4–10–13–10 as Sussex were skittled for 35. Bob Willis and Robin Jackman remained wicketless.
Gibson nicknamed “Hoot” in tribute to an American cowboy actor called Hoot Gibson, retired at the end of that summer, after taking 552 wickets at 22 in 185 matches, and scoring 3,143 runs at almost 19. He had already taken MCC coaching qualifications and, at the behest of Stewart, the county’s new cricket manager, he returned to The Oval in 1979 as county coach. Stewart said: “He was very good technically with bowlers – excellent at getting the information across in a way that could be understood.” Later, Gibson emigrated to Australia and moved to Bowral. One day in 2007, he arrived at the Bradman Museum and offered his services, mentioning that he “knew a bit about the game”. He became a popular guide, and a kindly coach to children visiting the nets. “We were honoured to have such a distinguished Pommy in our midst,” said the curator David Wells. “Ill health forced his withdrawal from volunteering, but he did manage to attend the opening of the International Cricket Hall of Fame in November 2010, and I vividly remember him proudly wearing his Surrey blazer.”
GIFFORD, JOSHUA THOMAS, MBE, who died on February 9, aged 70, was a giant in British horse racing. In the first half of his career, Josh Gifford was champion National Hunt jockey on four occasions; in the second, he became one of racing’s most successful trainers, for ever associated with the storybook triumph of Aldaniti in the 1981 Grand National. Yet visitors to Gifford’s yard in Findon, on the Sussex Downs, were often left wondering if he hadn’t chosen the wrong sport. There were cricket pictures on the walls of his home, cricket books on the shelves, and a faithful dog called Sobers. He regretted, he said, not making more of the talent he showed as a boy and, although a batsman, remained proud of dismissing Brian Lara in a charity match. He had his own wandering XI and, every September, Alan Lee – the former cricket correspondent of The Times who now covers racing – took a team to the lovely sloping ground at Findon, where Gifford was by turns cussed opening batsman and generous host. “Despite being so late in the season,” said Lee, “the sun shone every time for 21 years.”
GLASGOW, CARL VIDAL, who died on March 23, aged 69, was secretary and legal adviser to the Windward Islands Cricket Board for many years, and managed the Windward Islands team. Julian Hunte, the West Indies board president, called him “one of the stalwarts of cricket development in these islands”.
GODSON, ALFRED THOMAS, died on May 4, aged 94. Fred Godson umpired 29 first-class matches, all at the Adelaide Oval, between 1961-62 and 1973-74. In November 1969, it was the genial Godson and his fellow umpire Col Egar who recalled John Inverarity (now Australia’s chief selector) after he was bowled by an abruptly deviating ball from Greg Chappell in a Sheffield Shield match between South Australia and Western Australia. A swallow was found near the pitch; the umpires called dead ball for the dead bird; Inverarity resumed his innings, and took his score from nought to 89.
GOURLEY, IAN, who died on December 7, 2012, aged 70, was a stalwart of the Woodvale club in Belfast. For some years he was treasurer of the Irish cricket board, and also served as chairman and president of the Northern Cricket Union in Ulster.
GOVENDER, JUGOO, who died on September 6, aged 74, was an off-spinning all-rounder and fine slip fielder who played 42 matches now considered first-class, mainly for Natal’s non-white side in the 1970s. He scored 74 against Eastern Province in February 1978, after taking five for 27 against Transvaal in the previous match. Govender, who became a headmaster, was also a talented footballer.
GREGG, DONALD MALCOLM, died on September 26, nine days after his 88th birthday. He made his debut for South Australia, aged 30, on Christmas Day 1954, having lost his youth to war: he was 25 before he played top-grade club cricket in Adelaide. Although he lacked real speed, he was accurate, and his ability to swing the ball late both ways helped him to three five-fors, the best of them five for nine in South Australia’s inaugural match against Tasmania, in 1956-57. He had an admirer in Bill O’Reilly, who praised him for bowling “tenaciously” and “carrying the fight right up to the batsman”. He was a member of the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service for nearly 50 years.
GREIG, ANTHONY WILLIAM, died on December 29, aged 66. For a brief few years in the mid-1970s, Tony Greig was arguably the leading all-rounder in Test cricket – a belligerent middle-order batsman capable of match-turning hundreds, a wicket-taking bowler (in two styles) who bristled with attacking intent, and a magnificent fielder in any position. By 1975, he was pouring those attributes into gung-ho leadership of England. Throw in his iridescent stage-presence, and it is easy to see why he was talked of as cricket’s first superstar.
