HUW TURBERVILL: The Graham Gooch versus David Gower debate polarised cricket and was a dominant theme throughout England’s dismal tour
“I consider that I might have got it wrong and that I should have accepted David for what he was – a big-match player of great natural ability, touched with genius – and simply regarded him as an automatic choice.”
The Graham Gooch versus David Gower debate polarised cricket and was a dominant theme throughout England’s dismal Ashes tour of 1990/91.
Although Gooch’s stance softened by the time he wrote his excellent autobiography four years later, judging by the quote above, even now Gower’s treatment is a sore subject for the sport’s aficionados.
He was the favourite of the romantics. His batting had elegance and panache. He was possibly the most graceful player in England’s history.
Gooch, in contrast, had courage, dedication and power.
Both, however, had class in abundance.
The Gower question, which came to a head when members of MCC called a vote of no-confidence in England’s selectors when he was omitted from the party to tour India and Sri Lanka in 1992/93, was a major factor in forcing him into premature retirement.
Did Gooch deprive us of a few years of watching Gower’s once-in-a-lifetime genius?
Or should Gower have just bought into the more professional approach introduced by Gooch that had been long overdue?
Gooch was an unlikely appointment as captain: often a reluctant tourist, he had also joined two rebel trips to South Africa. He was appointed after the 1989 Ashes humiliation under Gower, who had failed to repeat his success against Australia when he was captain in 1985.
Devon Malcolm had trouble catching Gooch's full attention (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
For the first time in a decade, Gooch actually made England compete with West Indies, on the tour in 1989/90 (which Gower was not on). England certainly deserved at least a draw in the Caribbean, and their display ended a decade of humiliation.
In the summer of 1990, Gooch led England to 1-0 Test wins against New Zealand and India, scoring his famous 333 against the latter at Lord’s.
As an illustration of the public’s newfound warmth for him, he was the subject of This is Your Life on ITV, on the eve of the flight to Australia.
Already Gower was no longer one of the first names on England’s teamsheet, but he was recalled to face India, and he finally justified his selection in his sixth and final innings of that series, making an unbeaten 157 at The Oval, earning him a place on his fifth – and final – Ashes trip. After years of touring happily together, though, Gooch and Gower never saw eye to eye in Australia.
Their autobiographies lift the lid on the ructions that permeated the trip. In many ways, the style of the two tomes revealed much about their subjects. Gower’s was ghosted with flair by the witty Martin Johnson, while Gooch’s, co-authored with Frank Keating, is comprehensive, interesting and meticulous. Both are engrossing.
While Gower had a lukewarm relationship with coach Micky Stewart in 1986/87, he played a full part in a hugely successful and enjoyable campaign. His captain back then, Mike Gatting, had been banned, however, for leading a rebel tour to South Africa in early 1990 (1986/87 heroes Chris Broad, Bill Athey and John Emburey were also on that trip). So despite scoring two splendid centuries, Gower had a far less happy time in the 1990/91 series.
Unlike four years earlier, when England had partied as well as played hard, under Gooch “it was cricket morning, noon and night”, according to the Wisden Almanack, “and for too many of the players it was indigestible”. The most prominent of those was Gower.
“My relationship with Micky was not enhanced on this tour, which worried me less than the fact that I was finding it so difficult to communicate with Graham, who I had known and liked over a much longer period,” wrote Gower, who claimed, in “stark contrast” to 1986/87, that they “came up with one plan for 16 players", which, as we now know, is a complete disaster.
“It seemed to annoy both of them that I could succeed without conforming to the methods that they laid down. I had – and still have – great admiration for the way Graham transformed his own game from the late 1980s, but it ultimately came close to an obsession for him. He then looked at me in a different light because of it, wondering no doubt why I was not more like him, and it caused us to grow part.”
Angus Fraser had made his Test debut against Australia under Gower and was now on his first Ashes tour. “My approach to the game is more in the Gooch mould, so I would lean to him more, but at the same time you accept Gower has played unbelievably well preparing like he did, so turning him into a Gooch figure might not have been the best way forward,” he told me.
