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Marylebone Cricket Club in Canada 2005
Alberta v MCC
Riley Park, Calgary, Alberta
Tony Pasternak
28 September 2005 (50 overs match)
Umpires: Rob Bailey and Ron Saywack
MCC 235 (49.4 overs, NRD Compton 96, CJ Rogers 53, BJ Claypole 21; H Osbourne 3-24, Z Hussain 2-39)
Alberta XI 121 (44.5 overs, C Dhami 26, R Moorthy 22 n.o.; N Kendrick 3-11, R Illingworth 3-16)
Click here for the Scorecard
Click here for to view SHAW TV coverage of this event (requires Windows Media Player)
Alberta Bound
 In the timeless debate on the merits of journey versus destination, for Gordon Lightfoot and his songwriting back in 1971 the latter was the clear winner. 34 years later it was ditto for Col. Tim Lerwill’s and Captain Tom Harrison’s Marylebone Cricket Club A Grade squad and the Calgary stop on their 2005 Canada tour. On a reasonably frigid late September day at Riley Park, MCC achieved their prime aim of promoting hi-grade cricket in the outposts by sporting example on the field and professional behaviour off it, first quickly adapting to the somewhat fierce weather conditions and ultimately exposing the possibilities for scoring groundstrokes on Riley’s perennially slow outfield, and finally with their attack tying the Alberta XI batsmen in more knots than a herd of rodeo calves.
When Lightfoot was penning his Alberta classic, the MCC’s Neil Kendrick was likely just off his bowling mark, no doubt already toddling in to deliver back-yard spin back in Bromley. In these parts, five seconds is a good calf-roping time, but the ex-Surrey left-arm convinced for an unbroken 10-over spell that variably-flighted, good-length deliveries can repeatedly lassoo their dogies in much less time than that.
With nine-test veteran Richard Illingworth simultaneously and elegantly constructing his own 10- over web from the other end, and with the southpaw pair sharing six wickets equally between them for a paltry 27 runs, the paralyzation of Alberta’s batting was complete. It quivered a little while keeper Anuraj Gupta, last-minute replacement for Edmonton’s Damien Persaud, and Rathan (Rabbit) Moorthy forged the best Alberta partnership, but that was for the last wicket, though from 84 for 9 it seemed almost a micro-triumph that AB had passed half the MCC total of 235.
Marylebone openers David Balcombe (Hampshire) and Ben Claypole (Australian Country XI) had prepared an excellent platform from which Illingworth and Kendrick could operate, extracting lift and movement from a pitch playing more like the deck of a North Atlantic trawler, while steadily reducing Alberta to 47 for 3. Only opener Charanjiv Dhami of the top order skillfully played through it all before moving on to meet his fate with the spinners.
Earlier, winning the toss and perhaps sportingly offering to bat in the cold, damp conditions complete with a watery light, MCC had felt a smidgeon of uncertainty at 2 for 2 thanks to Hylton Osbourne and Edmonton’s Salman Chaudhary. Even the appearance of the enigmatic no.3 Nick Compton, the great man Denis being his grandfather, for a while did little to allay that. To Alberta supporters, some relatively uneducated in matters of the middle, explanations offered by team-mates for the grandson’s early survivalist period, highlighted by an array of inside and bottom edges, aroused the misguided possibility that this lot could be skittled.
But Compton’s game rose in class as the runs accumulated, and though a procession of partners found their way back to the pavilion without each adding more than 20 or so to the MCC total, a union of increasing equality with Norfolk’s Carl Rogers produced 96 runs of eventually commanding assurance. Compton, already the maker of a fine tour century against Canada in a winning draw at Toronto, by now was dominating the bowling, banging a series of 3s and 4s off Alberta’s own spin pairing of Farrukh Abbas and Moorthy, most scintillating bullets along (though some not quite through) the long-haired Riley outfield. Not all his efforts were ground-hugging, the best airshot finding the empty park paddling pool, hitting concrete rather than the ice some MCC onlookers expected to have been present and available for skating, given the minimal effect the fleeting sun had so far had on the day’s temperatures.
Requiring but one further boundary for his century, Compton at last disappointed and was dismissed top edging and holing out to the sure-handed Dhami at deepish square leg off the heretofore toiling Moorthy. Sure-handedness was not the watchword for Alberta’s fielding on this day, as they were to easily lead the dropped-catch count by six to nil from MCC.
Compton’s had been an innings of many qualities, a full explanation of which can best be obtained by applying to any of his enthusiastically supportive teammates!
Sensing the last of the tail would possibly not quite match what had gone before, Rogers at 215 for 7 now hit out even more fiercely, though a couple of his less memorable attempts brought with them images of the asylum, prompting a proposal to change his aerospatial nickname to one more reminiscent of the Canadian dollar coin. But he too survived, and a big six got him his 50, promptly followed by a stumping produced by the deserving Moorthy and keeper Gupta, who later claimed all the credit.
Alberta openers Osbourne and Salman returned to clean up the soon-to-be-spinning duo of Illingworth and Kendrick, Hylton ending with a very respectable 3 for 24 from his 10 over allotment.
Alberta’s performance in this arena should not be underestimated, as it was against an A-grade MCC team sporting a pair of ex-England internationals and a small host of solid county professionals, some with considerable aspirations. Messrs. Lerwill and Harrison were leading a talented squad a mere level below the test-competitive grade this venerable cricket club, in existence since 1787 and with over 700 playing members, can produce. B& C level tours are also conducted each year to a number of countries. According to MCC officials, Canadian cricket is well-deserving of the A-grade tour it attracted as the local 2005 season came to a close.
However, it goes without saying that a tremendous amount of work has yet to be done if our local players are to contribute meaningfully to the representative teams that aim to consolidate Canada’s position at or near the top of the ICC A nations.
Adding to the usual development challenges, Calgary has, among the major Canadian cricket centres, a special facilities obstacle which hopefully this year’s C&DCL leaders may have gone some way to removing. The lengthy Riley Park grass, without even medicinal purpose, has always had to go. But it clearly will not, so the prospect of a city-sponsored NorthWest ground by 2007 featuring a purpose-manicured outfield and an up-to-date artificial pitch may be the tonic.
Perhaps Zulfikhar, who was among many of our best this year to again flay local bowling in the classic agricultural Calgary fashion, can be forgiven for trying on the hoiks with the MCC attack. Contrasting his fellow opener, the doughty and probably thoughtful Dhami, he may even momentarily have caused some blood to course through some veins on a very parky park morning, crashing 19 fast and lofty runs before the inevitable and as-quick demise. But as if the point Alberta Captain Manzoor Chaudhary has repeatedly made needed further making, it is obvious that until our Calgary players can adopt correct batting methods, they shall continue to be seriously susceptible to high class cricketers playing by the book, let alone to provincial and Canadian selectors. That the A class of MCC could on a first visit demonstrate scoring groundstrokes to be possible even at Riley Park highlights the gulf in technique and class that currently exists.
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