By Will 2 years ago, mid-August Leave a comment on this post
I was never much of an autograph hunter in my youth. Perhaps my Dad instilled it in me, but the only autographs I ever wanted were from people I considered great: Weekes, Sobers, Haynes…err, Gatting. In fact, during a Middlesex game I ran down the steps in the Mound Stand to where Angus Fraser was grazing, at fine-leg, and queued up to get his autograph. In front of me was a portly, middle-aged gentleman who (can’t believe I remember this) had two pairs of glasses: one on top of his head, and the other on his nose. What amazed me, though - I was about 12 at the time - was the book or tome he was holding. In it contained thousands of autographs, not just of cricketers but seemingly anyone able to scrawl their name with a biro. To this day I wondered what fascinated him so much about it all. Why would anyone want an autograph anyway? The only reason I got Angus’s was to try and have a chat with him and ask him how I could play for Middlesex!
Anyway, enough ramblings. Two rather interesting letters in the Times for tomorrow:
Sir, I have just returned with three small boys from watching a wonderful English victory at Headingley, just the sort of day to get our young captivated by the sport. But, alas, no longer do the players pop out at lunch to sign autographs, as Lloyd and Gower did for me as a child; and so we went to where they leave. After waiting for an hour most of them walked straight past. The worst offenders were those who are supposed to be role models for our young, such as one who pretended to be on the phone and our captain, who ignored everyone. Considering play finished at 3pm surely they had a spare moment?
JANE HARPER
Kirkbymoorside, N YorksSir, What was striking about the crowd at the Headingley Test — aided by the sensible ticket pricing — was the great diversity of the crowd. Around me sat people from 8 to 80, from every class, women of all ages, England and Pakistani supporters intermingled, even a solitary — though somewhat baffled — Estonian student.
STEPHEN O’LOUGHLIN
Huddersfield, W Yorks
Ignoring my cynicism and indifference to the world of autograph hunting, it’s sad that the England players alluded to above didn’t have the time to sign anything. I can’t imagine that is in anyway a reflection on the team, though.
Tags: angus-fraser, autograph-hunting, autographs, england, lords, middlesex |
Gatting was a great player. He hurt his reputation by playing in Australia in 1994/95, which was a tour too far, but he was a real tough nut, and he remains the last Englishman to come to Australia and leave a winner.
There’s only three English captains who have done that, and he deserves more respect then he gets, IMHO.
Only three? Jardine, Hutton, Illingworth, Brearley, Gatting…
Never had much time for Gatting to be honest. He blotted his copybook by taking the apartheid shilling - although who wasn’t as bad as Embuery who did it once, was banned, came back into the test side and then did it again!
First autograph - Derek Underwood.
Most treasured - Sir Garfield Sobers.
Never been an autograph hunter, but I did once stand next to Gavin Larsen in a lift.
1) The players are there to win test matches are England, not become public authograph signing machines
2) Everytime i go to Old Trafford, the players sign every autograph that the people by the stairs to the dressing rooms want, and there’s normaly about 15 people who want things signing.
People should stop being so hung up on autographs, they mean nothing.
Once a harmless enough pursuit, autographs now have some differing pressures. A number of players refuse to sign autographs now because, in the words of an AFL player last year , “I signed the footie and five minutes later it was on eBay”. I guess it is a bit hard to distinguish the genuine enthusiast from the gold digger.
I went to the VideoCon bash in Amsterdam a couple of years ago to see Australia play India, but the match was delayed by rain. Steve Bucknor came out to inspect the pitch and signed loads of autographs. An Indian friend of mine asked why I didn’t join in the chaos, “Nah,” said I, “an old woman like me in the middle of a bunch of kids? It will look stupid.” So the bunch of raving kids then ran off en masse to chase Michael Slater and Kapil Dev leaving me standing alone with Mr. Bucknor. We looked at each other for a minute, looked at the sky, looked at the soaking pitch. I said the first thing that came into my head, to avoid looking like a complete plonker, “Can I have your autograph please, Mr. B?” He laughed and was a real gentleman about it.
kamino auto graph kaha par hai
kad mara rahe ho kya
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