Phil Tufnell was a target of the Aussie fans (Ben Radford/Getty Images)
“While Gooch had this unbelievable work ethic, he was prepared to accept that there was a place for maverick-style cricketers, too. Phil Tufnell tested him out, and another Gooch selection was Wayne Larkins, who was a bit of a free spirit to say the least.”
Devon Malcolm was also no great fan of Gooch and Stewart’s approach. “It was too simplistic to see [the Gooch versus Gower issue] as Roundhead versus Cavalier,” he wrote. “Certainly David made it quite clear that he felt we were being overworked, that we needed some free, recuperative periods, but he wasn’t alone in that.
"Many of us who had been in the Caribbean and approved of the disciplined approach and would still go through a brick wall for Goochie, nevertheless felt the captain was now guilty of over-emphasis. His philosophy was, ‘We’re not playing well, so we’ll just have to keep working even harder until we start to play better’. We needed some outside influence to break the monopoly of Stewart-Gooch wisdom.
“No player on that tour will ever agree that the major problem was the deteriorating relationship between Gower and Gooch. The heart of the matter was that our management’s approach was ill-judged, short-sighted and unintelligent.”
Australia had been turning gradually more antipathetic towards the United Kingdom since the War, and the appointment of anti-monarchist Paul Keating as Prime Minister in 1991 cemented that shift.
On the cricket field, the anti-Pom sentiment was also festering. Australia, under captain Allan Border and their resourceful coach Bob Simpson, had regained their pride after their defeat to Gatting’s side, with a crushing 4-0 victory in 1989.
The 1990/91 series resulted in a 3-0 Test win for the Australians and was the second of eight in succession. Already England’s performances were considered a joke to them. “We provided light relief for an Australian public grumbling about their economic recession,” said Gower.
For the first time, the British public were given a chance to see every ball of the series live on television, thanks to Sky, the satellite broadcaster owned by Rupert Murdoch, an Australian.
They witnessed a series that could have been closer if England had enjoyed a little more luck, particularly with injuries.
In the first two Tests, they led on first innings, only to be blown away by first Terry Alderman, and then Bruce Reid. Respectable draws were achieved in the third and fourth Tests, and it was only the fifth – once a series defeat was inevitable – that saw a gulf develop between the sides. To confound England’s misery, however, once again they failed to qualify for the final of the World Series, with New Zealand facing the hosts, as they had in 1982/83.
Bruce Reid's 27 wickets blew England away(Ben Radford/Getty Images)
Fraser had been cautiously optimistic, though. “We were duffed up in 1989, but the summer of 1990 went reasonably well. I was excited by the prospect of going to Australia, the ultimate tour. We had a pretty young side still, on the back of players going to South Africa.”
England just managed to hang on for a draw against Western Australia in their tour opener. “Graham was very unhappy… with every justification,” said Gower, “but I groaned a little when I saw him quoted as saying, ‘We have the talent, but we must work a lot harder at making it gel on the field’. He must have known that there are times when you need to put your feet up. Australia had a winter (our summer off), whereas we had been playing almost non-stop for 10 months.”
England’s campaign suffered a severe setback when Gooch split his ring finger in practice in fielding a Robin Smith drive at Perth. The injury should have been stitched, but a doctor merely used butterfly strips. It became infected by a ‘rare but lethal organism’, and spread dangerously close to the palm of his hand, after the party had moved to Adelaide, ahead of the six-wicket defeat by South Australia. On the verge of slipping into a fever, Gooch was put on an antibiotic drip. He credits a specialist in hand surgery, Randall Sach, for saving his career. Once the poisoned puss had been removed, he needed 30 stitches.
“How much my hand injury affected things is hard to tell,” wrote Gooch. “It necessitated me taking it off the tiller at the very beginning, which is always a crucial stage of any tour, and when the poison set in, it could well have affected my general morale and well-being more than I realised.”
England belatedly sent for a replacement, the A team captain, Hugh Morris, but he played in only two minor games.
