The Shorter Wisden 2013 (32 page)

The highlight of Christie’s cricket year was the sale of Victor Trumper’s collection of photos from the 1909 Australian “confines of lunacy” tour of England
(Trumper’s last), plus a few images from 1902. The album was a gift from the tour manager, Frank Laver. The winning bid was £13,000.

In an Olympics-crazy year, any mention of a gold medal guaranteed attention. Graham Budd Auctions (in association with Sotheby’s) sold “a rare and historic gold medal presented by
the Melbourne Cricket Club” to the English cricketer E. F. S. Tylecote to commemorate the first Ashes series in 1882-83. It fetched £3,000 in May.

As 2012 drew to a close, Mullock’s three-day, 2,560-lot sale at Ludlow found a lone bidder competing against an absent opponent to secure one of the scarcest of all
Wisdens
. The
1875 edition carried an estimate of £2,000–£3,000. From the podium, John Mullock nursed the bidding carefully, increasing the total by small amounts. Gradually the would-be
purchasers dropped out, leaving the auction-room warrior – watched closely by his anxious partner beside him – together with his unknown online adversary.

The hush was tangible, the tension crackling. Nearly ten minutes had passed since bidding began: “£12,000… 12,200… 400… 600… 800…
£13,000…” And still it went on… The pause before the next figure was offered grew longer from both sides. Mullock’s gavel was about to descend. The online bidder had
waited too long. Everybody in the room was about to cheer, when – in the nick of time – another bid came over the ether. “£18,800… £18,800… for the third
time, £18,800. Going once, going twice…” Crash! The room bidder’s arm had dropped. The price had gone too far, and a murmur of sympathy went round. But who
was
the
winner? It turned out to be a private collector in Australia, so there was a degree of satisfaction for some that the contest had been between two individuals and did not involve a corporate body.
For lovers of cricketana – and spectacle – such a titanic struggle is what auctioneering is all about.

CRICKET AND THE WEATHER, 2012

P
HILIP
E
DEN

When I remarked in these pages last year that “sooner or later… a very wet April and May is bound to come along”, I little realised it was round the corner.
May’s rainfall was actually close to the average, but April, June and July were all exceptionally wet. Indeed, both April and June set records, and in rainfall statistics for England and
Wales that date back to 1766 there is no other instance of two record months occurring in the same year.

According to the Wisden Summer Index (see
Wisden 2004
for the exact formula), this was the worst summer since 1987 and the ninth-worst since 1900. The total rainfall for May to August,
averaged over England and Wales, was the third-highest recorded and the highest since 1917. The number of dry days, meanwhile, was the fourth-lowest, and the lowest since 1924. Flooding, however,
was less widespread than in 2007, because the rain in 2012 tended to be spread out over longer periods, whereas five years before it was concentrated into single days. Temperatures, although
subdued, were not especially low; similarly, the number of sunshine hours was consistently poor – though again nowhere near a record. We should, perhaps, be thankful for small mercies.

The English season began earlier than ever, with the first university matches being played on March 31, but ended early too: the previous ten had all extended beyond September 16. Frustratingly,
March had been a dry month with an unequalled spell of warmth and sunshine towards its end. The rains, though, had already set in by the time the Championship started on April 5, and practically
every match scheduled during April was seriously interrupted. In two instances, at The Oval and at Bristol, four-day games were wholly washed out.

May 17 marked the beginning of a dry fortnight – and the start of the Test series against West Indies. The First Test was played under cloudy skies with a cold wind, but the Second, which
finished a day early on May 28, was warm and sunny throughout. The Third, in mid-June, was strafed by frequent rain.

There were further dry interludes in late-July, coinciding with the First Test against South Africa, while August was largely dry and rather warm in East Anglia and South-East England; other
parts of the country were much less fortunate. The first ten days of September were also dry and warm, before the weather tailed off.

The meteorological statistics, averaged over England and Wales, for the 2012 season, were:

Each summer has slightly different regional variations, though in most years northern and western counties are cooler, cloudier and damper than those in the east and south. The
Wisden Summer Index compares the summer county by county. In essence, an index over 650 indicates a good summer; one below 500 a poor one. Values for the summer of 2012 against the average for the
standard reference period of 1981–2010 were:

The bad weather during 2012 was spread fairly evenly across the country, with every county recording a deficit of 116 or more. Yorkshire, Hampshire, Essex, Middlesex and Surrey
had the lowest deficits, while Durham and Somerset had the largest. Only four counties scored above 500, while three scored below 400, with Durham’s 342 comfortably the lowest.

Taking a national view, 2012’s index of 455 was 127 points below the year before, and 48 lower than 2007 – the previous worst of the 2000s. The last six summers, 2007–2012,
represent the poorest run since 1977–82.

