Hayter: Let’s cut the 90s boys some slack

THE 1990s were turbulent times for English cricket, celebrated, if that is the right word, in Mark Butcher’s entertaining documentary England In The 90s and Emma John’s excellent Following On: a memoir of teenage obsession and terrible cricket.

I gather that the former England captain Mike Atherton has taken a dimmer view of those works than most, however, and that is hardly surprising when you consider he spent so much of the decade being bowled out by Glenn McGrath. And my sympathies are entirely with Iron Mike as, prior to the introduction of central contracts for England players he was operating with one arm tied firmly behind his dodgy back.

One story concerning his best mate Angus Fraser, a stalwart for Middlesex and England for whom he played 46 Tests and now a selector, underlines the point.

Gus had played a full part in England’s victory over West Indies in the second Test of the 1995 series at Lord’s, taking five for 66 in 33 overs in the first innings and sending down a further 25 economical if wicketless overs in the second as the 72-run win was clinched on the fifth afternoon.

Immediately following the post-match presentation he set off to drive the fourand-a-half hour journey to St Austell to join the Middlesex squad for their NatWest Trophy first-round match against Cornwall the following day. His hotel room, with tiny windows and broken air-conditioning, was like a sauna and the bed too small for his giraffe-like frame, so he first tried kipping on the floor then, at around 3am, gave up completely.

Middlesex won the toss and batted, Fraser hitting the final ball of their innings for six. When the minor counties team batted, he bowled just 30 deliveries, taking two for three, then retired to the boundary to contemplate the return journey to his north London home, outside which he finally pulled up at 1am.

Wednesday was a day off, but on Thursday he reported to Lord’s at 9am for Middlesex’s championship match against Surrey. Then, although he helped bowl them out twice for a three-day win completed on the Saturday, he was back in action the very next day for their Sunday League fixture in which he bowled his full complement of eight overs.

On the Monday he drove to Edgbaston to join Atherton’s squad for the third Test against West Indies and when that was lost within three days on a fiery batting track fully exploited by Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Ian Bishop and Kenny Benjamin, was ordered to drive to Bristol to play for his county in another Sunday League slog against Gloucestershire.

It is to Fraser’s eternal credit that he never once answered his critics with physical violence. On second thoughts, he was probably just too too knackered.

England cricket in the 90s. Those were the days.