Fleet Street delight

Press, 9 January 1987, Page 7

Fleet Street delight

NZPA-AAP London English newspapers had a good laugh at the expense of Australia’s cricket selectors yesterday, with one quoting the chairman of selectors, Mr Laurie Sawle, as saying there was no vote for Peter Taylor to be included in the team for the fifth test

Fleet Street took great delight in reporting the alleged confusion over the selection of Australia’s team for the

test in Sydney. The mass-circulation “Sun” called it “the biggest clanger in cricket history” under a banner headline “The Great Aussie Cock-Up.” It was one of several papers which reported that the selectors had meant to pick the New South Wales opener, Mark Taylor, but instead landed themselves with the little-known off-spinner, Peter Taylor, through a cleri-

cal error. Mr Sawle was quoted as saying: “We never voted on Peter Taylor.” The “Daily Mail” cricket writer, Peter Smith, called it a “farcical blunder.” John Woodcock of “The Times” suspected a secretarial error, as had happened

when Surrey appointed the wrong Bennett as their captain in 1947. He said the selectors had

given a “devastating exhibition” and might have done better to recall one of their number, Greg Chappell, to take over the helm from a "numbed and disillusioned” Allan Border. Matthew Engel of the “Guardian" said the wrongTaylor theory was easy to believe: “On current form the Australians are quite capable of turning up in the wrong city.”