Random Cricket Photos Post 101




#RandomCricketPhotosThatMakeMeHappy

"Who writes your scripts?"

Fewer photos are more iconic for me than this one. Why? Let's see what's happening here.

This is Ian Botham celebrating the wicket of Jeff Crowe for his 356th Test wicket in a 1986 Test against New Zealand. This was his first match after a ban for smoking marijuana and here he was, going into the record books for becoming the bowler with the most Test wickets, overtaking Dennis Lillee's tally of 355 scalps.

But that's not what makes it iconic for me. It's the expression on the face of Graham Gooch standing in the second slip that makes it one of my favorite photographs, an expression screaming a question that he famously asked Botham when he equalled the record with the first ball he bowled in the match - "Who writes your scripts?"

If one looks at the careers of the two men, it's not difficult to understand Gooch's bafflement. While Botham conjured up magic with his round belly and unending supply of fags, Gooch took the hard work route to greatness.

A man who began his career with two ducks, he kept making comeback after comeback on the back of his sheer determination before becoming one of the finest batsmen and captain of the English team. In fact, such was his focus to stay longer in the game that he brought in the cult of fitness to cricket. He famously packed dumbbells to India where he feared the training facilities wouldn't be up to the mark.

To his intense training regime, Botham once said, "You need to stop training so hard in the morning. It's making you tired in the evenings."

Well, if I was as big a gifted genius as the all-rounder was, I would probably have the same advice for Gooch. After all, the former had time and again proved that he could produce miracles without putting in half the effort that Gooch did.

But, seriously, who wrote those scripts?

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