Unlike Gower, vice-captain Allan Lamb had stayed ‘on message’ when it came to Gooch’s new work ethic – at least in public. But England lost their way when he was forced to take charge for the one-day win against Tasmania, the four-day draw against an Australian XI at Hobart (although it did not stop him scoring twin centuries) and the first Test at Brisbane. “Gooch’s injury was hugely disruptive to our plans,” confirmed Gladstone Small to me.
Tufnell noticed the change: “There was definitely less of an edge to the running around the outfield than there had been when Gooch and Micky had been operating in tandem.”
Gower was not unduly worried that England had started the tour so poorly, though. “We had played like total idiots before the series in 1986/87 and then slaughtered them. As it was, the atmosphere filtering through was one of mild panic. There was a lot of technical bullshit flying about. We did not go into the Test… as a beaten side, but we were a long way from being a happy one.”
Fraser was nervous as he arrived at the Gabba: “I had memories of watching Ian Botham slogging Merv Hughes around in 1986. I could picture the greyhound track, the dressing rooms in the bowels of that big stand and the big grass bank, and then, all of a sudden, you’re there.
“I sat in the physio’s room, listening to music, almost trying to forget where I was! It was strange, but it was the place I had wanted to be at for years, and then when I got there I was nervous and stressed out by it. I was so desperate to succeed.”
Alec Stewart struggled to 221 runs in 10 innings (Adrian Murrell/Getty Images)
An electrical storm the day before served as a warning of the upheaval to follow, as England slumped to 194 all out after being put in by Border as the ball swung and seamed, Gower making a streaky 61. Bruce Reid took 4 for 53, on his way to 27 wickets in the series.
The tourists hit back, bowling Australia out for 152, Fraser, Gladstone Small and Chris Lewis taking three wickets apiece, but it proved a false dawn. The tourists were bundled out for 114 in the second innings with Terry Alderman’s away-swingers giving him 6 for 47.
“In much the same way as had been the case in 1989 in England at Headingley, the whole psychology of the series was settled in that fourth innings,” said Gower. Openers Geoff Marsh and Mark Taylor (with his best innings of a disappointing series) knocked off the 156 Australia needed for a 10-wicket victory.
“We had a chance at Brisbane,” said Small, “but wickets, while starting off a little sporting during that series, would then flatten out.”
Lamb and Gower found themselves in trouble for an ill-advised night out after the second day’s play. Kerry Packer had invited them for dinner and then a trip to Jupiter’s Casino, 50 miles from their hotel, and a car had been sent to pick them up. Gower had already been dismissed for 27 in the second innings, but Lamb was not out overnight. Tony Greig drove them home and they were in bed by 1am, but it did not look good the next day when Lamb was out swiftly after extending his overnight score from 10 to 14. He was fortunate to be given a warning rather than a fine.
“It was typical of the daft things that have happened on England tours during my time,” said Malcolm.
Gower wrote: “The England players enjoyed Allan for what he was, and appreciate the fact that he was a fine player, but they knew he liked a good time and enjoyed a drink, and under the set-up at that time, it left him vulnerable. It was also hard for Allan because Graham had established himself so firmly in the job, and, not to put too fine a point on it, was a difficult act to follow.”
Even Tufnell, who was not known for his obedience, thought the trip was foolish, though. “It had an adverse effect on the team spirit Gooch had been so desperate to instil. The effect of their trip was to polarise feelings within the camp between the Gooch and Gower factions.”
The problems were mounting for England. Gower cracked his thumb during the dismal defeat by a Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra, and Phil DeFreitas was flown out as cover for Lewis, who would return to England just after Christmas to be treated for a stress fracture in his back. At least Gooch was edging back to fitness.
The tour schedulers had also made England switch to one-day mode by now, and they lost to New Zealand at Adelaide.
“Micky justifiably blew his top, and we were equally justifiably ordered down to ‘naughty boy’ nets the following morning,” said Gower. “I said that if we could get people more involved in the team meetings and thinking for themselves, I was sure it would have a positive effect. To Graham’s credit, he did make the next meeting more open, but by then, I think, the mood had been far too established for things to change very much.”
