waca wonder jack was unlikely hero
Richard Edwards looks back to 1986 when Jack Richards earned his place in English cricket folklore with a heroic performance in Perth
Bloody hell fire!” Those were the first three words uttered by Jack Richards as he strapped his pads on and walked into the nets for England’s first practice session at the WACA in November 1986.
“The first ball I faced flew over my shoulder before I really had a chance to move,” he says. “It was like batting on ice, I had never seen anything like it. The pitch at the WACA was lightning fast but the nets were off the scale.”
After winning in Brisbane – we’ll just let those words settle in for a minute – England headed to Perth in high spirits. Their wicketkeeper, though, was still searching for an elusive first as he prepared for his second Test following his debut at the Gabba.
“I had played all round a straight one and been given out LBW off a full toss in Brisbane,” he says. “I had taken a catch and a stumping in a Test match, which was a huge thing for me, but I still needed to score a run.”
It was the Surrey man’s second Test tour, having travelled with England to India and Sri Lanka as Bob Taylor’s understudy in 1981/82. This, though, was something else entirely – a chance to make history against Australia on an Ashes tour.
The now 59-year-old Cornishman tells The Cricket Paper that it was the stuff of dreams.
“I had left school before doing my A Levels and hadn’t gone to college,” he says. “To be honest, I had to catch up and going to Australia as a deputy wicketkeeper seemed to be the perfect chance to do some studying because I had started training as an optician.
“That summer I had pretty much given up on England so on my days off I had started working part-time as an optician in Surrey. An Ashes tour is a long one so I ended up taking an awful lot of study books with me. I was actually planning on taking my tests to become an optician when I got home. That was the plan. In the end, I think most of the books actually got left in Perth.”
There might have been some questioning Richards’ own eyesight after his batting aberration in Queensland, but once he had got off the mark at the WACA, any fears over his ability with the willow were swept aside.
“I always enjoyed playing overseas, I think I rose to the challenge,” he says. “I was quite happy after Brisbane because I had waited so long to play a Test. It was a typical English mentality, I guess. I had got that cap.
“At Perth, Bill Athey and Chris Broad had scored a ton of runs, then things didn’t go so well. I think at one stage we were about 300-5 and could have easily been turned over for 400, which wasn’t the greatest of scores at Perth.
“I came in to join (David) Gower and we knew that we had to get more runs. I got off the mark and I was happy – I had done everything, got a Test cap, taken a Test catch, a Test stumping and now I had scored a run!
“I think I was picked for my ability to play in adversity, but the big challenge for me then was to get over 13 because I was hugely superstitious. I was driving Gower mad, I think. It was probably my lack of confidence but I just kept saying to him that I needed to get past that number.”
That unlucky figure was left way behind as Richards and Gower built a partnership of 207 in the baking Perth heat against a wilting Australian attack. Richards eventually brought his hundred up with ‘not the greatest shot’ through point. It was a seminal moment in his career and had helped to put England in an unassailable position in a Test that would eventually end as a relatively mundane draw. But even with that century behind him, Richards knew that his future was far from certain.
“I had managed to play county cricket for a decade but as a cricketer then, there was no real certainty, particularly in a financial sense,” he says. “I think I got paid £8,000 for that tour but the most I ever made as a Surrey cricketer was £40,000 in a year. You had to really beg to get a benefit year and were then left to do everything yourself. It wasn’t easy.”
Richards would play six more Tests for his country, finishing his England career against the West Indies on his home ground in August 1988 with scores of 0 and 3 as the tourists romped to an eight-wicket win.
It was an inglorious end but by then Richards had already made up his mind that his future lay away from the sport. Just 18 months after returning from Australia – via Fiji and Hawaii rather than direct to Heathrow with the rest of the side – Richards took the decision to turn his back on cricket. And for the best part of 20 years, he didn’t look back.
“Other countries in the world tend to salute and respect their old internationals but that has never really seemed to be the case in England,” says Richards, who now lives in Belgium but travels the world as a shipping consultant.
“When you have successful sides, they never really seem to be recognised. I’m not sure that 1986/87 have got together officially since we won the Ashes. That seems amazing given that it took us another 24 years to win them in Australia again.
“It was totally astonishing to go to Australia and win that series and no-one really seems to have an answer as to why that team never really played together again.
“The real reason, I guess, was the fact that no-one was ever sure of their place in the side. If you had one or two bad Tests then that was you done.”
Richards’ eventually arrived back in England in the spring of 1987 via a ferry to Harwich and a train to Liverpool Street. The current England side would give anything for such a low-key return if things continue to go downhill.
The big challenge for me was to get over 13 as I was hugely superstitious. I drove [David] Gower mad saying I needed to get past that number