Mike Gatting came close to winning the Cricket World Cup with England in India Photo: PA/Gareth Fuller
As India go Sunday they will face the Netherlands, not only the World Cup awaits them. According to Mike Gatting, the former England captain and president of Marylebone Cricket Club, the balance of power off the field has shifted sharply towards Mumbai.
With the latest Indian Premier League deal bringing in £5 billion plus a whopping 38% share of global tournament revenue, the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) apartments have never looked more luxurious.
Götting is concerned that, amid some of the biggest purses ever seen in the sport, other historic countries are in decline. Meanwhile, a growing forest of franchise T20 leagues threatens to displace the Test game.
“No country has ever had this amount of money,” said Gutting as we sat down to lunch in the village pub. last week. «Even if India says, 'We'll settle for a quarter of world income instead of 38 percent,' you'll free up a lot of money to help countries in need.
'Perhaps India will turn around and say, 'When England ruled the game, we never made a lot of money from matches against them.” But I also believe that the TCCB — as the ECB did then — will turn to support other countries when they need it.
“I would ask the BCCI to remember how much overseas players have contributed to the success of the IPL, whether we are talking about AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle or Lasith Malinga. These guys wouldn't be such big names and such great players if they hadn't come through Test cricket.»
Gutting's examples are well chosen. South Africa, De Villiers' home country, recently fielded a fringe Test team because the stars were busy with its new franchise T20 league. As for Gayle, decades of inter-island feud has led to the demise of the once-feared West Indies team.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan cricket is gripped by another round of corruption allegations — after… as Sports Minister Roshan Fernando called them «treasonous» last weekend — and Pakistan found themselves on the wrong side of horrendous discrimination at the hands of the BCCI. (Not only were Pakistani players excluded from the IPL, but they also had to endure frustrating delays before getting visas for this World Cup.)
Before stepping down as chairman of the MCC World Cricket Committee a month ago, Gatting had spent the previous six years grappling with these intractable problems. Life must have been simpler when he was just England cricket captain, although he famously caused his own political turmoil when he became involved in the umpire Shakur Rana scandal in Faisalabad in 1987.
< p>What is not so well remembered is that Gatting had just completed a highly commendable World Cup campaign in India. Fielding a team that included Graham Gooch, Allan Lamb and eight lesser-known names, England made it to the final before losing to Australia by seven runs. What would Jos Buttler's men give today for such a narrow miss?
Gatting during the 1987 Cricket World Cup final, in which involved England losing painfully to Australia. Photo: Getty Images/Adrian Murrell
“I came out at the wrong time,” Gatting recalled over our lunch. “I forgot what shot I hit,” he added slyly, referring to the reverse shot that ended up in the gloves of wicketkeeper Greg Dyer. In those days, reverse sweeps were cricket's answer to cross-dressing, so the sacking caused a furious reaction in the media. Peter May, the aristocratic figure who was then chairman of England's selection committee, said: «I looked through the MCC coaching manual and discovered that such a touch does not exist.»
Gatting's misfortune is that, despite a captaincy career that included a triumphant tour of Australia and several county titles, it is his worst moments that remain in the public consciousness. Although reverse sweep is on the list, it may not even make the top five. Number 1 will always be the 'ball of the century' bowled by a young Shane Warne. Bursting past his probing blade to clear a ball out of bounds, it prompted Martin Johnson, recently of Telegraph Sport, to joke: “How anyone can spin a ball the width of Gatting boggles the mind.”
“I also get asked a lot about the ball in the nose,” Gatting said, referring to Malcolm Marshall's bouncer, which was believed to leave bone fragments in the skin. «At the press conference that night, someone came in at the last minute, burst through the door and asked, 'Where did it hit you?' I didn't have time to say «Jamaica.» But I had five stitches on my nose and a couple of sterile strips holding it all together. So I just pointed and said, “X marks this spot.”
The incident that really sticks in the crop continues to involve Rana. “We beat Pakistan in three one-day matches, and then the President of Pakistan [General Zia-ul-Haq, who also ran the cricket board, not unlike today's Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi] came out with a statement saying they would roll heads if they didn't win the Test series.»
This ultimatum prompted some legendary one-eyed judges. “One or two of our players burst into tears after we lost the first Test in three-and-a-half days. We learned from our mistakes in the second stage and tried not to hit the cushions. But then Shakur kept telling me that I move the fielders while the bowlers are running and called me a cheater. First of all, it was not true. Secondly, he was clearly trying to stop us from getting an extra over before the close. I'm afraid that's when I lost it.»
Gatting objects to umpire Shakur Rana during the England Second Test in Pakistan in 1987. Photo: Graham Morris
It took a lot of effort to get Gatting to lose his temper because the English cricketers of the 1980s never enjoyed the amenities that their successors took for granted. On the subcontinental tours, the stressors extended beyond unplayable umpires to stomach upsets, terrifying transport (he recalls one risky domestic flight when bird strikes knocked out the plane's brakes) and numerous security warnings.
Consider Gatting's first visit to India in 1984-85. The team arrived amid the chaos surrounding the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and were then forced to gather their courage after British Deputy High Commissioner Percy Norris, who had bought them drinks the night before, was shot dead on the way to work. But the team rallied and won both Tests and one-dayers, with Gatting top-scoring in both series.
Gatting passed the mark that allowed him to score a hundred in the fourth Test against India in Chennai in 1984. Photo: Getty Images/Adrian Murrell
As is often the case, it's the details off the field that stick in the mind. “I remember wandering into a town in Kanpur and there were so many people there that we had to hide in a shoe store until the police came to rescue us,” recalls Gatting. “We invited several wives and they were a real curiosity. But management didn't want them around either. They were not allowed into the team room, and during matches they were thrown into the stands.
“It was a completely different era. We would have to spend most of the cost of the tour on transporting our wives or calling home from the team hotel every night. There weren't many international lines back then, so we had more arguments over phone time slots than anything else.
“Today, wives can watch video from a hotel booth, and they can take your children with you. That's the way it should be done.”
Common sense seems to be seeping into this most arcane of sports, even if it has not yet reached the highest echelons of cricket politics. Returning to the theme of India's behind-the-scenes dominance, Gatting compared the IPL's impact to Kerry Packer's innovations of the 1970s: floodlights, white balls and colored pajamas.
«Every cricketer benefited from Packer's lead.» He said: “Because the Australians eventually made a deal with him. Today, BCCI will always be the powerhouse. But I hope they take care of the rest of the game world.»
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