Allan Border's side were imperious throughout as England spurned countless opportunities (Getty Images)
England then played five more limited-overs matches in quick succession, beating New Zealand twice, at Perth and Sydney, and losing once to them at Brisbane. They also lost twice to Australia. Dean Jones made 145 in the latter match. He also made another century for Victoria in the drawn tour game, although he could not replicate this form in what, for him, was a disappointing Test series.
Lamb scored 143 in the draw with Victoria but then decided to celebrate by running the few miles back to his team hotel, only to injure his calf. “Crazy – hadn’t he done enough physical work for the day, batting in the heat for three hours?” said Malcolm,
Just as Gooch returned, Lamb was now ruled out for the second and third Tests. Small and Lewis were also unfit, Micky Stewart was admitted to hospital in Melbourne with numbness in his leg, although the condition did not prove serious, and Gower had also hurt his wrist.
At least Gower was passed fit for the Test, starting on Boxing Day, and he top-scored with 100, despite needing painkillers. Alec Stewart – son of Micky – also made 79 and Larkins 64 as England totalled 352. ‘A dull day at the cricket: England fails to collapse’ was The Melbourne Age’s headline after they had finished day one on 239 for 4.
By now Gower had noticed a change in the Australians’ attitude: “The mood in this series thus far had been nothing like as bitter as in 1989, when they had been less confident of success, and correspondingly more aggressive. This time, when they were clearly expected to win, they had more of a superior air than a nasty one, and it felt good with my century to have taken some of the wind from their sails.”
England then bowled Australia out for 306, Fraser taking 6 for 82. “It was an unbelievably hot day; a desert wind was chucking up dust and muck and it was being blown round in the MCG, while half the stadium was a building site as they had knocked Bay 13 down and all that to build the great, new Southern Stand,” Fraser said. “So to come out with a six-for was a major achievement for myself, showing I could compete at that level.”
Again, so far so good…
In the second innings, England reached 103 for 1, and Gower wrote: “We were not going to give it away again, surely? However, there followed one of the most spectacular collapses in Ashes history.”
Reid was too good, taking 7 for 50 to bowl the tourists out for 150. Wisden called it ‘50 minutes of madness’ as England lost six wickets for three runs.
Although Australia slumped to 10 for 2, they did not lose another wicket as Marsh and Boon made the 197 they needed to go 2-0 up.
Tufnell was adamant he had the latter caught behind, but Peter McConnell rejected the appeal. The left-arm spinner, in his first Test, had already suspected he was not going to get on with the umpire. Asking him how many balls had gone in the over, Tufnell alleges that McConnell replied: “Count ’em yourself, you pommie ——.”
John Morris (Adrian Murrell/Getty Images)
What with an Australian fan saying to him: “Lend me your brain, I’m building an idiot,” Tufnell was not being made to feel especially welcome.
Gooch backed Tufnell on this occasion, but the captain was left wondering if he had returned too soon. “I was possibly not ready [to return, even though he scored 20 and 58]. We competed well enough for half the match and then subsided disastrously. David scored a lovely and typical hundred with an injured wrist, but we folded tamely at the end.”
Fraser said: “The first two Tests after the first innings could have gone either way, but a star performer came through each innings. Reid bowled unbelievably well. I also picked up a hip injury that kept me out of the third and fifth Tests, and ultimately was going to knock me out of cricket for a year or two.”
Back in the sky-blue pyjamas, England suffered another emphatic one-day defeat by Australia at Sydney on New Year’s Day.
At least they fought back in the third Test that started at the SCG three days later. Australia made the most of winning the toss, piling up 518. Boon (who was Australia’s leading batsman in the series with 530 runs) made 97, Border 78, Steve Waugh 48 and Greg Matthews, at No.7, 128. The off-spinning all-rounder played in all five Tests and averaged 73 with the bat, although his seven wickets cost 60 apiece.
“The second day… [when Australia’s innings was concluding] was the most shaming day of my cricketing life,” said Gooch. “We fielded so poorly that the crowd started laughing at us.” Mike Atherton also reflected: “The Australia media and spectators alike… revelled in our shoddy fielding displays. Australia has the biggest grounds in the world. Test match conditions can be as trying as anywhere and it is no place for the physically frail.”
