Arunabha Sengupta looks at the famous feuds across the history of cricket. In this episode he covers the intense animosity between two great English cricketers of the 1950s - Peter May and Jim Laker
England skipper Peter May (left) and team mate Jim Laker winning the fancy dress contest as Tweedledum and Tweedledee during the MCC’s 1956 voyage to South Africa.
Off-spinner put off by the skipper’s comments
Jim Laker is still remembered for his 19 wickets against the hapless visiting Australians at Old Trafford in 1956. His 193 wickets in 46 Tests at 21.24 reads like the career record of a champion fast bowler, and to many a good batsman his off-spin seemed as scary as the fastest of deliveries. With left-arm spinner Tony Lock, he formed one of the most intimidating spinning partnership for England and Surrey, instrumental in seven consecutive county championship victories from 1952-58 for the latter.
His first-class tally of 1,944 wickets at 18.41 makes it incredibly difficult to believe, but on one occasion, the Englandand Surrey captain Peter May did accuse him of not really trying during a 1958 county fixture.
Needless to say, Laker was not amused. Reacting to the skipper’s slight, the great off-spinner withdrew his availability for the forthcoming Ashes tour. It was an ego clash that hung in the air for an eternity. Neither of the legends showed any inclination of backing down, and it was only after some astute diplomatic manoeuvres of the selectors that the impasse was resolved and a compromise was found so that Laker could go to Australia.
The Ashes series was not a happy one. There were a lot of controversies with regard to ‘throwing’ and a much younger Australian line up easily routed the English side 4-0. Laker himself had a successful tour, capturing 15 wickets at 21 apiece, but he was critical of the management and the tactics of the English team.
Back in England, in the county championships of 1959, Surrey’s seven-year winning streak came to an end. In the process, Laker ended up having increasing doubts about the captaincy of May both at the first class and Test levels.
In 1960, a rather patchily-ghosted autobiography of Laker was published. In this book, titled Over to Me, Laker severely criticised May’s captaincy, the management of the English team during the 1958-59 tour, as also the attitude of both May and the Surrey club authorities towards their county side. The writing was largely ordinary and dry, but the views of Laker were explosive and caustic. It resulted in a lot of sensation, and eventually his loss of honorary memberships of MCC and the Surrey County Club.
Laker did apologise for some of the passages when he owned up that he had not spent sufficient time with the writer who had ghosted the work. The lost memberships were restored to the greatest off-spinner in the history of England, but he never again played for Surrey or the country.