Modest Man from Modest Background was True Great
Please excuse this intrusion into the death of a much-loved public performer but if I offer a private reflection on Brian Statham, it is because he played in the first cricket match I saw, and is one of the reasons I learnt to love the game. His passing is a reminder of how much has gone of life. A young boy growing up in Lancashire absorbed the greatness of ‘George’ Statham as he understood the huge public affection for Tom Finney or, in a different field, Kathleen Ferrier. It was a ‘given’. Like them he came from a modest background and went on to conquer the world. Like them he never imagined that fame separated him from his fellows. Statham was approaching the end of his career when I first saw him bowl, against Derbyshire, in 1967. He was thirty-eight, a great age by today’s standards, when he took six for 34 to bowl out Yorkshire for 61 a year later. So I can at least boast that I saw him run through the champions. That was his last fling. He retired at the end of the season and Fred Trueman, who played against him in that match, did not delay his own retirement long. Trueman and Statham: they went together like Lennon and McCartney, and it has been no surprise to hear the great Yorkshire bowler leading the tributes.
How far removed the lion-hearted Statham was from the world of players trotting off to see psychologists ‘to get their minds right’! The abiding image of this lean, wiry man with the double-jointed action was of a fast bowler who ran in, rain or shine, and took his pleasures in the saloon bar with a fag or two and several pints of bitter, or mild. He wasn’t choosy. Times change quickly, and reputations fade. The generation growing up today may not be familiar with men like Statham. Indeed, on England’s tour of South Africa last winter, one (admittedly young) member of the party failed to recognise Colin Cowdrey in a group portrait. Laugh if you like, but it’s true.
Players can be unreceptive to the achievements of the past. David Green, who grew up under Statham at Old Trafford and who writes about cricket for this paper, was once talking to a young English bowler who took a dim view of previous generations, and wondered, in particular, whether Statham was fast. ‘How fast do you think he was, then?’ Green asked. ‘About as sharp as Neil Foster,’ was the reply. ‘I’ll tell you how fast he was,’ said Greeny. ‘Roy Marshall reckoned that if he could push George through mid-off for a couple in his fifth over he was doing pretty well. And Roy Marshall could play a bit. Ne’then, lad, shall we look at your figures?’ That chastened young shaver, incidentally, never played for England. Statham did, seventy times, and took 252 wickets, often with Trueman at the other end. Whereas Trueman was fast and, on occasions, wild, Statham was the model of accuracy, operating on the premise of ‘you miss, I hit’. As Neville Cardus wrote: ‘Did Statham ever send down a wide?’
There were times when he came off the field with blood in his boots but, privately and publicly, there were no grumbles. He belonged to a generation who had seen real hardship at first hand and such experience tends to put things like cricket into a clearer perspective. How high does he stand in the pantheon? Pretty near the top. Besides Trueman, only Ian Botham, Bob Willis and Derek Underwood have taken more Test wickets for England. Of the eighteen bowlers who have exceeded Statham’s aggregate of 2,260 first-class wickets, none took them more cheaply than he did, at 16.37. For Lancashire he stands shoulder to shoulder with Cyril Washbrook as the club’s most distinguished player. He took 1,816 wickets for the county at the barely believable average of 15.12.
When one considers the longevity of his career, and the peaks he scaled along the way, nobody can question his claim to greatness, though this modest man would never press his own case. Statham brought to the game that most precious of human qualities: glory, lightly worn. He added a verse to the eternal chorus, and must be remembered.
John Brian Statham: b Gorton, Manchester, 17 June 1930; d 10 June 2000