Lives in Cricket No 14 - Jack Bond

What went wrong? Players who remember both periods admit that the side of the early 1970s, with its high quotient of international players, was vastly superior to the teams put out at the start of the next decade. By the time Jack returned, Lever and Engineer had both retired, the Indian to be replaced by a string of less capable keeper-batsmen, Shuttleworth had moved to Leicestershire and faded out of the game and Wood had switched to Derbyshire, while Pilling’s efforts were now directed towards helping the second team. David Lloyd soldiered on till the end of 1982, while Hayes batted well in 1980, but soon became a victim of injury and was a waning talent by the time of his retirement in 1983. Jack Simmons remained, but age was not his ally, while David Hughes declined as a wicket-taking bowler, though his batting developed. These two, with Clive Lloyd, who returned to Lancashire after missing the 1980 season to captain the West Indian tourists, were the last of those who had been part of the earlier triumphs. Inevitably there were promising new players who burst upon the scene, often to a fanfare of optimistic publicity. But Jack goes through the list of the men who never really made it. For one it was a lack of passion for the game, with a couple of others nerves proved too inhibiting, for another alcohol was his secret undoing, while there were those who simply lacked fight when the chips were down. Only two new players, Graeme Fowler and Paul Allott, made it into the Test side. There might have been one more had the South African-born Neil Radford been more inclined to listen to advice. Jack grew tired of stressing to him the importance of getting close to the stumps. ‘It was only after he had gone to Worcestershire that he must have listened to someone.’ In 1985, his first season with his new county, Radford was the country’s leading wicket-taker and went on to win three Test caps. At no time did Lancashire have a truly settled side. So playing for a place once again became a priority in a squad already less cohesive for having more disparate ages. From his time as captain Jack had seen the price that can be paid when players are called up for Test cricket. Now the problem raised its head again: ‘All they could talk about was England – even when they came back to play games for us. “They do it this way with England, they do it that way”. They’re shoving that down everybody’s throat, which isn’t good for morale in the dressing room.’ ‘I don’t mean me – I mean thee!’ 123