'The centenary test that died of shame’

Press, 5 September 1980, Page 24

' The centenary test that died of shame’

NZPA, London England chose dishonourable retreat in the Centenary test on a day when to die gloriously was to live for ever, said an English newspaper yesterday. “The centenary became the test that died of shame,” Derek Hodgson wrote in the “Daily Star.” England settled for 244, for three and a draw against Australia — “they collected $5OO in prize money from the sponsors, Comhill, who must .be wondering what the hell they are paying for,” he wrote.

Hodgson, who added that victory or defeat in the one-off test did not matter, was one of the niore outspoken newspaper critics of England’s cautious last-day performance.

Peter Smith in the “Daily Mail” said that cricket lost out in “this centenary test fiasco.”

England’s batsmen let the match die. a “shameful” death, he wrote, when 7000 people at Lord’s were pleading to be entertained. John Arlott, who broadcast his last test match, took a different line in the “Guardian.” The match ended in a “good-hu-moured” draw, he said, although the other papers reported the boos which greeted the England players when . they were presented with special 2 medals at the end. The fourth-wicket stand of 120 between Geoff Boycott and Mike Gatting “saw England through to the honourable draw which seemed more than they deserved or. were likely to achieve when they, stood at 164 for seven in- their first innings.” Arlott said. “After the muddles, traumas and problems of the first few days, the occasion of. the centenary

of test cricket in England ended in good humour and celebration.” There may have been good humour and celebration among the players, but there was not among the spectators for the last two . hours when Boycott and Gatting crawled to the draw. Catcalls and slow handclaps accompanied the two English batsmen who successfully denied the strenuous Australian efforts to make the match as noteworthy as its predecessor in Melbourne three years ago. England’s captain, lan Botham, reappointed to the job for the tour of the West Indies beginning in January, defended his tactics: “Had we not lost two wickets before lunch we might have given it a go. After that it was consolidation and I wasn’t prepared to throw away all Boycott’s hard work.”