On The Front Foot Episode 181: The likely test team to face Afghanistan

one hundred. In England. We're going to remember one of our greats from seventy five years ago, sadly a farewell to an English cricket rock, the death recently of for Graham Thorpe. We will talk about him as well. Some sad news too. As we look towards what is happening. Jeremy and Garth Galloway special guests once more with us that Nathan Smith, who must be coming into reckoning for the National selectors for international duty, is coming home from

Worcestershire because of injury. Good thing to do, but it's not a good time to be doing it having an injury. I don't think Jeremy with so many games coming up.

But certainly he was getting wickets for Worcestershire. And as I mentioned last week, he can also handle a bat adequately as well, certainly in comparison to the rest of our bowling unit here in New Zealand with the red ball, O Rourke and Sears. No, they don't really offer a great deal with the bat. And then of course you know you're looking at Saudi or Duffy perhaps you know they don't offer much either at the moment. Maybe Shipley might. He's got some runs at first class level, but certainly

not at the Test level yet. So you know, Nathan Smith could be an important character to be watching carefully.

good economical rate as well. I really like him. I see St Giles's, who's the general manager at Worcestershire and former English selector and English spinner, has published a statement saying that he's always welcome back at Worcestershire. It's a lovely place, of course, in a Jerry, I don't know if you played it New Road, but I was in Worcester coaching for years a year and it's of course got the association with Glenn Turner and of course Martin

Horton who coached out here, the former England player. Lovely part of the world. So I'm sure Nathan Smith will have enjoyed it and benefited from it, but just not long enough for him. But I agree with you both. I think he definitely comes into contention. He's got a hamstring injury and judging by the fact that he's coming home, it must be serious. So again I wonder if that's because he really is genuinely in contention for these tests which are coming up in the not too distant future.

the off couldn't get the ball off me once. That's right, exactly interesting.

will be down. They'll be at an average of thirty three that winning percentage or thirty three point three three three recurring Jerry, just to be accurate.

against West Indies. They are likely to do the same against Sri Lanka, so they will probably improve their percentage. New Zealand have got two hard ones, haven't they. It's not in conceivable that they might lose all six or they might not win one. In other words, it might be a drawer somewhere, if there's rain somewhere or something like that. If they can sneak through with a win somewhere. I think that would be pretty reasonable for a side

actually in transition. I know they'll be at home. But England, look, you know, they could easily have won that Basin Reserve Test, even though lost by one run, but they I mean, that's how close it was, and they took a gamble. I could. I can see New Zealand, you know, not winning a Test. It is conceivable.

So we saw the helter skelter, you know, the stuff they call basball and all of that stuff, and it did seem at time, I mean, it was highly addictive but at times less effective, and I think that's you know, the Wellington Test is a really good example of a game that they threw away through through ego really and wanting to play in that way. And you'll remember Wagner took wickets in the second innings and he bowled short

and he was. You know, they really wanted to take him on and had they not, I think they would have won the match. They're playing a bit differently now and if you look at the straight rates against the West Indies of their top order, they're quite different to what they were in the first you know, when McCullum first took over. That doesn't help New Zealand's chances in my view, and that's the point that I wanted to make.

They're being a little bit more circumspect, but they're still scoring their runs at four point five five runs and over.

You know, Ben Stokes is there and he's bowling quite well, and so now they've also changed some of their other bowlers and they're looking very likely. Yes, you've got to always put it into context of it was the West Indies who were an inexperienced side. But let's see how they go. They're changing their side again, aren't they. For the Sri Lankan series that is just upcoming. Jordan Cox is coming and as the keeper. Whether he plays or not, I don't know. I would have thought Jamie Smith would

have carried on myself. Olie Stone is a fast bowler who played against New Zealand and used to play for Warwick Shoes at Edgeburston. He's in for Pennington who has a bit of an injury I believe, and then Dan Lawrence. The interesting even I mean Dan Lawrence is to sit to open. That's that's interesting. With Crawley's injury. So you know he's normally a middle order player. I'll be interested.

