Almanac Cricket: Marnus and the Nightwatchman

 

The rise of Marnus Labuschagne from a Steve Smith replacement batter to one of the three leading batsmen in world cricket has been spectacular. He is a talented cricketer.

 

Marnus Labuschagne is also an enigma. There, I’ve said it.

 

Not only that; Marnus possesses super-natural talents, many of them designed to protect his mentor, Steve Smith. His recent rescue of Smith from an elevator with a malfunctioning door mechanism is but one manifestation.

 

All this became clear to me when the premature end to the Boxing Day Test meant a visit to the cinema to see the almost-never-ending sci-fi movie Dune*. In it, to avoid trouble, the protagonist, something of a superhuman, employs a non-rhythmic, edgy, sideways lunging ‘sandwalk’. These motions appear to be a modification of similar movements at the cricket crease first pioneered by Smith and mirror the jerky, arms akimbo, side-then-forward steps taken by Labuschagne after he has played a defensive shot or let the ball go through to the keeper.

 

Or is it the other way round?

 

The mystic powers of Labuschagne have also allowed him to overcome the compelling evidence of the umpire decision review system (DRS). More often than not, his morose, forlorn trudge towards the boundary after an apparent dismissal has been followed by a DRS recall, his triumphant return to the crease being matched in exuberance only by the personal on-field celebrations that follow a David Warner century.

 

However, there have been occasions when, with stumps flattened, even the famed Marnus hostile, pointed stare in the direction of the umpire has been unable to alter the situation.

 

When padded up and next to bat in the last overs of the day and times of trouble loom, Mother Mary does not come to Marnus, as she does to Paul McCartney. With Lord Langer in total concurrence, Marnus simply invokes the Power of the Nightwatchman. Other leading players of their day, Bradman, Lara, Tendulkar or Border never did. Why would they? It did not work for Ben Stokes, as the hapless Jack Leach can testify. Joe Root didn’t call for a replacement either, crouched over in agony after receiving a fearful blow amidships in the last over of the day in the Adelaide Test. He stayed at the crease and soldiered on, only to be dismissed by a Starc exocet a couple of balls later. One wonders what Marnus may have done in a similar circumstance.

 

However, it was a COVID scare, not Marnus, that brought about the nightwatchman-like situation on the third day in Melbourne in which the free to air TV commentary featured the knowledgeable duo of Mike Atherton and Lisa Sthaleker. For a short time, these two excellent broadcasters replaced the desolation row members of the usual commentary team who are continually intent on ‘reciting the alphabet’ of their careers. Unfortunately, it was not a long innings.

 

*There are parallels between Dune and cricket that could be explored at some stage, in particular, the ‘guttural’ and ‘alien’ chants of battle.

 

 

 

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