Gower remembers what happened at the start of day three: “We did a few exercises before gathering on the outfield for Graham’s talk, the gist of which was, ‘We’ve had two days… not bowled very well… not fielded very well… not the sort of performance… really got to battle harder’. Negative stuff. Then it was Micky’s turn. ‘We’ve had two bad days… not bowled very well… not fielded very well…’ At which point I piped up and asked whether it might be at all possible to have some positive input. I duly got the ‘quiet at the back of the class there, boy’ treatment.”
Gower, with 123 (Gooch called the innings ‘entrancing’), Atherton (105) and Stewart (91) helped their side stay in touch, with England making an enterprising declaration on 469 with 8 wickets down.
For once England did not fold in the second half of the match, Tufnell taking 5 for 61 and Hemmings 3 for 94 as Australia limped to 205. England would probably have won if it was not for 69 from Ian Healy, who had come in as nightwatchman at No.3.
“When we had the chance to win we blew it,” said Malcolm. “The captain was badly at fault there. On the final day, they were hanging on for dear life, with Matthews gutsing it out, supported by Carl Rackemann. Tufnell bowled over after over at them, and they were resisting quite comfortably. I was desperate for a bowl, convinced I’d blow away Rackemann. I dropped heavy hints… Finally, Gooch brought me on. I took the new ball immediately and bowled Rackemann with the sixth ball of my first over. It was too late.”
Gooch admitted: “I was seriously at fault in bowling our two spinners too long and not allowing Devon to wrap the Aussies up.”
Setting the tone: Celebrations begin as Australia in the first Test (Getty Images)
Malcolm was given only six overs in that second innings, and took two wickets, while the two spinners had 78 for eight wickets (shades of Sydney 1982/83 all over again). It was clear that the management did not have complete faith in him.
“One of my particular memories of that tour was of Micky shouting at Devon during practice,” said Gower. “Devon had been pigeonholed as lazy, and also didn’t answer back, so he was marked down as fair game.”
Steve Waugh found that puzzling. “I always found facing him a difficult assignment,” said Waugh, “but he didn’t fit the mould required by England selectors – he was poorly managed, plagued by inconsistent selection and hampered by team strategies.”
England were set 255 in 28 overs, and Gooch and Gower – who passed 8,000 Test runs – opened in a rare show of togetherness. They put on 84 at seven runs per over, but once parted, England knew they would not have time, and finished on 113 for 4.
At least England achieved a mini-victory, forcing the home selectors to rest Waugh. “[In the second innings] I was caught behind off Hemmings, whose bowling was ‘all bells and whistles, disguised as powder puffs’,” said Waugh. “He didn’t realise that international cricket was a serious business and not just the ‘another day, another dollar’ grind that some players had become accustomed to. Getting out to him wasn’t a crime, but playing for spin was.” That quote is an indictment of the contrasting approach of certain players on either side if ever there was one.
The relationship between Gooch and Tufnell was particularly strained in this Test. Tufnell was said to have refused to shake his skipper’s hand at one stage after he had taken a wicket – although he is adamant no snub was intended and he was just excited.
Gower was lamenting the lack of team spirit in general, however, saying most of the team disappeared 15 minutes after play each night.
Some brave late hitting from Fraser could not prevent England from suffering another defeat – by three runs at Melbourne – that finally sealed their one-day fate. Gooch said it was “humiliating” to allow New Zealand, “in a very transitional state, to stop us even making the final stages”. Australia had won seven of their eight qualifiers, and comfortably swept the New Zealanders aside, 2-0, in the final.
Gower wrote: “We now faced a trip to Albury-Wodonga instead for a game against New South Wales. It did not go down terribly well.” England lost that match by six wickets. Could things get any worse?
The answer is yes. Though England finally won a first-class match, their only one on the tour, against Queensland at Carrara, Robin Smith scoring a century, it was a game remembered to this day for what happened at lunch on day three. The drama occurred when Gower and spare batsman John Morris – who just happened to share a birthday on April Fool’s Day – decided on embarking upon what the former described as “a little bit of fun”.
