Mosey forthright in views on cricketers

Press, 18 December 1985, Page 44

Mosey forthright in views on cricketers

By

DAVID LEGGAT

Having given England’s most controversial cricketer of the last 40 years a thorough going over in his recent biography, “Boycott,” Don Mosey will next turn the spotlight on his country’s most dominant player of modern times - “a warts and all book on I. T. Botham.”

If his observations on England’s cricketing colossus while in Christchurch last week as part of a holiday-cum-“ Boycott” promotion are a hint of the book’s contents, it should be highly entertaining. His stinging criticism of Botham’s attitude to aspects of his cricketing life is mingled with lavish praise for his talents and a certain amount of sorrow.

“He is by far the greatest natural British-born talent in the game today; he is the most exciting player we’ve got; he’s virtually the only man in England who has people tearing into the ground when they know he’s going out to bat. He’s the one the kids love to hero

worship, he’s perfect schoolboy hero stuff. r ‘So that When he gets convictions for smoking pot and says it’s a load of balls, I don’t care about it, I concern myself for the influence on youngsters.” His personal preference for the squat Middlesex batsman, Mike Gatting, ahead of the incumbent David Gower as England captain stems partly from an ability to handle Botham. “He just bowls when he feels like it. Unless he succumbs to the lure of Hollywood or is given the opportunity to become a Hollywood star, he’ll end up with 400 test wickets. They might cost 75 runs apiece by that time because he’s given up worrying about how much his wickets cost, just so long as they come every now and again.. He’s going for 100 in every innings but doesn’t give a damn as long as the wickets come.

“And if he bowls enough

rubbish, as he does nearly all the time, he will get some obliging idiot like (Andrew) Hilditch to hit it straight down the throat of long leg.” Mr Mosey has recently retired as a radio commentator for the 8.8. C. His only regular contact now is working with the popular Test Match Special commentary team, which covers all cricket test series in England. He joined the panel 11 years ago, having previously been the programme’s producer. The attraction of the programme is chiefly the cricket, but also the flair and wit of the commentary team, lead by Brian Johnston - “the most marvellous natural broadcaster I have ever met in my life. I could never imagine him at a loss for words in any given situation.”

England will attempt next month to become the first team to beat the West Indies in a test series for five years. The last team to overcome the men from the Caribbean was New Zealand. That tour left a sour taste for both the New Zealand cricketing public and the West Indians, but for markedly different reasons.

While happily conceding that England’s task is monumental, Don Mosey believes it does have two reasons for optimism. “One is if they get a spinners’ wicket at Trinidad and John Emburey and Phil Edmonds can exploit it; and the other is - what I regard as pretty certain - that the West Indians will not perform as well for Vivian Richards as they did for Clive Lloyd. They all worshipped Lloyd to a man; they held him not only in respect but awe, and there

is no doubt that Clive is a marvellous father figure. “Now Vivi is a very different kettle of fish. He’ll lead by example, by getting as many as he can, but he won’t have the same respect or liking by the players.” The boorish behaviour of the West Indians while in New Zealand in 1980 received no sympathy from Mi’ Mosey. “They behaved badly, they knocked over Fred Goodall, Holding kicked down the stumps, and in a country which I regard as the most civilised in the cricket world their bad manners were the thing they are remembered for.” Mr Mosey makes no secret of his pleasure at New Zealand’s success against Australia in the recent series, partly because of his feelings about New Zealand. Indeed, in his latest book, “The Best Job in the World”, he writes of a wish to retire to New Zealand and devotes a chapter to “The Most Beautiful Ground in the World” - Pukekura Park, New Plymouth.

In a lifetime of sports watching, Mr Mosey obviously has a host of highlights. Naturally these include some of cricket’s great moments: watching Sir Donald Bradman complete 304 at Headingley, as

a nine-year-old attending his first first-class match in 1934 - “he has always been, and always will be the greatest to me”; watching Sir Leonard Hutton’s 364 against Australia on his first visit to London; the 1948 Australian side to England was “the greatest touring side I have ever seen”; he did not see Jim Laker’s 19 wickets against Australia, at Old Trafford in 1956, “which makes me unique because Laker tells me that everyone else he has ever met was there personally”.

At a soccer match with a Hungarian commentator at Leeds, a dog held up play for 15 minutes. The Hungarian commentator, agitated at the delay, turned to Mr Mosey and said, ‘in my country the dog would be shot.’ And I said, ‘in this country anybody who harmed that dog would be shot.’ He put this over the air to Hungary.” He speaks with undisguised awe of John Arlott, the greatest English cricket commentator of all, describing the streaker at Lord’s 10 years ago, and acknowledges that he would have loved to have been in the commentator’s chair at that moment, “I couldn’t have done it one-tenth as well, so it was better I wasn’t there.”