Long may he bowl

As Sir Alec Bedser turns 90, four Australians who are his bitter enemies — Neil Harvey, Alan Davidson, Arthur Morris and Ken Archer — fly down to join in the birthday celebrations. Over to Ted Corbett.

June 30: I make no comment on a story doing the rounds of the press, radio and television centre after the incident at the Oval.

Radio reporter to Paul Collingwood: “Why, when you had a couple of minutes to decide what to do after the obstruction of Grant Elliott, did you not withdraw the appeal?”

Paul Collingwood: “I only have a split second. You ought to get your facts right.”

The radio reporter returns to the media centre and asks a television colleague to settle the argument. The TV crew measure the time from the tape of the incident. “Two minutes and 30 seconds,” is the answer.

July 1: Phil Edmonds courts controversy. He bowls a bouncer even though he is meant to be a slow left-arm spinner. He declines to go in as nightwatchman for Middlesex because “I have done my work for the day” and he tries to play as an amateur so that he can concentrate on his business empire. His bank manager alone knows how much he is worth now but at a time when Zimbabwe is a difficult place to trade, it is not a surprise that Edmonds buys a platinum mine for £120m and takes a considerable amount of flak when the news becomes public. Will it worry Edmonds? I cannot imagine it does for a moment.

July 2: ICC decides to change the result of the fourth Test against Pakistan — at the Oval, remember, under the command of umpire Darrell Hair — from an England win to a draw. What a viper’s nest that decision reveals. Perhaps ICC will also seek to alter some other obviously wrong rulings. Torture by the Spanish Inquisition for instance. Most of the major wars. The truth is that once a decision is made you cannot improve matters by changing it. Umpire Hair may have been right or wrong; but he had the right to make that decision and cricket must live with it. Never mind that this stupid ruling by the world’s governing body — which becomes more irrelevant every time the clock ticks — will require Wisden and CricInfo to amend their statistics; never mind it will cause endless argument; forget that it will lower ICC’s repute yet again. It is such a bad idea that there are unborn children, shepherds from Outer Mongolia where cricket is not even a concept and the deep sea squid who know instinctively that it is wrong.

July 3: Zimbabwe tell ICC they will drop out of the Twenty20 World Cup in England next summer and that seems to bring to an end the problems of that tragic country. It will continue to receive full funding as a senior nation within ICC — hurrah! — but will there be proper auditing of those funds? I hope so. It is all very well giving money to the poorer cricketing lands but it must be put to the right use. As I am sure Phil Edmonds will testify.

July 4: Sir Alec Bedser is 90 today and he will celebrate with four Australians who are his bitter enemies. Neil Harvey, Alan Davidson, Arthur Morris and Ken Archer fly here specially for the occasion. Odd? Well, yes, but not as odd as the decision to stage a Twenty20 game in the honour of this old-fashioned cricketer at the Oval — later given several new titles to suit a raft of sponsors — where he makes his name. It is customary in this era to mock his lack of speed and as, unfortunately, he is often seen on old film being struck for four by Don Bradman, his prowess. One writer calls him a medium pace dobber; ie much the same as the sort of Kolpak player who has besmirched the good name of cricket in the last few years. Thank heavens we shall see no more of them. You will never hear anyone who watches him bowl say anything to denigrate the man. Len Hutton says the Bedser ball that bowls Bradman at Adelaide in 1946-7 is “the deadliest ever. It moves in towards the pitch and then goes off like a leg-break.” Peter May, another England captain, and Bedser’s team-mate at Surrey in the 1950s when he is at the height of his powers, tells me many years ago: “One of the reasons for my success is that I never face those fast leg-breaks from Alec but simply watch them from slip.” Bedser does something that no modern cricketer will have to do. He pitches up for the first Test against the Australians in 1953 and asks if he could have a day off. He bowls 30 overs the previous day. He is a shy man, happiest still holding a pint of beer in a bar and talking about the game he loves. I doubt if he is 5lb heavier than the day he retires. When he and his twin brother Eric, who dies two years ago, drink together it is fascinating to watch their glasses empty at precisely the same rate. Hutton also says that Bedser is so nervous “that if I go to him at start of a Test to discuss his field he cannot answer me.” Long may he bowl.

July 5: Every so often the England selectors have a rush of blood and bring back a player who is so old we wonder if he can play for five days. Wilfred Rhodes, at 49, is chosen in 1926 when England win back the Ashes for the first time in an eternity and Cyril Washbrook returns in 1956 at 41 for a couple of Tests to boost the middle order batting. It works too and I look forward to next summer’s Ashes and — with a compliment from a prominent cricket person who claims I am 20 years ahead of the rest — ask myself if perhaps someone like Graham Thorpe will get another chance. He recently returns from Australia where he coaches New South Wales and, so he openly admits, absorbs a few ideas about the weaknesses of the new Aussies. But here is a warning. Don’t expect too much. Chris Lewis, fast bowler, big hitter and outstanding fielder, is now 41 and returns to help Surrey. He is not a success. Lewis plays against Middlesex in a limited overs game and against Essex in a Twenty20 match but cannot take a wicket in eight overs which cost 80 runs. He scores 33 off 63 against Middlesex and two runs off three balls against Essex and Surrey lose both matches.

July 6: You may remember that a couple of weeks ago I am stopped as I carry a bottle of champagne from the Chester-le-Street ground and get pretty angry. I complain to the sponsors and Durham; and receive generous apologies. I also write to the ECB. I have to assume it is saving up for a stamp because so far I do not hear a word. How rude.