FROM THE MAGAZINE: From fiery youth to terrorising left-handers, FRANK HAYES and DEREK PRINGLE lead the tributes to Stuart Broad
This is an abridged version of a feature that appeared in the September 2023 issue of The Cricketer. To read the full article, grab a copy of the magazine by clicking here.
Stuart Broad terrorised left-handers, was energised by the Ashes, and formed a deadly alliance with James Anderson, reflects Derek Pringle.
For those prizing skill, longevity, as well as a hint of opportunism in their bowlers, the retirement of Stuart Broad will be a sadness.
For all lefthanded batters, especially those with aspirations of making runs against England, sweet relief will have been the emotion even if it has come too late for some, Australia's David Warner among them.
Can anyone have persecuted a batting breed as much as Broad? Bowlers don't usually discriminate yet Broad, made life doubly hell for left-handers by attacking them from around the wicket, an angle used sparingly until he popularised it a few years ago.
Such was his success that he could have copyrighted the delivery as the surest bet in cricket; a bet Warner, a leftie with 8,487 Test runs, lost a humiliating 17 times during their jousts.
Stuart Broad dismisses David Warner for the 15th time in Test cricket at Edgbaston this summer [Stu Forster/Getty Images]
Other right-arm bowlers, like Andrew Flintoff, Morne Morkel and Courtney Walsh, had used the tactic before, yet none snared left-handers as readily as Broad.
What made him more tricky was not just the change of angle, from coming around the wicket, but the way his bowling arm compounded that angle by not getting beyond the perpendicular like the others.
This meant left-handers facing him would feel the need to play at the ball more often, the early impression being that it was heading stump-wards. Except that some balls would shape away, while others kept coming on that initial line.
The first brought wicketkeeper and slips into play, edge-wise; the second bowled and lbw.
It wasn't a monopoly, and there are hundreds of right-handers among Broad's 604 Test wickets, as well as among the 178 ODI wickets and 65 T20I wickets he also took during a storied 16-year career.
The most meaningful measure are the spells which turn matches, and which he seemed to specialise in more than most. And they are more about mood and improvisation than deliberate planning.
The first of those came against Australia at The Oval in 2009. With the series level at 1-1 the Aussies were 73 for 0 and making steady headway against England's first innings 332, when Broad was brought on third change.
A last resort, he struck immediately, quickly dismissing Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey. Australia were skittled for 160, Broad taking five for 37.
As impressive as the figures was his craft. You see, what Broad noticed but presumably Ponting had missed, given Australia had no frontline spinner, was the dusting pitch. Perfect conditions for Graeme Swann, but also for Broad, who shrewdly bowled cutters to take advantage.
On the back of their first-innings advantage England won the match and with it the Ashes. So began Broad's love affair with that ancient contest.
One Ashes feat forever remembered will be his eight for 15 against the Aussies at Trent Bridge in 2015, then his home ground. Although mind-boggling at the time, there was a freakish element to it I felt beyond his control.
It is impossible to judge Broad without considering James Anderson, a bowler with even more Test wickets than him. Colleagues, co-conspirators, rivals and good friends, the pair have complemented each for much of the past 15 years; tall and taller; straight man and risk-taker; dour and optimistic – Broad the latter part of each equation.
The pair shared 1,039 Test wickets over the 138 Tests they played together: Broad taking 502, Anderson 537.
The vast nature of their achievement makes them England's greatest new-ball partnership, exceeding other great combinations such as Bob Willis and Ian Botham and Fred Trueman and Brian Statham.
Once the dust had settled, he revealed the pact he and Anderson had made not to retire together in case it weakened England too much all at once. There will be many who feel the wrong man has gone but his comment, both thoughtful and self-regarding, sums up Broad, a cricketer whose hard edge was never far beneath the boyish good looks and charm.
Former Lancashire and England batsman Frank Hayes reflects on the fiery youth he first encountered at Oakham School.
