His master’s voice
Hadlee relives the golden 80s and says the greatest person he met is outside cricket’s sphere.
If you didn’t know he was Sir Richard Hadlee, you would probably mistake him as a teacher of linguistics or a holy prophet. This is Hadlee at 65, now with a dull haze of white hair and self-deprecating style of story-telling. In the city to promote a strategic alliance with Tata Trusts about community development through sport, Hadlee charmed the small gathering at the Bombay House, as he harked back on his era, the golden 1980s, admitting that he would be a misfit in this age.
Would he never adapt to the demand of 20 overs?
To this day he remains searingly honest about where he stood among the quartet of fast-bowling all-rounders. And to this day, he continues to rate Imran Khan as the best of the lot for his consistency, calling his own batting the “weak link”. “I had a couple of Test hundreds and a 99 (in Christchurch, 1984). England got 80-odd in each innings. So it was pretty impressive even though I felt one short of a hundred,” Hadlee said, adding unabashedly that he was the bowling superior of the four.
“We had some fine ding-dong battles. Technology was a different back then. We would read three days after a match that Kapil (Dev) took five-wickets or Beefy (Ian Botham) hit a hundred. In the one-on-one encounters, we always wanted to outperform and out-skill the other.”
Then he shared a fascinating story behind his modified, shortened runup. Hadlee started bowling at 23 paces and reduced it to 15, following his experience with the Nottinghamshire County. Hadlee reminisced, “The Sunday League games had a 15-metre run-up. We weren’t allowed to go beyond that. I had figures of 6/12 in my last Sunday League match at the Notts in 1980. The chairman told me I must be back even if I bowled off two paces. I made a decision to stick to 15 paces, for it made my action efficient and effective. I was criticised by the media and fellow-players.
“They felt I was taking short cuts, for as a fast-bowler I should not be running in from 15 yards. You don’t need a long run-up. All the run-up does is gets you to the crease in the right position. In our days, we’d have eight-ball overs. If you were hit for two fours, it would be a long over. I was so pleased when the six-ball overs were introduced.”
Cricket wasn’t all during the 30-minute illumining interaction.
For Hadlee, the greatest Test match was recovering from the debilitating heart disease, Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, which taught him to not abuse life. And the greatest person he met was outside the sphere of cricket, Nelson Mandela. Hadlee said, “He was incarcerated for 26 years. When he came out, he acted forgiveness. And that was the greatest gift or legacy he could give to the world.”
‘D/N TESTS THE FUTURE’
MUMBAI Backing the move of pushing for day-night Test matches, Sir Richard Hadlee said that it is beneficial for the future of the game as it not only attracted crowds, but was also more suitable for television viewing. “What we saw at the Adelaide Oval was a wonderful spectacle. Clearly it attracted the crowds and is great for television,” he said. Hadlee felt that the pink ball had behaved better than expected. “It performed better for players than they expected, because there was some controversy and lack of confidence from players whether actually the pink ball will last.”
If you didn’t know he was Sir Richard Hadlee, you would probably mistake him as a teacher of linguistics or a holy prophet. This is Hadlee at 65, now with a dull haze of white hair and self-deprecating style of story-telling. In the city to promote a strategic alliance with Tata Trusts about community development through sport, Hadlee charmed the small gathering at the Bombay House, as he harked back on his era, the golden 1980s, admitting that he would be a misfit in this age.
Would he never adapt to the demand of 20 overs?
“At 65, I don’t think I’ll be that fit,” he remarked, eliciting peals of laughter. “I wouldn’t exchange my playing days for anything. It would have frustrated me to come in at No.7 and score 10 off four balls or being nicked through the slips where there’s no one to take the chance. Imagine bowling a classic out-swinger outside the off-stump only to watch it sail over the grand stand.”
To this day he remains searingly honest about where he stood among the quartet of fast-bowling all-rounders. And to this day, he continues to rate Imran Khan as the best of the lot for his consistency, calling his own batting the “weak link”. “I had a couple of Test hundreds and a 99 (in Christchurch, 1984). England got 80-odd in each innings. So it was pretty impressive even though I felt one short of a hundred,” Hadlee said, adding unabashedly that he was the bowling superior of the four.
“We had some fine ding-dong battles. Technology was a different back then. We would read three days after a match that Kapil (Dev) took five-wickets or Beefy (Ian Botham) hit a hundred. In the one-on-one encounters, we always wanted to outperform and out-skill the other.”
Then he shared a fascinating story behind his modified, shortened runup. Hadlee started bowling at 23 paces and reduced it to 15, following his experience with the Nottinghamshire County. Hadlee reminisced, “The Sunday League games had a 15-metre run-up. We weren’t allowed to go beyond that. I had figures of 6/12 in my last Sunday League match at the Notts in 1980. The chairman told me I must be back even if I bowled off two paces. I made a decision to stick to 15 paces, for it made my action efficient and effective. I was criticised by the media and fellow-players.
“They felt I was taking short cuts, for as a fast-bowler I should not be running in from 15 yards. You don’t need a long run-up. All the run-up does is gets you to the crease in the right position. In our days, we’d have eight-ball overs. If you were hit for two fours, it would be a long over. I was so pleased when the six-ball overs were introduced.”
Cricket wasn’t all during the 30-minute illumining interaction.
For Hadlee, the greatest Test match was recovering from the debilitating heart disease, Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, which taught him to not abuse life. And the greatest person he met was outside the sphere of cricket, Nelson Mandela. Hadlee said, “He was incarcerated for 26 years. When he came out, he acted forgiveness. And that was the greatest gift or legacy he could give to the world.”
‘D/N TESTS THE FUTURE’
MUMBAI Backing the move of pushing for day-night Test matches, Sir Richard Hadlee said that it is beneficial for the future of the game as it not only attracted crowds, but was also more suitable for television viewing. “What we saw at the Adelaide Oval was a wonderful spectacle. Clearly it attracted the crowds and is great for television,” he said. Hadlee felt that the pink ball had behaved better than expected. “It performed better for players than they expected, because there was some controversy and lack of confidence from players whether actually the pink ball will last.”
