Terrific Ted would have been a huge hit in IPL
THE Indian Premier League reaches its climax on Tuesday after a protracted but entertaining path.
The unaffiliated viewer has little idea which teams are which and who is doing what but it is eminently watchable all the same.
Watching AB de Villiers batting for the Royal Challengers Bangalore on Friday and Jason Holder bowling for the Sunrisers Hyderabad underlined the skills on show in cricket’s glitziest T20 tournament.
The IPL has thrived despite being moved to the United Arab Emirates and being played without packed stadia and cheerleaders. Good cricket is good cricket whatever the backdrop and format.
The IPL is very much of its time and place. Previous generations of players would have been stunned by the innovation and variety now commonplace but you imagine a handful would have fared very well.
One who springs to mind is Ted Dexter. With the bits of plywood that passed for bats in the 1960s, Lord Ted (right) hit two of the biggest sixes ever seen at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He would have been a danger to passing traffic with today’s more powerful bats.
His aggressive mentality at the crease would have been a perfect fit. He played Test cricket like it was the limited overs game. His 70 from 75 balls against Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith in 1963 has gone down in Lord’s history as one of the great innings despite its relative brevity.
He did, he confesses in his new book 85 Not
Out, take aim at one West Indian quick bowler on his follow through.
The book is an enjoyable romp through the fullest of lives. Not many players can claim to have hit the Duke of Edinburgh for three successive sixes, flown with Douglas Bader and been complimented by Gary Player as the finest amateur striker of a golf ball he had seen. He would have connected with a cricket ball just as well in the IPL.