The players had noticed a number of biplanes flying over the ground from the nearby airport, and Gower decided it would be a frightful wheeze to hire a 1938 Tiger Moth and fly between the floodlights before “buzzing” Lamb and Smith, who were batting. Gower found a keen participant in Morris, who had been rather enamoured with Gower’s approach to touring the entire winter, according to team-mates.
“I did think of asking Graham,” said Gower, “but I knew he would be unhappy with us flying, and as that was the entire point of the exercise, I decided it was best not to mention it at all.”
Gooch said: “The unwritten rule in cricket is that if you are playing you ask the captain or manager if you can leave the ground. I assumed that, as Gower hadn’t asked, he expected me to say ‘no’.”
The plane flew overhead at about 200 metres when safety guidelines suggested they should get no closer to the ground than 2,000, just as Smith passed three figures. Lamb, who knew who was in the plane, pretended to shoot it down with his bat.
To make matters worse, Gower borrowed the money for the expedition from tour manager, Peter Lush, and they even returned to the airport afterwards to pose for pictures in ‘Biggles’ outfits.
The pair were fined £1,000 each – quite a blow to Morris who only received a tour fee of £15,000 – and they were nearly sent home in disgrace. It was a particular shame for Morris, as he had scored 132 in the match.
“I think they over-reacted in punishing us, and I’ve always said that,” Gower said. “My biggest disappointment about that incident was that my form slumped. I had been playing very good cricket up until then. Whether it was psychological or not, my form was miserable in the final two Tests. I had all sorts of personal reasons for wanting to do well and it just went downhill. I don’t regret the incident; I just regret the lapse of form after the incident.”
“They let us down badly,” Gooch said. “What if the rest of the team, especially the younger ones, thought that sort of behaviour was par for the course?” He insisted that there were “no hard feelings or recriminations on either side, which is how it should be and how it was. But that Tiger Moth scenario became for the press yet another contretemps to use against us.”
Gooch’s mood did not improve when ‘Those magnificent men in their flying machines’ was played over the speakers as Gower went out to bat in the next Test.
Wisden judged it to be “a harsh penalty for an essentially light-hearted prank”, and said: “Impressive as Gooch’s captaincy was, a hair shirt was usually to be found hanging in his wardrobe.”
“It was a bit of rebellion at the stricter regime,” Small said. “It would have been laughed about in 1986/87. That sort of thing was done and a lot more besides!”
Morris had played in all three Tests against India in 1990. He did not win another Test cap.
England had temporarily seen off one Waugh, only to be confronted by another. Steve, after an unbroken sequence of 42 Tests, had been replaced by his twin, Mark, belatedly awarded a debut in the fourth Test at the age of 25. Steve wrote of the “elation and distress” it caused in the Waugh family. Mark made up for lost time, with a sublime 138 in Australia’s total of 386. “I told you so. You should have picked me earlier!” he said to Border.
“Mark Waugh looked a class act,” said Small, “but if you could pick a wicket to make a debut on it would be the batting paradise of Adelaide. He never looked back!”
One single cricket incident probably did even more damage to the relationship between Gooch and Gower than the Tiger Moth affair.
England had lost Atherton and Lamb cheaply, and Smith had also fallen for 53 as lunch approached on the third day.
Gooch explained: “It was crucial that David and I dig in and then consolidate through the afternoon session. Off the final ball before lunch bowled by Craig McDermott (who was kept in reserve until the fourth Test), however, David airily swatted to wide-ish long leg – and hit the ball straight down the throat of Hughes who’d been placed there for the purpose. A lot has been made ever since of the significance of it being the last ball before lunch, but I was more disappointed that David had so palpably fallen for the trap which he knew they always set for him.
"Someone said the shot was more worth the £1,000 fine than the Tiger Moth escapade. I walked in slowly to lunch after David and the Australians had gone in, and people read into that another censure for David with my body language. Inside, he was obviously even more disappointed than I was. Nothing was said between us. There is no point in those circumstances.”
