David Battersby - In the Shadow of Packer: England’s Winter Tour of Pakistan and New Zealand 1977/78

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2016

Pitch Publishing

A2 Yeoman Gate

Yeoman Way

Durrington

BN13 3QZ

www.pitchpublishing.co.uk

David Battersby, 2016

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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library

Print ISBN 978-1-78531-136-9

Ebook Conversion by www.eBookPartnership.com Contents

Authors Foreword The Times They Are A Changing!

Introduction The Build-Up To Departure 1. A New Dawn England take the Night Flight for Pakistan 2. England take on Pakistan at the Gaddafi Stadium 3. The Hyderabad Test and the Sialkot one-day international 4. The Pakistan leg of the winter tour comes to an end 5. England arrive in New Zealand for the second leg of the winter tour

6. England historically sink at the Basin!

7. The tour concludes in Auckland

Appendix A: The tour results in Pakistan & New Zealand Appendix B: Questions to Mike Brearley, Bob Willis and Bob Taylor

Appendix C: Interview with Mark Burgess Appendix D: Interview with Mudassar Nazar Appendix E: Where are they now?

Appendix F: Tour memorabilia

Bibliography

Photographs

For my late father, Alan

HOW we take up certain hobbies, whether it is watching, playing or collecting, is arguably hereditary. With me, falling in love with our great game of cricket was down to my father, Alan. It was whilst we were living in Tenby, in West Wales, that I began to watch my dad play for Pembroke Cricket Club, in the Pembrokeshire Cricket League, in the early 1970s. It was my father who was instrumental in buying me my first bat, my first Playfair Cricket Annual in 1971 and my first Subbuteo Cricket set not long after. I have great memories of growing up in Pembrokeshire playing cricket with my brother and father, not only on the beach, but also in the garden of our house in Tenby, a house that my dad had proudly built. Playing outside in the summer would be interspersed with dashing inside to catch the latest state of play, in a Test match, or a Sunday John Player League game.

I was born in the early sixties, just north of Newport, and it wasnt until late 1974, when we moved back east, that I was taken regularly by my father to matches at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff to watch Glamorgan and also to the odd game at Worcester or Bristol.

It was at these games that I was able to witness, close up, many of the players that featured on Englands 1977/78 winter tour.

My father had a strong cricketing heritage. His grandfather, father and uncle all played the game. In fact, his Uncle Dan played many a season for Radcliffe Cricket Club with Sir Frank Worrell, and also played for the East Lancashire Paper Mills Club, where my great grandfather was involved, along with the South African Test player C.B. Llewellyn.

My father continued to accompany me to matches on and off throughout the many years that followed, until dementia took hold of him. Sadly, he passed away in February 2014. This, my first cricket book, is dedicated to him.

The book has taken several years to write and during that time I would like to thank England players Bob Taylor, Mike Brearley and Bob Willis, who kindly answered questionnaires in the formative stages of writing it. I was most grateful to Bob Willis who

provided the foreword to the book, during a very busy time for him working on Sky Television.

Mark Burgess, the New Zealand captain in 1978, was extremely helpful. Mark, kindly and patiently, exchanged several e-mails with me which form the interview in the Appendix section of the book. I was also lucky enough to interview Pakistan opener Mudassar Nazar about his career and scoring the slowest Test century ever recorded, and I thank him for his time in answering all of my questions. A thank you also goes out to all the players I have chatted to over the years at various cricketing outposts about the tour.

I would like to thank Jamie Bell from the New Zealand Cricket Museum, at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, and to Jo Young from the New Zealand Cricket Players Association, who kindly passed on my initial request to Mark Burgess. Jamie was kind enough to point me in the direction of photographer John Selkirk, and several of his photographs appear in the book plate section. Kazz (Karamdeep) Sahota, at Archives New Zealand in Wellington, was most helpful in locating photographs from the tour, some of which appear in the book. My good friend, Mike Ward, gave good advice about the photographs. I would also like to thank John Ward for letting me use part of his interview with Geoff Cope that originally appeared on the Cricket Archive website.

Although my book In The Shadow of Packer focuses on events well away from what was happening at the time in Kerry Packers World Series Cricket, I thoroughly recommend you read Gideon Haighs excellent book The Cricket War The Inside Story of Kerry Packers World Series Cricket .

I must thank Jane and Paul Camillin at Pitch Publishing for all their help and advice in the writing of this book; Graham Hales, for typesetting, and also Duncan Olner for the cover design.

I am indebted to Vic Godding for reading and commenting constructively on my manuscript, as it neared completion. This immense task coincided with a very busy period for him and I am truly grateful for his commitment.

Lastly, but not least, thanks to my wife Donna and my daughter Francesca, for their patience and understanding of my obsession

with cricket. Donna has been very supportive of my project and was kind enough to proofread the first draft of the book.

Francesca, meanwhile, over the years, has been very good at not complaining about the games she has been dragged along to. But then again, I guess the copious amounts of ice-cream she has been supplied with over the years, as well as in her earlier days of meeting mascots, and having her face painted, might have had something to do with it!

Foreword by Bob Willis

1977 and the game of cricket is in turmoil. Kerry Packer has recruited most of the best players on the planet for his World Series enterprise. The losing Australian tourists to England were split down the middle and presented a disunited front on the field. England announced a mixture of experience and youth in their touring party to Pakistan and New Zealand.

We were to spend ten long weeks in the sub-continent before six far more enjoyable ones down under. The cricket in the first part of the tour produced some of the most boring ever played on the field, but off it some of the most controversial episodes ever.

New Zealand won their first Test against England in the second part of the trip. Brearley broke his arm in Karachi and was replaced by Boycott. That was interesting! Botham emerged as a world-class all-rounder.