Bring together 11 former England Test players and see them stride out onto your local cricket ground. Just a connoisseur’s pipedream or a club chairman’s ambitious bucket list?
Aren’t sportsmen supposedly so wrapped up in cotton wool that they are on a different level to their admirers and followers
Well, not the PCA England Masters. There was no cotton wool – perhaps just a few more bandages and muscle supports than in their heyday – as a team of top former English internationals donned their whites at The Heys.
To watch these stars who all hit the heights of representing their country was a sheer privilege. To play against them…..an unforgettable experience I’m sure. To see them take time out to pass on tips to our junior players….inspiring.
Understandably, some of the speed may have gone, some of the accuracy might have wavered, and some of the power might have diminished, but the star quality shone through like Susan Boyle at a Britain’s Got Talent audition.
The silky smooth run-up of Devon Malcolm, the energetic bound of Alex Tudor, and the batting prowess of Phil DeFreitas, 30 years after he was part of an Ashes-winning team.
Big Bash star Owais Shah dealt more in sixes than fours, including one mighty boom into an adjoining back garden. And Simon Jones was still looking as mean and lean as when he had the Aussies on the rack in 2005. Was he still quick, was the pre-match chatter? Ask James Wharmby’s off stump whether it had been clattered that hard before.
Then there was the guile of Usman Afzaal, getting a delivery to spin behind Ali Raza’s legs and clip his leg stump. Fielding ace Tom Gibson will remember his two catches at cover, but just as much he will recall how Shah twice hit him high onto the Prestwich banking.
And while this showpiece was just as much about promoting the game at grassroots level, there was a real competitive edge to the game, which saw Prestwich win by seven wickets with 10 balls to spare.
The PCA Masters, yet to lose this season, had set a total of 134 for 5 off 20 overs, with Shah striking 61 and De Freitas 44, and teenage spin bowler Nathan Bailey taking both prized scalps. Don’t think the youngster will have managed to sleep much that night.
And with skipper Andy Bradley, Ryan Stanbury and Wilf Reeve each claiming a wicket they will surely throw into many a conversation over the coming years.
Former Lancashire star Neil Fairbrother was directing operations on the field, but found Wharmby (30), Stanbury (46), Sam Holden (37 not out) and Marty Walters (13 not out) hard to budge, with Stanbury and Holden showing they were not far behind Shah in the big bash stakes with some tasty airborne missiles of their own.
Players signed autographs and posed for pictures as they left the field, and although he did not bowl, it was another Ashes hero, Steve Harmison, who was last to set foot off the pitch.
And whilst the result on the day was not the overriding feature, it served as a real tonic for the Prestwich lads who had suffered a sudden recent dip in their league fortunes. With renewed confidence, they racked up a score of 293 the following day to beat Bury by more than 100 runs.
Hopefully, this star-spangled encounter can provide the stardust and self-belief to act as a turning point for the rest of the season.
PCA masters team: Steve Harmison, Simon Jones, Saj Mahmood, Neil Fairbrother, Alex Tudor, Dean Headley, Phil DeFrietas, Richard Blakey, Usman Afzaal, Owais Shah and Devon Malcolm.
Prestwich team: Andy Bradley, Tom Gibson, Marty Walters, Ryan Stanbury, Sam Holden, James Wharmby, Ali Raza, Wilf Reeve, Tom Scott, Mike Finan and Nathan Bailey.
Umpires: Phil Bradley and Steve Ward. Photos: Martin Harper.
