Section:GDN 1N PaGe:43 Edition Date:190827 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 26/8/2019 20:13 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Tuesday 27 August 2019 The Guardian •
43From ‘village
cricketer’ to
a cult hero:
Leach relives
his 17-ball epic
Analysis
Vic Marksas he strode to the wicket on that
unforgettable Sunday afternoon. But
that is not his way.
“A few people said: ‘How nice
would it be to score the winning
runs? ’ And I was like: ‘Yeah, I’ve
thought about it and it would be
nice to score the winning runs, but
I don’t want to be in that position in
the fi rst place. ’”
In fact he has been there
several times in less conspicuous
circumstances and he has helped
to see his side home. Perhaps the
most memorable occasion was
in May 2016 when a last-wicket
partnership of 31 against Surrey
ensured a one-wicket victory for
Somerset at Taunton. In that match
Leach, who had been batting at
No 10, was 24 not out. But this was
on a diff erent plane. “The crowd
here were amazing, I’ve never
experienced an atmosphere like it.”
Stokes was amazing, too. “He was
unbelievable ,” Leach said. “Walking
out with 73 to win, I don’t know if
you can believe you can do it. But I
wanted to do my job because he was
saying he’d face four or fi ve balls
an over. I got on with it and it quite
quickly seemed to go down and
suddenly it’s eight to win and you’re
like ‘Oh my God ’.”
Leach could not quite
remember the exact details of
their conversation upon his arrival
at the crease. “I think he spoke
about the plan, how we would
go about it. Straightaway he was
thinking how we would knock off
the runs. He obviously believed
that it was defi nitely going to
happen. It seemed that simple. I
can’t remember who was bowling,
Pattinson I think. It was just aboutgetting to the end of the over and I
managed that. It is all a bit of a blur
to be honest.
“I didn’t want to get in Stokesy’s
bubble when he was hitting those
sixes. I didn’t want to say too
much. He said in the changing
room he got nervous when it was
down to eight. I just wanted him
to focus on every ball and if it was
there, hit it for six. I just had to stay
calm and do the job at hand. I felt
good; I was really focused on what
I needed to do .”S
taying calm for Leach
meant giving some
attention to his glasses.
“I just had to make sure
they were clean every
time I was facing because
I would really regret it if they had
been smudged .”
His glasses are now nearly as
famous as those of David Steele
four decades ago. Like Steele he is
in danger of becoming a cult hero.
“That’s nice ,” he said. “I don’t
really know what that it is. It’s
probably because I look like a
village cricketer out there with
my glasses, the bald head and
maybe people think: ‘That could
be me. All the others look pretty
professional.’”
But all the others had been
dismissed at Headingley – except
for Stokes, who was able to
tinker with fate.
“Watching the World Cup fi nal
as a fan shows that anything is
possible ,” Leach said. “Ben was at
the centre of that as well. Maybe
Ben Stokes has to be at the centre
of all things that are possible.”
Could he solve Brexit? “No.”W
ell, his running
between the
wickets borders
on the diabolical.
It is not
straightforward
to fi nd a fresh slant upon Ben
Stokes’s innings of the century – and
possibly any century. However,
he is not the fi rst great player for
whom there is considerable scope
for improvement in this department.
Denis Compton was in this category,
so too Geoff rey Boycott and in
this generation Kane Williamson- peerless batsmen yet sometimes
harum-scarum runners.
At Headingley Jos Buttler had to
go and but for a Nathan Lyon fumble,
which – as the Aussies are keen to
note whenever possible – might leave
a few scars, Jack Leach should have
done as well in the penultimate over
of the Test, which must now be
known as Headingley 19. Leach had
scurried down the pitch, given that
it was the fi fth ball of the over, and
Stokes was slow to deter him. Leach
was not that keen to dwell on that for
long afterwards.
“That was not a nice moment but
it’s all good,” he said. “I don’t want
to focus on that moment. I want to
focus on running down to Stokes
when he hit the winning runs.”
In the spirit of cooperation and
in pursuit of better running let
us remind Stokes there is a case
for the non-striking batsman to
watch his partner from the other
end, which was something that
he declined to do when Leach was
on strike. Apparently he could not
bear to look, which revealed a rare
glimmer of frailty in England’s
lionhearted saviour.
