Almanac Cricket: What I was reminded of while watching the AB doco

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re like me and had the Sydney Test on telly in the background, hoping there might be a break in the rain, then you’ve probably seen the three-part Allan Border doco umpteen times. During that January week, Allan Border’s life story seeped into me, and all of those snippets I caught, have been pieced together like a jigsaw. Finally, I sat down with a run, and watched each episode in a single sitting. It seemed appropriate.

I’d say mine is a fairly common experience. As a result, Allan Border may have been entrenched as the best-known cricketer of all time. Australians will be able to recite his story chapter and verse.

I’m glad it was a doco about Allan Border. AB has always been a favourite.

Living in country Queensland when he first hit the scene, we were an ACB family. We didn’t live on Snob’s Knob where the upper crust of Oakey could pick up a snowy version of QTQ Channel 9 all the way from Brisbane, nor did we have one of those home-made aerial towers which swayed in the westerlies.

So, along with Peter Toohey and Kim Hughes, Rodney Hogg and Graeme Wood, AB was one of ours.

He became one of us when he moved from Sydney to Brisbane to play for Queensland. It’s sometimes forgotten that he continued to run around for Queensland until the Maroons finally won the Sheffield Shield in 1994-95.

When he first came north, he played a club game for Valleys (?) against Uni at the beautiful Uni No. 1 Oval on campus at St Lucia (now named for that wonderful character the late WEP Harris). I lived at Union College, which overlooked the oval, and that day a few of us went down to watch the Australian Test batsman take on the Uni trundlers. He only made seven and then went for a solitary walk no doubt to purge himself of disappointment, as cricketers do. He eventually sat on a garden seat and, as we were sitting on the embankment a few metres away, we struck up a conversation. He was wearing South Sydney shorts, and thongs. He was very friendly, and very likable. Not grumpy at all. Indeed, the man of the recent documentary was the young man we met that day.

The thing I loved about the three-part doco was that it contained so many reminders and connected me to a well-lived past, and a well-lived cricketing past.

I wrote down things that I noticed; things I’d forgotten about; things that brought a smile to my face; things that mean something to me.

Older readers may have similar memories. Here are some of those things, in raw form:

 

Norman May

Kerry Packer

World Series Cricket music

Richie Benaud in his forties

Richie Benaud anchoring in England

Delvene Delaney

Strop looking like John Cornell

Rod Marsh as a geography teacher

The watermelon colour of the West Indies kit

Blokes not wearing shirts on the hill

Times before Slip, Slop, Slap was a thing

Players finding stuff out on the radio

Mossman Oval

The Bundy bottle on the shelves in AB’s study

Drew Morphett

Keith Miller

The Polyarmour

The Slazenger logo generally

Tough Test days of the mid to late `80s

AB as a kid – hair parts, and Brylcreme

Young Ken Sutcliffe

Mr Border sitting on the front steps smoking Marlboros

Cricket and baseball

Place of baseball in throwing and even batting

Moustaches

Mike Brearley’s beard

Hoggy as twelfth man

English cricket commentators

The distinctive nature of Ashes TV coverage from England

“Super shot that” – Richie

Botham’s ton in 1981 and Bob Willis bowling Australia out (we watched in the Union College TV room)

Mike Whitney jagging a Test match when playing in England

‘The Geez’

Tony Greig as a commentator

The old MCG grandstands

The lifeless MCG pitch

Thommo

Fieldsmen ambling after balls

AB and Thommo

Benson & Hedges hordings

1983-84 retirements

Gabba dog track (We were regulars at the Thursday night dishlickas)

Bradman’s comb-over

Poincianas at the Gabba

The Gabba Hill

Kim Hughes resignation

Venetian blinds across the back windscreen of a car

AB bowling leggies at Queensland practice in the Gabba nets with Andrew Courtice (looking like Lord Lindsay) in the background

The ubiquity of XXXX

Bill Hayden

Apartheid

Bob Hawke’s voice

Rebel tours

Richard Hadlee’s 15 wickets (and the Gabba chanting “Hadlee’s a wanker”)

Tied Test

Dean Jones

Bob Simpson

Greg Matthews

Pat Cash’s Davis Cup

1987 World Cup

Bob Simpson’s fielding drills

1989 Ashes

Australians in the crowd, with signs

Shane Warne as a youngster

Adelaide May/McDermott Test

C. Ambrose 7/1

1993 Ashes series

Ball of the Century (we were playing cards at a house known as Bundhill)

South African cricket

South African politics

Shield final 1994-95    [Scorecard]

AB’s self-deprecating assessment of his own career, and his own nature.

AB’s apology.

 

There were many others.

Very grateful to be reminded of all these things.

Allan Border was a Depression captain, who built the foundation for success. He was under-rated.

Perhaps this doco – and the fact we’ve seen it so many times thanks to the rain – will have an impact.

 

 

 Read more from John Harms HERE

 

 

 

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