Facing up: David Gower

What are your views on the India debacle?

It took me by surprise as much as anyone else. I was at Old Trafford expecting to do things in hospitality boxes, talking about a great series coming to a splendid conclusion, all being well. It was an opportunity for India to cement a series that they probably deserved to win, but also for England to square it. Then it was about trying to find an excuse for what had happened. My instinct was thinking “surely India had a lot to play for here, to finish England off in style – their concerns must be real”, but a lot of people were saying it was purely about the IPL. I said: “No, it can’t be just that”, but it appears I was being rather naïve… as all the evidence now appears to be that the driving force for it was very much the IPL. I find that very disappointing. When Virat Kohli was here in 2018 he made a point of saying how important Test cricket was to him, and I’m sure it is.

I’m sure like most of us when he looks back on his career in due course the first thing he’ll look at are his Test figures. And if they are good he’ll say “great”. And then he’ll look back at the white-ball career and say: “Yes that was fun too”. I still think that the great players value the game at the highest level. But actions like that at Old Trafford detract from that principle. I find it disappointing that they couldn’t somehow, with their big squad, and no positive tests, have got a team together to play the game. You have to preface everything by saying: “Yes these are weird times, and Covid is part of every equation that we have to look at”, of course, but, but, but… it does seem to suggest that if they wanted to play they could have done…

What will happen now?

It’s all rhetoric and diplomacy now, designed to lessen the blow and reflect the financial responsibilities the boards have… but there isn’t much spare time next summer. I see the ECB and BCCI seem to have agreed to play a one-off Test,  but it can't feasibly be linked with this series just gone. The entire fate of that depends on ICC’s decision as to what caused the cancellation… so good luck with that. It’s now a legal problem, whether it’s an abandonment, forfeiture or something else. If there are a couple of T20s at Old Trafford to make up some revenue then that’s a diplomatic gesture.

Do you fear for this winter’s Ashes?

We played a depleted Australia team in 1978/79 because of Packer but we had a full tour and experienced everything that Australia has to offer which is lovely. I know from minimal experience, being in something of a bubble in Abu Dhabi, that doing that for a long time would not particularly be fun. And it’s bubble to bubble all winter. Trying to get a peak of desire and fitness, especially mental fitness, can’t be easy. All your ways of deflecting pressure are taken away, so you are left with the nervous tension of playing international cricket, without away fans, so it won’t be the full-on atmosphere of an Ashes series. Apart from getting a full side to play a full side, the other options are not very appealing.

^{Celebrating the 1985 Ashes with Allan Lamb, Mike Gatting, Ian Botham and Paul Downton at The Oval}

I don’t think that England are going to have Ben Stokes or Jofra Archer. So a next-best England side (without those two) against a full-strength Australia side will be very hard for the tourists. I’d still have to say Australia, with their current strengths – Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, David Warner, and Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc – and home advantage, are favourites. The problem for England is that for so much of the last 12 months all things have depended on whether Joe Root gets 150 or not. He’s been fantastic to watch, awesome even, but it’s a worry that it’s him or nothing. That may be unfair but it’s true.

You never had that in your time…

No. You never expect everyone to play brilliantly on the same day, but if you have four out of six performing, a couple of 50s and the odd 100, you are in the game; and three out of four bowlers firing. In 2005 the four England fast bowlers dovetailed through the series with consistency and confidence. You allow for the odd failure in the top six but if three, four or five take up whatever slack there is things should be OK. I rather hoped Zak Crawley would have a couple of scores and get rolling.

Ostensibly he looks like he can play. That’s all very well, but if you don’t get 10… I can’t remember an England team that has been so reliant on one player. Obviously in Botham’s Ashes 40 years ago, Beefy’s influence on the three Tests, allowing for the fact that Ian says Bob Willis should have been joint man of the match at Headingley, show one man’s influence on those pivotal games changed the course of the series… with a slice of luck thrown in of course. But you did have Willis too, you had Graham Dilley getting a 50 at Leeds, you had Chris Old making 29… so yes, going back to Joe, I have never been part of a team so dependent on someone.

Was being in India in 1984/85 after the assassinations equivalent to the Covid bubbles?

We were only in a ‘bubble’ of sorts for two days. There was a two-week period of national mourning for Mrs Gandhi, so we went to Colombo to get out of the way. The Percy Norris killing (British deputy high commissioner in Bombay) caused real concern in the team, though. A lot of the players felt very uncertain. My rule in life is that I tend to trust pilots, doctors and security experts… the British High Commission said it was safe so we got on with it. We weren’t in the right frame of mind for the first Test necessarily, but I look back on the tour with great pride –
we won the Tests 2-1, we did most things right. Winning the Ashes in 1985 was superb, but in reality going to India in that era under those circumstances was pretty special.

Did you enjoy your commentary stint at the PSL?

Yes, very much. I had two weeks in Karachi, the two weeks in a sort of bubble in Abu Dhabi. I had no qualms about being in Karachi. We had police and army escorts, and never had any feeling of any pressure. The offer came out of the blue and to get there was great. I very much enjoyed being part of a broadcasting team again. It proved that anyone can cover T20, you don’t have to be 20 years old and shout a lot. Pakistan is a cricket-loving country and they were so delighted to see Simon Doull, Dominic Cork, Alan Wilkins, Danny Morrison and me there. Getting overseas people to endorse their cricket and their competition means so much to them. That decade of abstinence when they played in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and so on with no crowds, killed them. So I feel a lot of empathy with them. I’d be very keen to go to another PSL.

^{Elton John in Australia in 1986/87}

What do you think of the red/white-ball balance in the domestic schedule?