Greig’s on-field credentials are worth re-establishing, for in the decades that followed his sensational defection to Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket in 1977, they were easily overlooked. Instead he was recast as the man who preferred the Australian dollar to the England captaincy, the rebel who led a sport towards enslavement by television, and the broadcaster who coarsened the art of commentary. Typical was Daily Mail columnist Quentin Letts’s scabrous piece on him in his 2009 book 50 People Who Buggered Up Britain. Perhaps he was resented the more for being the harder to pin down: he was raised in South Africa, but played for England; embraced as a commentator in Australia, having been lionised as a player in India; and loved in Sri Lanka for his unfailing endorsement of the island and their cricketers.
Greig was born in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape to a Scottish father and South African mother. His was an archetypal white middle-class South African upbringing (although his parents were liberal in matters of race), and a young Greig barely paused for breath between games of cricket, tennis and rugby. At home he played cricket for hours with “Tackies”, the family gardener, who had an inexhaustible appetite for bowling. The only blot on a sunny landscape was epilepsy, first revealed when he collapsed playing tennis aged 14. In the main, Greig managed to control the illness for the rest of his life.
He attended the local Queen’s College, a favourite winter destination for Sussex cricketers, who returned to Hove with glowing reports. It was the influence of Mike Buss that secured a trial, and Greig set off for the south coast soon after his first-class debut for Border in February 1966, aged 19. Opportunities were rationed, but he made a century in each innings for Colonel L. C. Stevens’ XI against Cambridge University at Eastbourne, and took three West Indian wickets for A. E. R. Gilligan’s XI at Hastings. Sussex offered him a contract and, with some reluctance, his father heeded Greig’s pleas to put cricket before a place at a South African university. Permission came with a proviso: he had four years to reach the top. It was a mission that began spectacularly on his Championship debut, against Lancashire at Hove in May 1967. Coming to the wicket with Sussex 34 for three against an attack led by Brian Statham and Ken Higgs, he made 156, showing scant regard for the principles of early-
season batting in England. Two months later, he took eight for 25 against Gloucestershire.
He passed 1,000 runs and 50 wickets in each of his first three seasons with Sussex and, if centuries and five-fors proved elusive, his true qualities transcended statistics – an unshakable confidence, a desire to attack in any situation, and a talent for inspiring those around him. At 6ft 7½in, and strikingly blond, he also exuded charisma. “He was just so different,” said team-mate Peter Graves. “He had that boyish exuberance. And he was noisy.”
By 1970, Greig had completed his residency and – while his former countrymen embarked on their 22-year exile – was selected for England against the Rest of the World at Trent Bridge. Characteristically undaunted, he took four for 59 on his first day in international cricket, then hit two of his first three balls for four. But he was less successful at Edgbaston and Headingley, and was dropped for the final match. His next career boost came from an unlikely source. Garry Sobers was leading a Rest of the World squad to Australia in 1971-72 and, when Mike Procter withdrew, he suggested to Don Bradman, overseeing the tour, that Greig should take his place. Arriving in Adelaide, Greig survived a mortifying moment when he palmed off his luggage on the bespectacled, cardigan-wearing figure who greeted him. Only later did he twig: the bagman was Bradman. But it was a successful trip. Greig played in all five of the unofficial Tests and, by the time the Australians arrived in England in 1972, the selectors gave him another chance.
Greig was a ray of light in the First Test at a gloomy Old Trafford, top-scoring twice, with 57 and 62, taking four wickets, and exciting Jack Fingleton: “Greig was an outstanding success, proving himself England’s best all-round gain in years.” Thereafter, his performances were less eye-catching, but further mature displays came that winter in India. At Delhi, he shared a Christmas Day stand of 101 with his captain Tony Lewis, helping England to victory; at Calcutta, he took his first Test five-wicket haul; at Bombay, he made his first century. “We sat down for a long chat over a glass of wine at the end of the tour,” Lewis said. “One thing we had in common was that we were both always looking ahead of the game, not back on it. We both believed in trusting your luck and obeying your gut instinct.”