Diary

Saturday, 4th February 2012

For me, the Adelaide Oval is easily the most beautiful Test cricket venue in Australia. It reminds me of my favourite ground, Lord’s, in certain respects. The lawns in the members’ enclosure host live music and a variety of food stalls similar to the live entertainment on the Nursery ground at the home of cricket, although I have never experienced 35-degree temperatures over the five consecutive days of a Test match anywhere in England. Adelaide was blisteringly hot. Despite yet another lamentable performance from the Indian team, last week’s Test gave me the most enjoyable and memorable week of the summer. The Adelaide Oval provides spectators with an intimate experience of play from every angle. This is especially so for those of us with privileged media access. We enjoy views in air-conditioned comfort that any cricket fan would shed blood for. The one drawback is that in that hermetically-sealed environment one can lose the sheer sensual thrills of the low hum of the crowd on a drowsy afternoon, or the distinctive crack of a perfectly timed shot. For that reason I occasionally wander to different areas of the ground to get the feel of the crowd.

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Before play on the second morning the South Australian Cricket Association unveiled a statue of favourite son Darren Lehmann. Lehmann possessed prodigious natural gifts. South Australians are unanimous in their belief that he should have played more than 27 Tests. That ceremony brought together an eclectic group of luminaries. I enjoyed catching up with an old boss from my days in Labor politics — Rodney Cavalier — who currently chairs the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust. He good-naturedly chided me for accusing him on my blog of being an economic rationalist. We agreed to differ on the precise extent to which his rationale for the redevelopment of the Sydney Cricket Ground could be classified as economic rationalism. We did agree, however, that I had achieved a greater standard of journalistic accuracy than political gadfly Bob Ellis, who once wrongly cited Cavalier as the source of remarks that ultimately sparked one of Australia’s most famous defamation trials, involving Peter Costello and Tony Abbott as plaintiffs. Chiming into our reminiscences about Labor in the Eighties was former South Australian Premier John Bannon, whom many would like to see assume a senior role in South Australian cricket.

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Adding a suitably bipartisan character to the proceedings was Howard government defence minister Ian McLachlan, who remains an imposing figure despite having passed his 75th birthday last year. He was the 12th man for Australia for the Fourth Test in Adelaide against Ted Dexter’s English team in 1963, having represented Cambridge University and South Australia. In his bearing and demeanour he still looks like a leader. For a time in the 1980s and 1990s he was taken seriously as a potential Liberal leader and Prime Minister. It is still easy to see why. On a day when Darren Lehmann’s unrealised potential was commemorated, I spared a thought for McLachlan. In my limited dealings with him I found him to be a genuinely tough customer of unimpeachable integrity. The years have been very kind to him.

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On the morning of Australia Day I caught up with another old political mate and occasional sparring partner, retired Liberal Senator Nick Minchin. We exchanged a few barbs back in the Nineties, when I achieved the dubious and unenviable distinction of falling out with the ALP and the Liberal party simultaneously. Nick — despite his somewhat fearsome reputation — in my experience is remarkably free of malice. We long ago healed our rift and I enjoy his company immensely. Largely inspired by his Spectator Australia diary my wife and I have taken up snorkelling. He was amused to learn this and urged us to visit the Tuna Bay resort in the Perhentian Islands off north-eastern Malaysia. We steered clear of Australian political topics, but old professional politicians neither die nor fade away. He is watching the Republican primaries with interest. His view is that the GOP’s sole focus must be on defeating President Obama, and on that basis the only credible candidate is Mitt Romney. Like Ian McLachlan he was a marvellous advertisement for the health benefits of retiring from politics, almost jumping out of his skin.

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Later that morning back at the Adelaide Oval I was fortunate enough to conduct a lengthy interview with Ian Chappell for my forthcoming book. I believe Chappell has the most incisive cricket brain in the country. He was in scintillating form and spoke passionately and with piercing clarity about the game. Moreover, he has a sardonic, distinctively Australian sense of humour which makes him easy company. He shrewdly dissected the strengths and weaknesses of both teams. In particular he repeated a comment he made in 2007 to the effect that if Sachin Tendulkar was playing purely for statistics rather than for the good of the team, then he needed to ask himself seriously whether he should continue to play Test cricket. Criticism of Tendulkar is akin to blasphemy for the Indian media, who subsequently vilified Chappell. Like much of Chappell’s analysis it now looks prescient.

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Yet he does not believe that Australia will take as strong a team to England next year as the one he led in 1972. While our fast bowling arsenal has been replenished, he harbours doubts about the abundance of slower men. Likewise, he cannot identify credible younger batsmen to replace Ponting and Hussey. I have not had a more stimulating or enjoyable discussion about cricket this summer. And it ended with an anecdote about catching Geoffrey Boycott at this very ground. Perfect.

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