scg mcg
scgs problem was that the mcg always belonged to warney – warne was always in possession of macgills name. macgill, despite his wonderful initials never owned the scg. warne cast his shadow of possession even that far. scg was always in the dark – the dark horse of australian cricket. despite the letters in his names though he was never of cricket. scg could bowl for sure – only a tiny handfull of players have reached 200 test wkts in fewer test matches. but beyond bowling scg was no cricketer, he was no athlete. other bowlers have been terrible batsman but that have at least been batsman – or they have striven to be. and they may not have been great in the field but they have fielded. mcgrath for instance had a particular form of athleticism that made him the incredible bowler he was. this same athleticism prevented him from being a great batsman or fielder – but he worked with it as much as he could, he twisted himself inside out to build an innings or take a flying catch. scg it seems rarely strove. he had no athleticism and never attempted to. at Sabina Park, in his penultimate test match scg ran out one of the west indian batsmen. this was the best piece of cricket i have ever seen from him. he could have retired then and there. scg had no grasp whatever on even the fundamentals of batting. there has never been a test cricketer less of a cricketer. a dark horse less of a horse. cricket’s real athletes take on animal totems – often more than one animal – and ascend to the status of the immortal. one must be able to transform. dizzy was a stallion gull and a mythological god (gilgamesh); mcgrath was the great golden pony pigeon and a time lord; warne was any manner of flamboyant birds (flamingoes, parrots, sulphur crested cockatoos) and he made the legend of el warno – he was in himself cosmic without reference to any other cosmic body. scg was stuck as nothing but the dark horse which he could not let fly. he may as well have been toothpaste. in the field he would often be caught napping, thinking of horses (not being one), or wine, or books. essentially he was disconnected from his forms. they were there for him to take – the dark horse; the wolf blass eagle. hope must have risen with warne’s retirement but it was as though scg needed that shadow. it was all he had to hold him to the game. no other cricketer ever missed warne more. i was wondering how scg came to play cricket at such a high level. one can’t imagine his autobiography. those early chapters where the cricketers detail the intricate and unique little drills they conceive for themselves as children, and the hours spent endlessly enacting test matches in the driveway or backyard with their siblings. i can’t imagine what form they would have taken for scg. i doubt he was really interested. the cricketers autobiography usually isolates an element of the players relation to the game and makes this the crucial factor in the players success. mike hussey endlessly reproduces training schedules, daily itineraries of activities, diets, all manner of lists – an obsessive attention to detail in preparation. steve waugh’s tome is deeply psychological or, rather, anti-psychological – everything is to do with getting into the right frame of mind to face the next particular delivery. for justin langer its all about the passion for the baggygreen. for slats its exuberance. for roy its not thinking about anything (though his ‘thoughts’ on the game are more profound than anyones) – its to do with playing naturally. what would scgs driving force be? nothing other than shadow perhaps. no other cricketer ever missed warne more.
