Bengaluru: Mike Brearley, the man who tamed Botham

Bengaluru: Known as the 'gentleman cricketer' who tamed the flamboyant Ian Botham, former England cricket captain Mike Brearley showed why he truly is cut from a different cloth.

As author Ramchandra Guha recounted, long after Brearley had retired from the game Rodney Hogg, the former Australian fast bowler had invited him to a radio show in Australia. He brought up the fact that Brearley had begun playing cricket as a wicket-keeper  when he played for Cambridge. When asked as to why he had given up the gloves, Brearley said, “I wasn’t good at it” to which Hogg replied ‘but you didn’t give up batting’. The very English Brearley, merely laughed it away!     

Former England captain Mike Brearley feels that the introduction of the Decision Review System has only improved the game despite the accusations of it 'not being 100% correct'. 'Nothing is perfect in life', said Brearley to peals of laughter, as the debate still continues on the DRS.

In an interaction with historian Ramchandra Guha and journalist Suresh Menon, Brearley spoke on his latest book 'On Cricket' which has the focus on Ranjitsinhji, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sachin Tendulkar, and Virat Kohli, all players from different eras from the Indian cricket circuit.

Brearly feels that there are certain characteristics that can be classified as Indians that are associated with the Indian brand of cricket like Englishness and Australians that are associated with England and Australia. "There is fluidity, wristiness in Indian batsmen in particular", said the Englishman on what Indian batsmen are associated with.

Brearly the Gentleman

The gentleman in Brearly was brought out by Ram Guha as he narrated an incident from the past which is mentioned in the book. The incident goes that long after Brearly had retired from the game Rodney Hogg, the former Australian fast bowler had invited him to a radio show in Australia and he brought up the fact that Brearly had begun playing cricket by wicketkeeping when he played for Cambridge. When asked as to why he had given up the gloves Brearly said, “I wasn't good at it" to which Hogg replied 'but you didn't give up batting'. He got a glowing tribute from Hogg who later said that he had a 'degree in people'. Guha pointed out that this was something which other players would hesitate in bringing up anywhere.

In another incident, Brearly recalled that during his younger days, in a match against an older group of players a giant fast bowler had happened to bowl a slower ball. He then thought, "I wish he would bowl slower balls all the time" and the feeling never left him for the next 30-40 years.

Future of Test Cricket

With test match audience dwindling around the world except for England and the introduction of a Test championship in 2019, Brearly feels that the game must be advertised better.

“I think that the game must be made accessible to the fans as much as possible to draw them to the sport and this responsibility falls with the respective boards of the countries to get that reach", he said.

Brearly captained England to 18 Test match victories out of 31 matches he captained and is well known for getting the best out of Ian Botham, a mercurial character in the 1981 Ashes series which England ended up winning 3-1.