by Ian Diddams
images courtesy of Devizes Arts Festival, Ian Diddams and Graham Lloyd
When one considers cricketing controversies, one maybe thinks of World Series Cricket, the “Rebel Tours” to South Africa during apartheid in the 1980s, Bombay bookmakers, Mike Gatting & Shakoor Rana, chucking, Mankading, the Trevor Chappell underarm incident, Somerset declaration of 1979, and a plethora of other controversies. Yet one that has lived very much under the radar for almost sixty years concerns Christie’s auctioneers, the alleged ball Gary Sobers hit for six sixes in one over, the first time ever, and sub-continental obfuscation and confusion.
Graham Lloyd, a journalist and broadcaster, visited Devizes Town Hall yesterday as part of the Devizes Arts Festival Fringe, for a fascinating talk about _that_ ball, the alleged lies and repeated falsehoods, and the litany of names surrounding it all… from Sobers the batsman, Malcom Nash the bowler, the non-striker during that over John Parkin, several Glamorgan players, Sober’s management, an Indian antiquarian book dealer, Indian Customs – and auctioneers Christies and Bonhams. The talk incorporating not just video and chat, but also country and song to tell the tale of
“the ball that was sold, was not the ball bowled”
And we were treated to an eye witness account of that record breaking momentous over, from Devizes Arts Festival organiser, the one and only Phillipa Morgan who was there on that day.
It’s certainly a tale that if presented as fiction would be rejected for being too far-fetched… But Graham Lloyd calmly and methodically presents his evidence in a compelling ninety minutes and leaves the viewer to make their own minds up about the truth.
We may have been treated to the last ever such talk as Graham seeks to retire, so we were privileged to hear it all from the horse’s mouth.But should you wish to read more about this controversy in the absence of seeing Graham in the flesh, his book “Howzat? The Six Sixes Ball Mystery” is available – I can confirm it’s a very good read and goes into greater detail than Graham could fit into his talk. The book is available from the usual online booksellers, but a better idea naturally would be to ask Jo at Devizes Books to get it – its ISBN numbers are
ISBN: 9780954596156.
ISBN-10: 0954596153.
devizine.com 