Afterwards Leach posed the
question to the BBC : “Doesn’t he
think I can play?” A fair question
given that Leach was just about
fl awless when dealing with the 17
deliveries propelled in his direction
by the Australians.
Leach’s solitary run tied the
match. Hours after the Test had
fi nished with the England players
sitting on the Headingley square
mulling things over, he was
prevailed upon to re-enact the
greatest single of his career and the
greatest innings of his life – even
though he hit 92 in a Test against
Ireland a month ago. I imagine he
was very happy to do so.
In the glow of victory Leach
might have tempted to embroider
a bit when explaining his feelings
Vic Marks
I t has some great competition.
Among England cricketers there
was Ian Botham in 1981 – his innings
at Old Traff ord was in many ways
superior to the one at Headingley,
even though the situation was not so
dire. Consider Gooch at Headingley
in 1991 against West Indies, Atherton
in Johannesburg , Pietersen in
Mumbai in 2012. Stokes’s innings
had elements of all these knocks :
the patience of Atherton, the expert
gleaning against the odds like Gooch
and the smashing the ball to all
parts like Botham and Pietersen. I’m
pretty sure I’ll think the same in a
few months’ time.
Rob Smyth
I always thought Graham Gooch’s 154
not out against West Indies in 1991
was the best I would ever see. Now I
have no idea. The nuclear assault at
the end of Stokes’s innings, which
belonged to a T20 match, makes it
even harder to compare with Gooch’s
unyielding classic. Stokes’s innings
was played under the greatest
pressure; Gooch’s was in tougher
conditions against a better attack.
Stokes’s had the most euphoric pay-
off ; Gooch’s was much less dependent
on fortune. Which is the best? I don’t
know. I just want to listen to Jonathan
Agnew’s commentary of the fi nal ball,
and the roar of the crowd, forever.agent to fi nd him some winter cricket
and before you know it he is back
hitting sixes and taking wickets. He
skips over it so quickly it feels like he
has no idea what a bleak read it all is.
It never seems to occur to him that,
the way he tells it, he sounds a lot
like a man who was drinking to self-
medicate a depression.
Stokes always did move on
quickly. He was running in and out
of trouble all his young life. In 2013
he was sent home from the England
Lions tour to Australia after he stayed
out drinking till 5.30 in the morning
on his fi rst day there and then he
and Matt Coles got caught out and
about after midnight two days
before a game later in the trip. “You
don’t want to play for England, you
just want to piss it away with your
mates,” the coach, Andy Flower, told
him. “ Get your shit together.”
Stokes resolved to do exactly
that. Right after he and Coles had
stopped off for another couple of
beers with a friend at the airport.
“The impression I needed to make
was in the longer term,” Stokes
kidded himself, and no one else,
when he was explaining that
particular decision.
Well, in the longer term, he ended
up being caught breaking his curfew
so he could go out drinking on tour
again. “We’ve been here before,”
the management told him. And he
injured himself punching a locker
in the West Indies , so he had to miss
the World Twenty20. It was reported
then that he was going to be made to
attend anger-management classes.
“Nonsense,” said Stokes, because
as one of the chapter headings
puts it in the book, “who needs
anger management?”
The point is that each of these
incidents has its own alternative
history, too. Every one could have
been the beginning of something
new. They were the turning points
he passed along the way to that
court date in August 2018. “That
was a year ago, a long time ago,”
Stokes said it when came up in his
press conference at Headingley on
Sunday. And that was all he wanted
to say about it.
Only he, his friends, family and
teammates know how it has all
aff ected him. But from where we
are sitting it seems pretty clear there
is one big change. These last few
months, he has grown into the best
version of himself. He has fulfi lled
his potential in a way few people in
any walk of life ever do, has wrung
every last drop out of his talent, with
nothing squandered.
Whatever else happens in the
remaining two Ashes Tests, Stokes
will always own this summer, just
like Ian Botham owned 1981 and
Andrew Flintoff did 2005. In the
public mind we will always see him
with his bat in hand, arms spread
wide either side in celebration, and
that grim security camera footage of
him we all watched a year ago will
come to seem even more blurred,
grainy and distant. Jack Leach
wipes cricket’s
most famous
pair of
spectacles since
the days of
David Steele
TOM JENKINS/
THE GUARDIANHe has fulfi lled
his potential in
a way few people
in any walk of
life ever do
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