Lives in Cricket No 14 - Jack Bond

Peter Lever, who quotes Jack’s tactics as a brilliant piece of captaincy, maintains that he and Shuttleworth were both perfectly fit and keen to play, but he knew that Jack’s plan was to have bowlers who would get through their overs quickly. ‘So they’d be playing for lunch, then playing themselves in again after lunch and there wouldn’t be too many overs left.’ Three run-outs in the latter stages were evidence of the plan’s success, but the strong Warwickshire batting line-up nevertheless reached 234 for nine, setting a target that had never been achieved in a decade of finals. There was a sedate response for a while before Clive Lloyd opened his shoulders to play, in the words of Wisden , ‘one of the finest innings imaginable’, his 126 ensuring that the match was won by four wickets with more than three overs to spare. The season was rounded off when Kent, as winners of the John Player League, returned to Old Trafford to play a challenge match against Lancashire as Gillette winners. The home side won by just four runs. By this time, though, Jack had played his last innings for Lancashire – c Hemmings b Jameson 18 – dismissed shortly before Warwickshire were beaten by four wickets in the season’s last John Player match. 110 ‘The finest captain I played under’ Cedric Rhoades, Farokh Engineer, Jack Simmons and Jack Bond with the trophy after the 1972 Gillette final. Jack remains the only captain who has won the knock-out competition three times.