Lives in Cricket No 14 - Jack Bond

left-armer, you can try and make sure they’re bowling to the batsman you want them to bowl at.’ The final piece in the jigsaw was a new wicket-keeper. While Keith Goodwin would continue to serve Lancashire loyally and well, the recruitment of Farokh Engineer (as their overseas player) gave the county an international keeper and a dashing bat whose runs would be made with panache. Soon he would become as true a Lancastrian as those born in Bolton or Rochdale. Engineer had made his first visit to England with the Indian tourists the previous summer. He recalls the match that had been hurriedly switched to Southport, when he had ‘given it a whack’ at the top of the order, only to discover on returning to the pavilion that the bowler he had carted over the railway line had been Brian Statham, one of his childhood heroes. His enterprising approach made him an attractive proposition to several counties, but he chose Lancashire because he knew of the friendliness of the Lancashire people. It was a signing for which Jack would always be grateful, seldom making a tactical move without consulting his wicket-keeper, while for Farokh there was to be a first summer in which he would learn of the many pubs that would still be open for ‘one last nightcap’ as his one-time hero, Brian Statham, motored him around the country. ‘You’ll have to have all your teeth out’ 65 Farokh Engineer, ‘keeping with panache’.