He's probably desperate to play. Went to India and he's been sitting around for the West Indies series play anywhere. Probably so. But he's a middle order and a bowler, isn't he as well? Part time bowler? Really? Well?

the super over, so they lost the game. It's not a good look. They're batting is awful at the moment, so they are going to have to really play well. I think to Test England. England are looking guys. They're looking sharper. There's a much more steely kind of look about them. I think a with the batting, which Garth's pointed out, but be their bowling is better with players like Wood bowling at ninety now and looking you know, he had been bandaged up. He looked like an Egyptian mummy,

but you know he and Wood and Atkinson. Atkinson looks very tidy indeed, and then Stokes to follow that up who swings the ball and then this gliber shier and I think that they're going to be a much more difficult proposition this time around.

in Test matches? Great performer and sad to have been passing away at such an early age.

he wasn't a dowdy left hander. I thought he was. He was an attractive player. He was a player of courage and just looking at his statistics one hundred matches, sixteen Test centuries and just looking and reading about him since he died one of his innings, you know, a Test match and pack Kistan and Karachi in two thousand when when England won that match and won the series against Pakistan after they had been unbeaten for thirty four Tests at home and they'd been beaten England five series

in a row. And it was as England chased down one hundred and sixty or so in the fourth innings, it was the best of the players was Thorpe who got sixty four not out, you know, and again just reflecting on some of his innings against against Sri Lanka in Colombo where he scored one hundred and thirteen not out of magnificent innings standing out against a very good Tri Lankan side. And we talked about Sri Lanka earlier. I mean this was a Shri Lankan side that's very

different to what we're seeing now. You know that magnificent batting lineup that they had, and you think back so fondy out of party, Jayasurias Thinkakara to silver, Jale Wardner, hell ofving it, hell of a side and the bowling attack wasn't bad either, with Bura Leather and Jayasuria and co. And just looking and seeing that he was a great player of spin bowling. He did well in India as well, and I think people will remember him fondy but gone far, far too early.

three balls at a strike rate of eighty four. So he certainly played an important part in giving England that advantage that they had, because you know, I remember back to the first day. Wasn't that Ken's had three wickets before that even opened the gates to Lancaster Park as it was known in those days. Goodness me, it's gone for a few changes. It's Lancaster Park Jerry, I was reading on the stats that it's Ami Stadium that he played.

points that you've made fifty five just so young. Second thing I agree with he had the reputation as a tough player in the sense that he was you called him the rock Quads and right through those nineties which were chaotic really for selection of different players game after game in England. But he could defend and he could attack. I remember an attacking in as he played at Barbados where he just smashed West Indies. A fast pitcher, rough pitch, and he was known for his hooking and his cutting,

particularly against the quick bowlers. Wonderful player of spin. Morally, of course, that innings he got in Sri Lanka, he didn't hit. He got a hundred, didn't hit a boundary, didn't hit a boundary, and so he he used to play with quite a small backlift and very strong wrists. So he became a very effective nerdler around you know. So the ball wasn't getting through at all. His bat was down always he was. He wasn't really a conformist. I knew. I knew saw Pee quite well outspoken, you know.

I remember he dressed codes annoyed him like hell. He never used to turn up with the right clothes on for for England. He he once he he was. He fough against two dressing rooms for Surrey, one for the capped players and one for the uncapped players. And he fought like hell against that and made himself quite unpopular. He was against touring Zimbabwe, a long serving Surrey man with Mark Butcher good made of his one hundred tests averaging forty four. And that was against players like Moore.

He's played against South Africa, Donald Pollock in teenee Pallas, I would have thought would have been there as well. Gars mentioned Murley and vas of course, great player of spin and always the last man to leave at the bar.

You know, loved a good story, was he. Macram called him the most difficult batsman he had to bowl to, you think against the team against Ozzie that he played against those strong two thousand years, you know that year two thousand McGrath, Warren Gillespie, haunting you know, Gilchrist that that side, and yet was still able to average forty four man, you know, he he was. He was a hell of a player, and so yeah, he would have

troubled relationships off the field. Used to talk quite openly about those, but just to you know, and people sometimes see that a weakness. I thought that completed the whole man. Actually, so I really enjoyed Thorpe and very.

spoke about him in his book too. I remember reading that and said, if I ever had anyone to go out and bat when it was tough, you know, if it was two for two hundred sorphy didn't you know, you know, he was going to be heading back to the changing room fairly soon after. But if they were three for fifty on the first morning of a Test, he was your man out. He would go, you know, and he would he would really, you know, fight for

the wicket. So hell of a good player, nice person off the field, and quite devastating for a lot of those players. He became, of course the batting coach after he played for England. He became the batting coach for England, and he was about to join Afghanistan as the main coach when he became ill, and when Trot went instead of him. So yeah, so very sad news. Brian Waddell, Jeremy Cooney on the front.

at Old Trafford one hundred and one. New Zealand made three hundred and forty eight for seven and it was against England in nineteen forty nine three day Test matchism when we played in those days. But I know Jerry will remember and Garth you will remember Bert as well as your father would remember him from the days in Dunedin, wouldn't he.

