McConnell reviews top Boutique Cricket books

It’s fair to say that of all the sports in the world the two that are most closely linked in their ability to produce countless stories are cricket and baseball.

Perhaps it is because of the pace at which the games are played, they are two of the longest team games in modern sport, and that slower-paced action – if you are not the New Zealand cricket team in the midst of a collapse – leaves time for reflection and story-telling.

Cricket’s library is immense and takes its place at various levels of intellectual challenge and market appeal. Often it is the vignettes that capture the imagination, away from the best sellers lists but appreciated just the same.

Australian boutique publisher Ron Cardwell has created his Cricket Publishing Company to capture some of those stories and this month’s column concentrates on two of them.

The first is The Team That Never Played which Cardwell wrote in association with Bill Francis, former cricket commentator in New Zealand who became a board member of New Zealand Cricket.

The story relates to the journey of the Otago University cricket team from Dunedin to Palmerston North to take part in the 1968 New Zealand Universities tournament. These are traditionally end-of-season trips in New Zealand, notable as much for the off-field student celebrations as for anything that takes place on the field.

But the on-field deeds are sufficient enough to contribute to the winning of University Blues if the achievements are suitable.

However, the 1968 Otago team, never made it to the tournament. They happened to make the link between New Zealand’s South and North Islands on the overnight ferry from Lyttelton to Wellington which on the night concerned happened to be TEV Wahine, a new roll-on roll-off vessel.

Around dawn as the ship neared the entrance to Wellington Harbour she became embroiled in a contest with a devastating storm force that hit the area forcing the ship onto rocks just inside the harbour entrance. As the sea roared for the remainder of the morning the ship remained at the mercy of the elements and unable to be tethered to supporting tugs that had come to her aid.

In the early afternoon the ship listed and the order to abandon ship was made. The Otago XI were among those forced into the sea and their story of survival becomes the focus of the book. Two players, Murray Webb and Murray Parker, would play Test cricket for New Zealand, while others would play first-class cricket.

It is a harrowing story that plays heavily on the minds of New Zealanders of the force of Mother Nature, a situation only reinforced with the earthquakes in Christchurch in 2010 and 2011, but also of the ways in which different people deal with crisis. Cricket is only one aspect of the story but it is a link that offers much in its brief read.

The Cricket Publishing Company has also released another book with a New Zealand flavour, The New Zealand Tour to England 1973, written by David Parsons.

Driven by an interest in this side which was at the forefront of New Zealand’s ascent up the world cricket ladder, Parsons has produced an eclectic look at the tour and its participants, right down to the impressions of some of the wives and girlfriends who travelled with the team.

Photograph Copyright : Getty Images

Why was the tour so significant? It came at the end of an intense period of development in New Zealand’s cricket. A year earlier the country made its first tour to the West Indies, playing out a winless five-Test series, but producing some outstanding batting from Glenn Turner and Bevan Congdon while also adding some outstanding individual performances from players like Bob Cunis, Bruce Taylor, Terry Jarvis, Graham Vivian and Ken Wadsworth.

That was followed by a home series against Pakistan before the England tour. Turner had been making his mark with Worcestershire in English county cricket while Congdon, Bruce Taylor, Richard Collinge and Victor Pollard were making their third tour of England and Turner, Burgess, Dayle Hadlee, Brian Hastings, Hedley Howarth and Wadsworth their second tour. They were an experienced bunch.

They would demonstrate that in two memorable Test matches, the first at Trent Bridge where having been dismissed for 97 in their first innings, and set a target of 479 to win, New Zealand made it to 440 before England could claim the win, although it might have been much closer.

Then, at Lord’s New Zealand dismissed England for 253 and posted 551-9dec to put the acid on the home side, which eventually played out for the draw. But in those two efforts a new steel had been demonstrated, especially from Congdon and Pollard who scored centuries in each of the Tests.

Add to that Turner’s achievement of 1000 runs by the end of May and it was clear the New Zealanders were well on the way up. A first Test victory over Australia would follow within months and with Richard Hadlee having benefited from his first major tour, the foundations for the great years of the 1980s were laid.

New Zealand cricketers of the modern era inevitably look back and wonder at the reverence with which the team to Britain of 1949 were held, and it is a fair thought, but the team of 1973 is right up there and got closer to Test success than the 49ers. Just how well they did as a team has been well captured by Parsons to ensure they are not forgotten.

Lynn McConnell – A tiring England attack and lackluster Aussie batting line-up – What does this mean for The Ashes?

Given the respective series played out in New Zealand and India by the Ashes protagonists, it is interesting to ponder what sort of cricket Australia and England will produce during their extended home and away series this year and next.

Neither would have returned home happy with their efforts.

Australia had their lack of batting depth, and lack of a top quality spinner exposed, by India while England’s feared pace merchants were unable to swing the ball to the extent managed by the home attack in New Zealand. They also found out that they have only Graeme Swann to head their spinning ranks.

It was interesting to see Aussie selection convener John Inverarity comment that the depth of Australia’s batting that had served it so well during the 1990s and 2000s was no longer there.

He was critical of the lack of consistent, prolific run-scorers in all forms of cricket.

“There has been an absence of that in recent years in club cricket, domestic interstate cricket, and international cricket, and that needs to be a real focus of coaching and development in Australia. That involves technique but mindset as well,” he said in a recent press conference.

He was echoing the words of Ricky Ponting a few years back when he said Australian batsmen were losing the art of concentration.

“Cricket for me, when I was growing up, if I was batting, it meant I was batting until someone got me out, and if that took them a week then that’s how long it took them,” he said.

Given the lack of attention span these days, Ponting would be lucky if there was anybody still playing with him after a week!

But England did show a degree of concentration among its players, notably, Ian Bell, Matt Prior and Stuart Broad when they needed to hold out to deny New Zealand a win in the final Test at Eden Park. And they do have a plucky batsman on the way up in Joe Root. Whether Nick Compton fits the bill remains to be seen.

Where the English have concerns is in their attack. Steven Finn shapes as a longer term prospect, especially having reduced his run-up, but concerns may not be too far away about how much longer James Anderson takes the new ball. Broad, also ended the tour looking a more likely protagonist and they will be hoping that Tim Bresnan regains his touch after injury.

However, as both teams ponder their resources, and Pakistan and New Zealand reflect on being dismissed in the 40s by South Africa, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Twenty20’s clutches are starting to make their presence felt and the batting skills of a modern generation of players are reflecting that lack of concentration.

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During the New Zealand-England series, the tale of the Team that Never Played, the Otago University side which was en route to the annual University Easter tournament when their inter-island ferry, the Wahine, sank in Wellington Harbour in 1968 was launched. (Review next month) But that and a book celebrating New Zealand’s 1973 tour of England, one of the key moments in New Zealand’s emergence as a fully-fledged Test nation, was launched with a reunion of the team in Wellington.

The books highlighted a little-known Australian boutique publishing enterprise, the Cricket Publishing Company, run by Ron Cardwell. This company has been quietly working away recording the nuts and bolts area of the game since 1979 and making a significant contribution to the game’s published lore. A look at the company’s website will demonstrate the breadth of topics published to date.

Both the books mentioned above will be reviewed next month.

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Wisden has also introduced a new publication, published quarterly, titled ‘The Nightwatchman’. It is available as an ebook for download but also in soft cover version. For more information visit the Wisden.com website.

But the ethos of the book which runs to 136 pages is to produce some longer form writing on cricket that has become less available in mainstream media. All aspects of cricket around the world appear to be the targets of the editors and the first volume makes an impressive beginning.