Gower admitted: “I did not hit the right note when I took the aeroplane trip... Having said that, I think it was getting out last ball before lunch in Adelaide – in the way that I did – that later became more significant in the management's assessment of my future.”
Fraser said: “I remember watching that at the top of the stairs of the Bradman Stand in disbelief as I was going to have lunch. Gooch’s face would have been a picture – it did not go down well. That said, Gower played so well at Melbourne and Sydney…”
Although the disgruntled Gooch top-scored with 87, England lost their last seven wickets for 69 in reaching 229, McDermott taking 5 for 97 and Reid 4 for 53.
Australia then made the game seemingly safe, racking up 314 for 6 before they declared, with Border unbeaten on 83 after Boon had made 121. Fraser also twisted his ankle in the first innings and bowled at a reduced pace, while Tufnell was struggling with tonsillitis. However,
England set an unlikely 472 to win, responded well, going to tea on the fifth day on 267 for 2, before ending on 335 for 5. Gooch made 117 (his first Test hundred in Australia, allowing him to finish with an average of 53 in the series) and Atherton 87 in an opening stand worth 203.
England had little time to congratulate themselves on their battling display, however, as Malcolm explained: “We compromised on so many things, like agreeing to play in one-day internationals in between some Tests, just because it suited the Australian Board’s desire to make money. We wondered just how much the Test and County Cricket Board fought the itinerary on our behalf.
“The fourth Test at Adelaide ended and that night we flew out to Perth. We were diverted via Alice Springs because of an airline dispute, and when we arrived at Perth, the temperature was still 35°C, at 1am. Later that day Goochie had us practising in 45°C heat. Two days later, the Perth Test started and predictably we got rolled over because there was nothing left.”
England were dismissed for 244, with McDermott taking 8 for 97. It was another terrible collapse for the tourists, who had been 212 for 3. Lamb’s dismissal for 91 – his highest Test score in Australia – started the sorry sequence. He put on 141 with Smith, who made 58, his second 50 of an otherwise below-par campaign for him.
Australia slipped to 168 for 6 in reply but rallied to 307. Then their seamers dismantled England again, this time for 182, Hughes bowling an immaculate line to take 4 for 37, while McDermott took 3 for 60 and Alderman 3 for 75, including his 100th Ashes wicket.
Australia made 120 for 1 to secure victory in 10 sessions, with Fraser admitting: “We just fell away with the prospect of winning back the Ashes gone.”
Gooch said at the time that the contest felt like “a fart competing with thunder”.
Malcolm was disappointed with his captain’s reaction to defeat: “He climbed into his own players in the press conference. He said that some players should be looking at their own performances, hinting at a lack of commitment and pride. The Aussie press loved that, but our captain lost some respect from his squad for going public. We didn’t need to be told how badly we played.”
Gooch admitted: “I blew my top… I wondered if it was all my fault and whether it was worth going on.”
Small was relieved when the tour was over. “This tour had a totally different feel to 1986/87,” he said. “Australia had their game together and their national academy was up and running, but we didn’t play well and it was not such a happy experience. Gooch had a point. You have to be fit for international cricket, but that has to be tempered. The guys got on fine, there was no in-fighting, but we never really clicked on the field.”
Fraser felt the scoreline was harsh, though: “We lost 3-0 but we actually competed pretty well.”
England then lost a one-day series 2-1 in New Zealand to round off a truly dire winter.
Gower’s failure at Perth – he scored 28 and 5 – left him 34 runs short of overhauling Geoff Boycott’s record run aggregate for England of 8,114 (in 108 matches). Dropped until July 1992, he finally broke the record against Pakistan at Old Trafford in his first match back, but he was awarded only two more Test caps after that, despite MCC members’ campaign to reinstate him. Gower finished his Test career with 8,231 runs in 117 matches, and Gooch went on to surpass him, reaching 8,900 in his 118th and final Test at Perth on the 1994/95 tour.
Gooch led England in 1993 when the Australians visited, but things were going to about to become even worse for England. They were about to encounter a man who would give them nightmares for years to come: Shane Warne.
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