Thanks to Twenty20 cricket, sixes are dime a dozen these days. But in the past, sixes were rare and had a special appeal – comparable to sex appeal. Well, almost!
First-class cricket was played for 153 years before the great West Indian Garry Sobers, playing for Nottinghamshire, hit Glamorgan’s Malcolm Nash over the fence six times in a six-ball over at Swansea on 31 August, 1968.
This was the first instance in first-class cricket and has been achieved only once since – by Bombay’s Ravi Shastri against Baroda’s Tilak Raj in Bombay in 1984-85.
Grahame Lloyd’s book Howzat? The Six Sixes Ball Mystery, recently published in the UK, revolves around that famous over by Nash to Sobers. It is not so much about those sixes but about the ball which was hit.
It is more than a cricket book. It is investigative journalism involving interviews with about a hundred individuals connected with this conspiracy – perhaps even scam.
Scam? I can imagine you jumping out of your chair and out of your skin! It has nothing directly to do with the cricketers, let me assure you. Here is the run-down.
In 2006 the ball smashed around Swansea by the West Indies legend was sold for a world-record price at the reputed auctioneer Christie’s in London.
Author Lloyd – A professional broadcaster and a journalist for more than 30 years, who has written four books – states that it could not have been the correct ball.
It saddened me to discover one indisputable, incontrovertible fact: the ball sold by Christie’s for £26,400 in 2006 was not the actual ball bowled by Nash.
It could not have been the genuine article because it was the wrong make – a Duke rather than a Surridge – and I was also aware that only one ball had been used in this over, not three as claimed by Christie’s.
Lloyd is very thorough in his investigation, interviewing all the players and organisers involved in that 1968 match, especially bowler Nash and batsman Sobers. Sobers had signed the certificate of authenticity. Both stated that only one ball was used in that famous over.
The author found a Glamorgan newsletter dated December 1968 which included an article titled “A World Record clutch of Sixes”. The crucial sentence in the report read:
“Glamorgan presented this ball, which was made at the home of Stuart Surridge, the former Surrey captain, to Nottingham to reside in a place of honour in their Sporting Museum.”
So the Duke ball auctioned by Christie’s could not be the authentic ball. Many Glamorgan players of the 1960s vintage agreed that only Surridge balls were used.
When Sobers was asked by a reporter from Nottingham Evening Post in 2008 if he could remember the ball he had given to John Gough, the then secretary of Nottinghamshire Supporters’ Association, he replied, “How can I? That was 40 years ago. I never saw it until two years ago when she [Jose Miller, the current secretary] brought it.”
Adds author Lloyd, “Presumably, that was about the time he [Sobers] had signed a certificate of provenance stating that the ball had been bowled during the Six Sixes over.”
The narration goes on like a detective story, a cricketing whodunit, as the author is certain that the auctioned ball was not the genuine article. The ball eventually ends up in India.
My question to Roar readers: why buy a ball (or a bat or a glove) for £26,400? It may turn out to be a fake. I can’t understand collectors throwing money away just to show off to friends or clients.
Or is it a money-making gimmick? They can resell it to another collector five years later at double the price?
Signed copies of Howzat? The Six Sixes Ball Mystery are available from author Grahame Lloyd here for £15 plus postage and packaging.
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