Australia on verge of cricket history

Press, 1 August 1989, Page 29

Australia on verge of cricket history

NZPA-AAP Manchester Australia stands on the verge of cricketing history in the fourth test at Old Trafford.

After building up a firstinnings lead of 181 with one wicket in hand at the end of the third day, Australia is expected to convert a summer of domination into a 3-0 series victory. Since 1934, no Australian team has regained the Ashes on English soil, and it would be entirely appropriate if Allan Border’s team achieved the feat on a ground where Australia has suffered much In the past. No more so than in 1956, the test in which Jim Laker took 19 wickets in the greatest bowling performance in the history of the game.

Old Trafford was also the ground where Mike Brearley’s 1981 side, with a 103-run victory, sealed Ashes victory over Australia in the most unforgettable series in modem test history.

It was the match in which

Inn Botham played the finest innings of his life. His 118 was better even than his 149 not out at Headingley earlier in the series.

Eight years on, England’s supporters are in search of another Bothamesque miracle, and by most reckonings they will search in vain. Botham’s career, like that of his captain, David Gower, hangs by a thread this week. As distinguished a critic as Denis Compton said yesterday that Botham’s madcap charge down the wicket to Trevor Hohns on the first day was the act which convinced him that Botham must go. Botham’s 138 in Brisbane in late 1986 is his only century in his last 31 tests, and he has taken five wickets only twice in the past 21. "That is no justification for continuing to build the side around him as though he is still the greatest all-rounder In the world,” Compton wrote in a regular newspaper column. "In my opinion he never

deserved that title anyway. If I was to compare Garfield Sobers or even my old mate Keith Miller with Botham then they were in the first division while he is in the third.” Gower, meanwhile, must be nearing, the end of his tether. Appointed captain for the entire series at the start of the summer, he is now on the edge of losing the ninth of his last ten tests as England captain. There seems to be no escape for him. He failed to turn up to the mandatory press conference at Old Trafford on Saturday night, and yesterday he was reprimanded by England’s cricket authorities for making an objectionable gesture to the crowd during Saturday’s PlayThere is a growing feeling that the golden-haired boy of English cricket is about to resign, even though he has been contracted to lead his country’s team until the end of the summer.