A pleasant day watching some former pupils play for Oakham Town CC was suddenly disturbed by a large gasp from the pavilion. Almost simultaneously, a stark message appeared on my phone: "BROAD RETIRED!"
But, from the very outset, Stuart Broad consistently surprised those around him. I can see him now as a waif-like 12-year-old wheeling an impossibly huge bag through the doors of the sports hall for his first one-on-one session. Sure, he was good – very good – but did I, did anyone, believe that, 25 years later, he would be established one of the greatest fast bowlers the world has ever seen, with a mind-boggling 604 Test wickets?
Stuart Broad has hoodwinked people all his life. Even his dad Chris didn't know his son could bowl and neither did his county club!
To put the record straight once and for all, David Steele and I recognised him as a bowler from the moment we saw him at Oakham School. To non-believers he was innocuous but what wasn't perhaps initially apparent to the unenlightened was an immaculate wrist position which gave him perfect control of length and an ability to dart the ball both ways off the seam while also swinging it away with alacrity. Add to that an innate ability to spot a batsman's weakness, to set a field to challenge it, and to then bowl to it.
He was selected to play in the school 1st XI at 14, not as a batsman but as a third seam bowler who would bat lower down the order. When he opened the bowling for the school under-16s against Leicestershire Under-16s, I was walking around the ground with a county official. He said: "I quite like the look of your blond-haired quickie. May I ask his name?"
It was only then that Leicestershire considered him a bowler and county coaches Phil Whitticase and Lloyd Tennant arrived on the scene. Under the combined supervision of county and school, his action was fine-tuned and, by 18, his pace had increased markedly.
Stuart Broad during a Leicestershire CCC photocall in 2005 [Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images]
After Broad almost single-handedly beat Harrow School with bat and ball, Derek Randall was next to be taken aback. As part of an invitational side to take on the school, the former England batsman was subject to the full brunt of the baby-faced assassin.
Stuart was of the strong opinion that Derek had got a fine touch to a snorting delivery on its way to the keeper but was given not out. It counted for nothing that Derek had been the star of the Centenary Test, or that he was guest of honour on an important day for the school! He was subjected to a fearsome barrage of hostile bowling before he gloved another ball which leapt alarmingly from just short of a length.
'Arkle' was glad to go, but back in the dressing room, taking his pads off, said: "He's a piece of work!" In the festivities after the game, the young prospect offered his victim a bottle of Beck's, and said: "You gloved it, didn't you?"
I was perched high up on the Oakham School sports hall balcony in 2006 when I first recognised Broad's international credentials. Leicestershire were playing Northamptonshire at his former school and his action was strong, balanced and powerful as he ran towards us from the Pavilion End.
In the company of Leicestershire coach Tim Boon I looked straight down the line as the ball speared in towards the batsman's leg stump before it suddenly swung abruptly and exploded off the ground to be taken head-high by a clearly astonished keeper Paul Nixon. I turned to Tim and said: "I hope the England selectors are watching."
The vision of that delivery remains firmly implanted in my brain.
Inside our September 2023 issue of The Cricketer magazine, you'll also find:
The September issue of The Cricketer gives you the ultimate men's 2023 Ashes series review. Plus:
- Mike Brearley says pundits were too keen to criticise Bazball
- George Dobell explains how the Ashes were won, lost and drawn
- Huw Turbervill likens the Ashes to this summer's cinema blockbusters
- Barry Richards is interviewed in 'facing up'
- Mike Selvey picks his greatest openers
- Nasser Hussain says James Anderson should be picked to tour India
- Barney Ronay on Ben Stokes' decision to revoke his ODI retirement
- Jeremy Blackmore speaks to Somerset batting sensation James Rew
- Tanya Aldred warns on decoupling the men's and women's Hundred
- Nick Friend previews the final four County Championship rounds
- Rod Bransgrove tells us how the Ageas Bowl won an Ashes Test
- Sky's Matt Floyd explains why he loves cricket
- Charles Ollivierre: the first black West Indian to play county cricket
And much, much more...
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