Monty Panesar by Monty Panesar

Author:Monty Panesar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SPORTS & RECREATION / Cricket
Publisher: Pen and Sword/White Owl
Published: 2019-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

No Salad Dodgers

Towards the end of our Indian summer a media squall broke out when Duncan – a man of so few words at times he seemed to be preparing for an after-cricket career in a Trappist monastery – suddenly produced over 100,000 of them in an autobiography.

Seven years’ worth of pent-up frustration spilled out onto the pages. It was like he’d filed every grievance he’d ever had in a hard drive stored in his brain and his autobiography was the result.

Behind the Shades read like a score-settling exercise. He’d been subjected to a lot of criticism during his tenure as England coach and this was his chance to answer back, liberated from the restrictions placed on him by his contract with the ECB.

As we were still obliged to adhere to the terms of our contracts, it wasn’t easy to respond. Officially the line was that Duncan was entitled to his opinions and that his criticisms wouldn’t affect us.

Unofficially? Even if the number of cricketers who read it cover to cover is small, a book like that is about as welcome in the dressing room as a Jim Davidson tribute act in a Sikh temple. In fact, I can imagine this book going down similarly well in Norman Tebbit’s office in the House of Lords.

Some cricketers are big readers, others aren’t. I read a lot of coaching manuals and cricket history when I was younger, but I didn’t read autobiographies. You didn’t have to because as soon as one was published, the entire press pack would be devouring it in a single sitting and looking for anything that might make a headline.

Then you’d get asked a question along the lines of ‘Did it hurt when your former batting partner said you were the least professional cricketer he’d ever clapped eyes on?’

And all you can say is, ‘He’s entitled to his opinion and it won’t affect my game.’

You can, however, get ‘a close friend’ to talk on your behalf. Or your dad. Freddie couldn’t say what he really felt about Fletcher exposing his drinking on tour, but he could get his dad to tell The Telegraph he’d been ‘betrayed’.

The funny thing is, I don’t think Duncan actually disliked any of his players, even if it might have come across that way. We frustrated him at times but there was nothing in the book that he wouldn’t say to our faces.

The media, however, were a different matter. Geoff Boycott and Ian Botham got it with both barrels and Duncan revealed at one point that he’d confronted Henry Blofeld, only for Blowers to tell him to ‘fuck off’. He didn’t even say ‘Fuck off, my dear old thing.’

Duncan disliked retired professionals who he felt were inconsistent and at times hypocritical. As these made up a significant percentage of the press pack that followed England around, they copped a lot of the criticism. This in turn wound up the journalists, who filleted his book for headlines and found plenty when it came to his attitude towards his players.

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