Booed on the balcony one year, hailed a champion the next...
The Oval is the kind of ground that is full of memories, maybe because it is so often the last Test of the summer. I’ve been booed there, cheered there, and watched Steve Waugh limp to a hundred there. You name it, it seems to have happened at The Oval.
But my first memory of an Oval Test came when I was eight years old and watching on the telly as Michael holding steamed in against a background of that white outfield in the long hot summer of 1976.
he was delivering reverseswinging yorkers and england’s batsmen were all falling over to the off side and getting bowled. The crowd went berserk and invaded the pitch, and it summed up my early memories of cricket — the West Indies thrashing england, basically.
The next big Oval moment for me came in 1989, when I was called up to england’s Ashes squad for the final Test. We were already 4-0 down and there was a big kerfuffle about players signing up for the rebel tour of South Africa.
My hero, David Gower, was the captain so I was thrilled when he handed me my cap and sweater — I really wanted that sweater! — in a plastic bag, only to tell me on the morning of the game that I had missed out, and to ask to have the bag back. he also told me I had to drive to Northampton to take part in a game for essex, and I remember driving extremely slowly so I could listen on the radio to england’s progress at The Oval.
My essex team- mate John Stephenson made his debut instead, but didn’t get many runs. And when the squad was named for the winter tour of the West Indies, I was in and Stephenson was out. Our county coach, Keith Fletcher, told me that not being chosen for The Oval had been a blessing in disguise, though I’m not sure I saw it that way at the time.
Fast forward 10 years and my first series as england captain ended with a farcical defeat by New Zealand at The Oval, which led to me getting booed on the balcony as I did the post-match interview. To be honest, I couldn’t blame the crowd.
We had just gone to the bottom of the Test rankings, and we had picked the longest tail in the history of the game, with Andy Caddick at No 8, followed by Alan Mullally, Phil Tufnell and ed Giddins.
It was a bit of a wake-up call for english cricket. Duncan Fletcher had just taken over as coach, and he said to me: ‘You’re not the best side in Test cricket, but you’re not the worst.’ Trouble was, we were making some dreadful selections. People said I was in tears, but I wasn’t, I was just struck by the amount of work we needed to do.
A year later, when I was holding aloft the Wisden Trophy at The Oval after we had won a series against the West Indies for the first time since 1969, it felt like we were going in the right direction.
That was a big moment, and I’ve still got the photo at home of the team on the balcony with the trophy. I grew up with the West Indies ‘blackwashes’, so to beat a side which still had Brian Lara, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh meant a lot. The fact I made a pair in that game didn’t matter a jot.
Oval Tests against Australia sometimes provided us with a consolation win, as in 1997, when Caddick and Tufnell bowled us to victory and we charged off as if we had won the series (we had lost 3-2). But the Ashes Test that really sticks in my mind is 2001, when Steve Waugh hobbled his way to 157 not out. he had torn his calf two games earlier, and there was this annoying air of inevitability about his innings that day.
I still remember him diving for the crease to bring up his hundred, with his red rag sticking out of his pocket, and dust flying everywhere. It wound me up, but that was Steve Waugh for you — a great fighter.
Of the Oval Tests I missed while I was a player, 1998 sticks in my mind. england had just beaten South Africa, and had to play a one-off game against Sri Lanka on a dusty pitch, which the boys and coach David Lloyd weren’t very happy about.
I had a groin injury, so I was listening on the radio somewhere in London, and england had made 445 batting first after Sri Lanka had put them in. But they hit back with 591, before Muttiah Muralith- aran spun england out on the last day. I did wonder how on earth we lost that game.
In terms of Oval Tests I’ve commentated on, I was very impressed by South Africa’s win in 2012. england had closed the first day on 267 for three, which was an echo of that 1998 game — first innings runs at The Oval do not always guarantee you victory.
Sure enough, hashim Amla made a triple-hundred, South Africa got 637 for two declared and won easily. It was an impressive fightback.
It is hard, though, to get past the last day of the 2005 Ashes. I didn’t see all of it, because Sky needed me in their studios over in Isleworth in west London, but the way Kevin Pietersen played after being dropped at slip by Shane Warne will always live in the memory.
There was a spell after lunch, when the whole country was on tenterhooks, when he kept hooking Brett Lee — either over the fence or just out of reach of fine leg. It was thrilling stuff.
I had the radio on when the umpires removed the bails and signalled england’s first Ashes win for nearly two decades.
After all the beatings england had taken from Australia during my time as a player, it was a sweet moment — one of the very best from The Oval.