CRICKET PEOPLE

A
LI
M
ARTIN

Simon Taufel
does not like the word “retirement”. He insisted upon its removal from the media release announcing his decision to step down from the
ICC Elite Panel of Umpires. The 41-year-old Taufel instead “moved on” to become ICC Umpire Performance and Training Manager after 13 years, 74 Test matches, 174 one-day internationals
and 34 Twenty20s. For much of that time, he was widely regarded as the best umpire in the world.

A reputation for accuracy, and an ability – according to his friend and fellow Australian umpire Daryl Harper – to turn the panel’s workshops into “Simonars”, make
his next step a logical one. “I have a passion for development and helping others achieve their goals,” says Taufel, who intends to spend more time with his wife and their three
children. The Lahore terrorist attack on March 3, 2009, in which six policemen and two civilians were killed midway through a Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, changed his outlook. Part of the
convoy of players and officials ambushed by gunmen near the Gaddafi Stadium, Taufel witnessed the death of his driver, Zafar Khan.

“He was simply taking some people to a Test match, and then his wife and children lose him for ever,” he reflects. “That is just not fair. There were lessons for cricket to
learn that day, sure, but for me it was about more than that. Life and families are precious.”

Five Umpire of the Year awards from 2004 to 2008 demonstrate the respect commanded by Taufel, who made his international debut at Sydney in January 1999 and stood down after October’s
World Twenty20 final in Colombo. Alastair Cook even apologised to him once after a day’s play for referring one of his decisions, despite Cook being proved correct. Taufel recognises that the
Decision Review System helps the dialogue between players and officials, as well as the chance to improve the accuracy of umpires: “We used to deal in centimetres, now it’s
millimetres.”

And his favourite decisions? Taufel is especially proud to have had the “courage and knowledge of Law” to give Inzamam-ul-Haq out obstructing the field in a one-day international
between Pakistan and India at Peshawar in February 2006. He also mentions working with Billy Bowden and TV official Ian Gould to rule that Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews had turned a potential
six into a three with an astonishing piece of fielding on the boundary during a 2009 World Twenty20 match at Trent Bridge. A former seamer in Sydney’s Northern Suburbs, Taufel hopes others
are encouraged to take up what is now a full-time profession; his 13 years as an umpire were juggled with a job in the printing industry. He says: “When it came to finishing, I always aimed
to have people ask ‘why did you?’ rather than ‘why don’t you?’ If people talk about my time and the subject of umpiring positively, then I’m
satisfied.”

“A labour of hate” is how
Jim Cumbes
jokingly describes the legally fraught redevelopment of Old Trafford, from a rundown but historic ground to a striking modern
venue that hosts an Ashes Test in 2013. Having retired in December after 25 years at Lancashire – as commercial manager, then chief executive – Cumbes is proud of his legacy, and the
battle won to get there.

A dual sportsman from 1965 to 1982, he bowled seam for four first-class counties, and was a top-flight goalkeeper in England and North America. Reflecting on his most illustrious opponents, he
verges on blasphemy: “Pelé was just a magically dynamic attacking player, but I think George Best edged him. He was good enough to star anywhere on the pitch.”

Cumbes was approached by Tranmere Rovers, West Bromwich Albion and Worcestershire for commercial-manager roles as his playing career drew to a close. New Road appealed most, only for
Worcestershire chairman Ralph Matkin to pass away on the morning they were due to discuss the matter. But the offers he was receiving meant Cumbes felt “someone was trying to tell me
something”, and he played on for a season as Warwickshire’s Second XI captain in 1982 in tandem with commercial duties, before going full-time during five years of off-field success
that prompted Lancashire’s interest.

“I was the only county commercial manager, and my approach was simple: try new things and repeat those that worked,” he says. He became chief executive in 1998, and would test out
his level-headed outlook during an arduous legal battle in 2011, in which the owners of the nearby White City retail park called for a judicial review into the £70m redevelopment of Old
Trafford and the surrounding area. Cumbes and Lancashire, who had pressed on with the building work while the lawyers fought it out, emerged victorious that July.

By the end of the season, captain Glen Chapple, coach Peter Moores and director of cricket Mike Watkinson had taken a team tipped for the drop, and playing home fixtures on outgrounds, to the
Championship. But the relegation that followed in 2012 has done little to dampen Cumbes’s optimistic spirit: “The talent’s there to bounce back, and our ground’s now a
world-class arena.”

Towering over all England’s international venues is
Mike Hutton
, a man whose indifference to heights and Arctic conditions ensures television audiences are treated to
stunning aerial views from the camera known as a cherry picker, 55 metres above the ground. A professional cameraman since 1977, Hutton’s first taste of cricket came on West Indies’
tour of India in 1994-95. And he volunteered for the loftiest job in the sport ten years ago, after a colleague’s heart condition prevented him from continuing. “It is an absolute
privilege: the game, the views, the teamwork,” says Hutton, who has not looked back, and is not especially fussed about looking down either.