Bye bye Dazzler

At the ripe old age of 38, and with more comebacks than Tom Jones (otherwise an entirely similar bloke) behind him, Goughie has finally called it a day.

Many say a glittering career in TV is ahead of him. That remains to be seen, I have a horrible sense that he might turn into a cricketing version of Ian Wright. What I think is unarguable is that he leaves behind him a career which glittered throughout and which changed English cricket.

With Graham Thorpe, he was our best and most consistent match-winner in the post-Botham era. But whilst Thorpe usually played quiet effective, significant innings, Goughie was pure Barnsley bragadoccio. Chest puffed out, arse swaggering to the crease he was quick, skiddy, aggressive bowler, happy to trade jaffas with boundaries. He relished the contest. At times, he was the lone spearhead against quality batting. He found partners in crime at times: Gus Fraser and Andrew Caddick both provided the contrast, if not always the consistency, to put genuine pressure on batsmen. Although his record is similar to both of these bowlers, his explosive, effervescent element will mean that he will be remembered longer.

Despite outward appearances, he was also a thinking bowler. I remember him working Lara out with a three ball trick in 2000, and varying his pace, line, and type of delivery cleverly throughout England's successful tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka the following winter.

At that stage of his career, he was the best "death" bowler English one-day cricket has had, and remains the best one-day bowler. The likes of Flintoff and Broad will no doubt overhaul him in terms of one day wickets, they will be better bowlers from having developed watching and bowling with him.

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An evening of Beef and Lamb

On Thursday I went to a cricket legends dinner organized by the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. Apart from the free booze, the main reason for going was to hear some good anecdotes and they didn’t disappoint.

Beefy was slicker and a more experienced speaker than Lamby and opened up with the tale of how he ran Geoff Boycott out in New Zealand. Considering how many times he must have told this tale, he managed to make it sound fresh, and his appalling Boycott impression was worth the entrance fee on its own.

Lamby had some good gags, including the infamous Glenn McGrath-Eddo Brandes biscuit sledge and also reminded the audience that Pietersen and Tony Greig aren’t the only Saffers to captain England (Lamb captained England for three tests, without much success).

We were invited to write questions for the speakers, and, while some of my table’s ruder ones got filtered out, we still got some good questions in. In response to “Who is the most annoying person to commentate with and why?” Beefy answered Bumble when he’s in one of his darker moods. Apparently Nasser is ok now that they have got him to relax a bit and new boy Athers has no sense of smell and sometimes forgets to wear deodorant, which is tough on the other people in the studio!

The great Derek Randall also featured regularly in the anecdotes. Apparently the poor guy once got to the middle during a test match only to discover that Ian Botham had filled his batting gloves with condoms. I forget what he had done to deserve this.

When asked whether he would rather be stuck in a lift with Ian Chappell or Peter Roebuck, Beefy replied that he wasn’t sure because: “One’s gay and complicated, and the other’s just thick”.

It was also amusing to watch the charity auctioneers struggle to persuade Hong Kong’s bankers to part with their cash on one of the worst days for the stockmarket in many years.

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