It’s appalling. I’m very glad it’s not my job to organise a schedule that is rubbish and takes more than the Wisdom of Solomon to sort it out. Whatever benefits you get from The Hundred, it’s caused a whole lot of knock-on effects for the schedule as a whole. I don’t know what gives. You want a 50-over competition if you want to win the next World Cup. The Blast was working. Do you get rid of it now? The counties love it. The County Championship is important and needs to be played in other times apart from winter. So unless you make July two months long… I wouldn’t know what to get rid of. 

What did you think of The Hundred from a cricket perspective?

If you switch the television on at random and it was on you’d think ostensibly it doesn’t look an awful lot different to the IPL, PSL, CPL and Big Bash. I quite like the odd tweak in the rules, like if you fall behind with your overs you’d lose a fielder. It’s one of the few things that has actually had an effect on skippers. As a mechanism to speed things up two ‘sets’ of five sort of works, and it’s quite interesting for the same bowler to bowl all 10 balls as a tactic. But the crowds don’t really care about that. What they remember is Liam Livingstone plonking it on to the stand. And that’s why it’s the same as other short forms of cricket. A lack of overseas stars took away some of the pizzazz I suppose, although it gave a chance to some younger English players.

We assume you were sad to hear that Ted Dexter had passed…

I was very fond of him. I knew him before he became chairman of selectors. He was one of those people around the game who you were happy to talk to. He was very good at making suggestions; and a very interesting man beyond the cricket – flying to Australia on his own; his golf (which I can’t stand but I admire those who can, I prefer tennis); moving to France… so he had a rich tapestry woven throughout his life, so I’m jealous/admiring of that. He hired me as captain, albeit as second choice [behind Mike Gatting… Ed]. The walk-out at Lord’s in the press conference in 1989 didn’t help me, leaving Micky Stewart aghast as he had to find some words of his own to explain the situation.

Ted desperately used his imagination to fire up and inspire our generation of cricketers and that can always be hit or miss. The India ‘Spinwash’ tour in 1992/93 was interesting and I felt a bit sorry for Ted. I wasn’t selected but I didn’t blame him for that – there were others with an axe in their hands (and it’s pretty obvious who they were). I was there for Sky after a couple of months in Australia working for Channel 9. I’d heard the result of the MCC special meeting (about the non-selection of me and Jack Russell) which was pretty meaningless but fun for them, and nice to have their backing. I arrived in Calcutta and saw it unravel quickly over the three Tests.

^{At the 50th Voneus Village Cup final, organised by The Cricketer}

I was seconded from Sky to speak to the Today show and Garry Richardson asked me the same question three times. “Surely Ted must go” was the gist of it. Ted was in a funny position as he was chairman of an England committee as well as chairman of selectors and I have always taken the view, especially with the system as it was, that yes, you have an important role to play as chairman of selectors, but actually your captain and co-selectors have an equal role and actually once you have picked the players it’s actually up to them to do the job on the field. So I was being quite defensive of Ted with what I thought was a rational head. I knew from my days as captain that you might have to win one battle and lose another. If you ever reached 100 per cent consensus then it was a rarity.

Was Richard Ellison in 1985 your pick?

Yes, although I won’t take whole responsibility. In 1984/85 in India he bowled his socks off. Even when Mohammad Azharuddin got the first of his three hundreds in that series at Calcutta, Ellison beat the bat two or three times an over, but the wickest just wouldn’t come. When he came in at Edgbaston against Australia it was awesome. On the fourth afternoon/evening the ball he bowled to Allan Border was an absolute cracker. Any fast-medium bowler would have a picture of that – swinging in, hitting the top of off – framed for life.

Have you missed Sky?

Absolutely. I watch it. I have no option. Of course I miss it. I’d be lying if I say otherwise. Events are moving ahead now, however, so that gives me something to work with and work on. But I want something more. Some good ideas I have are impractical at the moment, so they can come back in a couple of years. I’m going with the flow. It’s been great seeing all the 1981 boys again this summer. We raised a glass to absent friends. Geoffrey’s been in typical form… Bob Taylor, Chris Old, Peter Willey, Mike Gatting and Graham Gooch were good… there’s been a really great spirit. Graham and I are absolutely fine. Don’t worry about that. It’s not an issue.

Did you enjoy being an ambassador at the Voneus Village Cup final at Lord’s?

Very much. I am one of those people that if I drive past a village cricket match I will stop and have a look for a while. That’s where it all starts. So quintessentially English and cricket. My village has a team that bears the name of a pub that no longer exists: the Newport Inn Cricket Club. The inn is now six houses, but the club survives: it’s an old roller, some grasscutters and a shed. I’m also president of ‘White Hunters CC’, a band of no-hopers. They wrote a book, Not Out First Ball, which was superb at explaining the attraction of the game to those who love it but aren’t necessarily any good at it. The emblem on their sweater has a pair of wellies. The ethos of the game at that level is very important

The Super Over

We have had a delicious tea here at the Village Cup final, but this is important – are scones pronounced sconns or skohnes)... and is it jam or cream first? 

Cream first… and sconns.

Favourite album

Pink Floyd – The Wall. It’s a double album so there’s plenty of it. I love the sound of it. ‘Comfortably Numb’ is one of the song titles which sums up my life at the moment.

Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?

Cate Blanchett… Elton John, who is amazing company, very funny over dinner: in Australia in 1986/87 (above) he was a brilliant DJ for us… and David Mitchell and Victoria Coren Mitchell. I have not met them, although I nearly went on Would I Lie To You? this summer but they cancelled the recording… but I love their work.

Interview by Huw Turbervill

This article was published in the October edition of The Cricketer - the home of the best cricket analysis and commentary, covering the international, county, women's and amateur game