Of course, everyone will know the story of the tang Away disaster from South Africa and New Zealand now play for the tang away A Trophy and Bert's eighty nine out in that match in nineteen fifty three was one of the you know, the great boy's own stories. But he scored five Test centuries, three of them against India, two of them against England. And I think, you know, a truly elegant player didn't play in a winning New

Zealand Test side. You know, that's hard to believe when he played forty two tests, highest score of two hundred and thirty nine out against India. One of our very best players, one of our greats, never had the joy of winning a Test match. But yeah, a wonderful man, of course, Emphasma godem He worked for Rothmans over the years and of course they have supplied him with par too much product and unfortunately, at the age of seventy seven,

Burts have come to emphysema. But a wonderful human being, a lovely man, and one of our very best.

of things that he had take. But he was such a nice fellow, that golden hair that he used to have, curly hair, good looking man. And he would just look around and he'd smile and say, well, the best of luck to you guys today. Wouldn't sit never sit down and interrupt anybody, wouldn't, you know, just wish us all well. And I had a lot of time for Bert. And what a player. You know, there's a difference between cricket players and you know, some people like me, I was

judged by the scoreboard. You could see how I was going on the day because of the schoolboard. It was, you know, it was collected one run at the time, and that's how I was judged by that scoreboard. But there are some players who would score sometimes less than me, but you would remember their earnings so much more because of the way that they had collected those runs, the strokes that they had played burned on your memory. Now,

Bert was one of those. Off driving was absolutely fantastic to watch, you know, there's it should have been worth eight every time, you know, rather than a sort of a fine edge from Coney through the slips for four. There's nothing, you know, it's there are some of those player. That's why Crow is remembered for those sorts of those lovely balanced sort of positions he took and the way that the ball raced off the bat without any seeming you know, power put into the stroke. And Bert was

one of those. So yeah, wadds I don't, I don't really was that the Third Test? Were they playing at Manchester Watts? Was that that was the Third Test? Yeah?

that gone? Wouldn't we love to have that average forty though Gathy mentioned that he never played on a winning side, which was tragic. I still haven't been able to find out why didn't play against the West Indies and fifty six, because he played the first two tests there. He must have been injured or unavailable for some reason or another on that occasion because he would have been in the front row basically of selections.

But he was very fond of it. And the thing that you've you've touched on both of you, you know, but Bert talked to everybody. He was he was a wonderful human being. And I remember he came down for a funeral in Dunedin and he came out to home afterwards and sat down and I was, you know, sort

of even more naive than I am now. And I sat down and asked him about fifty three and the Tongue Away disaster and he took me throw it almost ball bay ball, you know, and to talk to a young fella in that way and so kindly, and he said to me, you know, when Bob Blair came out to bed, he said, I don't mind saying I had a tear in my eye. And you know, it was a lovely expression of a New Zealand, of a proud New Zealand male who you know, was was happy to say that he had tears in his eyes when Bob

came out. And I think the whole ground had tears in their.

out of the ground itself underneath and appeared. And Bert told me about that in that interview and said he went over and put his arm around and said, what did you do that for you? And that is so so Bert, what did you do that for Bob? And then they went out, of course, and that's when Bob Bob. And then he said, you could have heard a pin drop at the ground. When Bob Blair faced his first ball at then Huey Tayfield, they hit him for six.

Bob hit him for six, Bob Blair and then of course Bert cut loose, and then then Bob lad was stumped, wasn't he? And so they walked off together. They didn't go out and field, they both of them. They sat on chairs in the shower, in the shower and they just drank whiskies. And so that's how Bob sorry, that's how Bert finished the stories.

and live on many of those memories. But one of the memories we're going to have to wait for is the memory of the New Zealand cricket team to go and play Afghanistan in Greater Neider, Jerry. It's been confirmed that Greater Neider is the venue, so we don't have that side for a while. But I'm sure they will get a team picked and hopefully they all have contracts by the time they head off to great Annoiter.

all offered it. You know, that's a month ago. Is that long enough to think an offer over?