Encounters with the Stars

The Old Batsman writes about seeing Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey in the street in London.

I can't remember seeing any properly famous cricketers in the street. I don't think Keith Tomlins (of Middlesex and Gloucestershire non-fame) and Kevin Jarvis (the man who once said that if he could bowl at himself it would be 'an amputation job to get the ball out of my hand') really count, although I hope someone out there remembers them.

However, I did once share a Port Elizabeth hotel with the England team and its media pack.

At one point I was walking, alone, down a corridor, and, coming in the other direction, also alone, was Ian Botham. He looked at me, I looked at him. He looked suspicious, I probably just looked sunburnt after a day spent frying in the St.George's Park sunshine. Neither of us said anything, although I had the distinct impression that he expected me to, probably because he was all too used to people thinking they knew him when they didn't and treating him like a lost friend when he hadn't got a clue who they were. I reflected later on our wordless encounter, thinking about the fact that while he'd never consciously seen me before and knew nothing about me, I knew his name, when and where he was born, the names of his wife and children, where he grew up, went to school, and so on and so on. To all intents and purposes I did know him. But then again I didn't.

Another member of my party opened the door of his hotel room to find Bob Willis bowling a tennis ball down the corridor at Mark Ramprakash.

I think he played and missed.

Line and Length, Pace and Spin

After their conservative display at Lord's, where they seemed content to bide their time and wait for Flintoff to return, England's crushing defeat of Pakistan at Old Trafford came as a welcome relief, and a sign that they had come to terms with the fact that they won't be seeing their mate Freddie for another few months and they'd better try to get along without him.

On an unusually helpful surface Steve Harmison produced his best display of fast bowling for more than two years and Monty Panesar again demonstrated what a magnificent bowler he could become.

England haven't had a slow bowler with Panesar's ability to spin the ball since Derek Underwood, and when you consider the fact that he appears unafraid of both reputations and flighting the ball, he could go a very long way indeed.

The apparent obsession with his lack of fielding and batting ability appears increasingly irrelevant. Anyone who's been around the cricket block for more than a couple of years will remember players who make Monty look like Ricky Ponting (Kevin Jarvis and Jim Griffiths to name only two), and, while he clearly struggles in the field, he's working hard to improve and England seem to be doing a very good job of hiding him thus far.

Panesar appears to have captured the public's imagination in a way that few cricketers have managed in recent years and, as an example of the evolution of his country as a multi-racial, multi-faith, multi-cultural society at something approaching ease with itself, the response of English crowds this summer has been resonant and fascinating.

Up until Old Trafford I felt that Ashley Giles would almost certainly return to the side as soon as he's fit, but I'm starting to have my doubts.

Perhaps even Duncan Fletcher is as well.