there are call-ups... and there are proper call-ups
Roderick Easdale looks back at those players lucky enough to be ‘selected’ by England, but unlucky enough to be ‘unselected’
When Illingworth became chairman of selectors in 1994, his philosophy seemed to be: ‘If in doubt, pick one from Yorkshire’
Will Mark Footitt’s impressive form herald an England call up? The 31year-old has certainly not given up hope:“I still have ambitions to play for England.You can never say you are too old – Gareth Batty got a re-call when he was 38. If you are performing well I can’t see why you can’t get picked.”
Footitt was in the touring party for the South African tour two winters ago, but was not selected for any of the Tests. He is thus one of a small band to have been picked for England, yet not to have actually ever played a Test match. It’s an exclusive club cricketers don’t wish to be in.
Peter Sainsbury
Peter Sainsbury was selected for a tour – and then unselected the next day – without him knowing of either decision. He only found out about it almost 50 years later.
Sainsbury took 1,316 first-class wickets at 24 a piece and was a superb fieldsman who was a good enough bat to make seven centuries.
When it was decided to call up an extra spinner to reinforce Peter May’s injury-hit tourists in 1958-59, the selectors plumped for Sainsbury. But the next day they had a rethink and opted instead for the uncapped off-spin of John Mortimore.
Mortimore made his debut in the final Ashes Test of that tour and, after Jim Laker went home after the Australian leg, played two more Tests in New Zealand. He took three wickets across these three matches.
Sainsbury is the only man to play in both of Hampshire’s Championshipwinning sides – the teams of 1961 and 1973. In 1973, by now 39, he took 49 championship wickets at 17.73 and was second in the national bowling averages.
David Thomas
In 1980 one of Surrey’s opening bowlers was chosen in the 12 for the final Test of the summer. In those days championship games started on Wednesdays and Saturdays; Test matches on Thursdays, so the one omitted did twelth-man duties on the first two days and then left to play for his county. Thus it was that Robin Jackman learnt from the receptionist at the England hotel that he was to be left out – he was only booked in for two nights.
Jackman did at least go on to play Test cricket later, unlike his opening partner, David Thomas. Thomas bowled rapid left-arm inswing for Surrey three decades before Footitt and was man of the match in the 1982 NatWest Trophy final. He was called into the 12 for the
final Test of 1983. He, too, failed to progress from the 12 to the 11. Willis and Botham opened the bowling, with Norman Cowans as first change.
The popular Thomas – “he brought life and soul into any dressing-room,” remembers Jackman – retired aged 29 when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and died a
Tony Nicholson
Dickie Bird has called Fred Trueman’s opening bowling partner at Yorkshire, Tony Nicholson, “the unluckiest player not to play for England”. Nicholson took 879 first-class wickets at 19.76.
He was picked to go to South Africa in 1964-65, but had to drop out before the tour began through back injury. The selectors never chose him again. It was thought that his modest batting and fielding prowess were held against him.
Richard Stemp
When Raymond Illingworth became chairman of selectors in 1994, his philosophy seemed to be ‘if in doubt, pick one from Yorkshire’. So, in his first series in charge, Yorkshire men Craig White, Darren Gough and Steve Rhodes all received debuts. As to whom the spinners should be – how about the chap playing for Yorkshire, Richard Stemp?
Who England’s best spinners were at the time was not clear – particularly to the selectors. The previous winter Salisbury and Tufnell had been the twirlers for the tourists.
But for the first Test of the 1994 season, it was Such and Stemp who were the spinners in the 12, with Stemp missing out when England went for a four-man pace attack and only one spinner.
Stemp was 12th man for the second Test as well, before losing his place in the 12, and as 12th man, to Ian Salisbury for the 3rd Test. When Such was dropped for the following Test, it was Shaun Udal who replaced him in the 12, and Salisbury in the eleven. (Udal was to make his Test debut 11 years later.)
Then for the fifth Test of the summer Tufnell was recalled to be the sole spinner – and then England played the final Test with an all-pace attack supported by Hick’s occasional offies.
Tufnell and Udal were selected for that following winter’s Ashes tour, with Such on standby. Meanwhile, Stemp never featured in England’s selection policy again.
Alan Jones
You cannot get closer to being a Test cricketer than Alan Jones did. In fact, he was considered one for two years.
His sole game for England was against the Rest of the World in 1970. At the time this was considered a Test match, but in July 1972 the ICC removed Test status from this series.
With Boycott and Cowdrey asking not to be selected through poor form and John Edrich injured, Glamorgan’s dogged 32-year-old left-handed opener was called up for his Test, or rather, England 1st XI debut, to open with fellow debutant Brian Luckhurst in the first match of the series. After making 5 and 0 he was dropped for the returning Edrich.
Jones’ 36,049 first-class runs are the most by anyone not to have played Test cricket.
A quirk of history is that Jones was awarded, and retained, an England blazer, cap and jumper despite not being a Test player whereas some actual Test players – those who played only in Tests abroad, for which MCC colours were worn until 1996/7 – did not get these.
Henry Blofeld
A gastric bug had swept through the England touring party and the day before the Bombay test of 1964 England were left with only 10 fit men, and no chance of summoning replacements in time.
David Clark, the tour manager, took journalist Henry Blofeld, aside...
“You and I are the only others out here who have played first-class cricket – and you are much younger than me,” he told the 24-year-old Cambridge Blue. “Try to get to bed before midnight.” Chatting to Blowers about this, when I ask whether he went to bed expecting to play, the reply comes out in an unusually soft voice: “hoping, hoping.”
But when vice-captain Micky Stewart heard of the situation, he discharged himself from hospital and declared himself fit to play.
He was not, and was back in hospital by the tea interval of the first day, so unwell as to be not only out of the rest of the Test, (India’s 12th man fielded in his place) but of the tour.
Has Blowers forgiven Stewart? “Oh heavens yes. It was never a question of that...
“Anyway, I was so unfit I would probably have been dispatched to the hospital even quicker than he was!”