From the BBC World Service in association with ABC and All India Radio. This is Stumped.
Hello and welcome to Stumped your intercontinental hits of news features and debate from the quirky
world of cricket. I'm Alison Mitchell in London, where there is a flurry
of activity around announcements in England men's cricket a new captain for the Test side,
which we'll talk about in a moment and non-appointments as well where the search
for new ECB Chair has rather stalled, and now the person who was in charge of finding a chair
looks like he's going to apply himself to do the roles, so that's going to take a little bit more
time and is rather curious to get your head around it, but I had a lovely afternoon at Lord's, the
other day for the annual meeting of the cricket writers' club and lots of work the organisation
is doing to support those looking to make their way into cricket journalism and broaden that field
as well. So it's a really lovely day to catch up with friends in cricket as well.
Ali, Brett Sprigg here at the ABC in Sydney, where Aussie cricket fans are really getting
an idea of what our next summer will look like. It sounds like Perth will launch the
test summer against the apparently resurgent West Indies and then South Africa will visit
for the first time since the Cape Town sandpaper saga. So there is already plenty to be excited
about for the cricket fans down under Well hi Brett, welcome the show Brett,
this is Charu Sharma for All India radio, once again in Bangalore I have had to run away
from the Khelo India which is play India- it's a government initiative University Games happening
for the second time around. It's a twenty sport 4500 athlete, big extravaganza happening here
in Bangalore luckily so I said yes, finished with basketball, doing hockey today and there's going
to be some athletics as well I'm quite enjoying this multi sports extravaganza thing once again.
Of course the IPL race is on, so a whole lot of heroes and a couple of zeros as well there.
There are hopefully more heroes and zeros though! Good to see you Charu and Brett,
yes welcome along to the show once again- good to have you! First up on Stumped then,
the news that Ben Stokes has been announced as England's new Test captain. He replaces
Joe Root who resigned earlier this month ending his five year tenure- as Stokes has formally been
vice captain, he has captained the test team before, just once in a four wicket defeat to
the West Indies in Southampton two years ago. He is a talismanic cricketer of that there is
absolutely no doubt. And it's been quite an extraordinary journey for Ben Stokes,
his first appearance as the permanent England Test captain will come against the country of his
birth no less, New Zealand and that is a three Test series starting at Lord's beginning of June,
so not too long away. Brett, is he for you the right man and possibly the only man for the job
when you look at that England test line up? Yeah, he is the obvious choice because he
is one of very few England players, capable of keeping their place in this team. If one
thing was apparent out of the ashes and again, more recently in the Caribbean is there anyone
who's going to be first picked in this England side that you could select to keep their place,
let alone lead this team. I understand there will be concerns about the extra responsibility
and I guess Rob Key will rightfully tread carefully since previous all-rounders,
namely, Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff, didn't endure a great deal of success as test captains,
not to mention that Ben Stokes himself has already had to take breaks from the game previously, but I
think the way cricket has evolved, you perhaps are not so reliant on a captain and you may have a few
of those senior players around him, Jonny Bairstow is one, Joe root is another, not to mention James
Anderson and Stuart Broad who Ben Stokes would advocate for their return, so that he can seek
their counsel and perhaps won't absorb so much of that burden himself, but he is the right choice.
I suppose when you look at all-rounders Charu, look no further than Pat Cummins,
he seems to step seamlessly into that role as Test captain for the Aussies.
I've got to say this first though, Brett you're a man after my own heart. After years, well many
months I've had somebody else acknowledge the fact that captaincy is not what it used to be in 1875.
The whole team comes around, there's everybody who is a hardboiled professional and the captain,
yeah you could wear a blazer, Gordon Dawson something but otherwise it's very collective,
the whole democracy thing in cricket is much more now than ever before, so thank you Brett, oh gosh,
what a relief to find somebody else who thinks the same way, but I also think that you're talking
about somebody who is a genius. If you give them the burden of captaincy you're reducing the genius
portion of somebody who, if left alone can perform one hundred percent. You start giving them most of
the responsibilities and duties and already we know, we've talked about this before on Stumped,
that he is a bit of a reluctant leader you know he's gone through all sorts of situations
mentally and otherwise, he asked for time out and now you bring back him and load him double.
So this might be the Tina factor as we call it in Indian politics - there is no alternative,
so many of the Tina factors working here, but for a short term until somebody else can fill
up this slot, why not one of the bowlers because I'm not very fond of the faster bowlers becoming
captains. Pat Cummins has proved me wrong. He's done fairly well, except for the fact that he is
not alone as captain and there are plenty of other people supporting him once again. But, I rarely,
England needs another alternative to Stokes and if it's a very short term kind of thing - it's OK,
but no, not in the long run he needs to be left alone and left on a long leash.
Let his genius work for him and for England. I'm thinking they are hoping that he will be
in the job for a little while at least I suppose though there's a little bit of a concern fitness
wise about his knee which has apparently still been giving him a bit of pain in the lead up to
his first appearances for Durham in the English domestic season. But you could argue that the
thing that he has, has been through, I mean consider that he was left out of the twenty
seventeen, eighteen Ashes, he was awaiting court for a trial where he was ultimately acquitted. He
had to deal with the death of his father. He has had to deal with injuries, had taken mental health
break from the game. So all of that experience if you can consider how that can help you know
when he's in a leadership when others are going through struggles in the team, he does command
an enormous amount of respect both within the dressing room and by cricket fans and opponents
for those incredible feats he can do with the bat - the fastest double hundred by an Englishman. The
incredible turnaround in that Headingley Test match in the ashes and his feats in the World
Cup of course. So he is an extraordinary cricketer and somebody who players naturally want to
lead. I wonder if Charu, when it comes to this sense of bringing Anderson and Broad back into
the England side, there's that sort of strength and your sense of Stokes will have some back up,
some other senior heads in the team because England for me, it was an extraordinary decision
that they dropped them for the West Indies tour. Yes true, England has gone through this crazy
phase of selecting different people for different test matches and not going for the best team for
the first Test match, as we have seen the last few years, and that's really hurt them in terms of
their test match record, but otherwise it's not a bad team and I think there's just too much fixing
going on. It's not that broke, but you are right, it is nice to have some senior friends of his
alongside him and you're right about the fact that he is a natural, I hesitate to say for one leader,
but because, because of his performances he is that talismanic cricketer that people love
to follow love to be around, love to share their success with, so I just don't think he should be
officially given this captaincy title, but it'll be nice for him to have old mates around, although
you know even the youngsters these days are so hard boiled. They're so tough when they get into
the national side, they play a lot of cricket. So it's not that you're dealing with school children
or some really, relatively inexperienced people, just about everybody has enough
knowledge of the game to perhaps even lead, but for Stokes particularly, the way his mental
situation structure at this point of time when, it's only conjecture on my part,
he needs good friends around him and Anderson and Broad for sure need to be around him
when he leads the first test two or three. An exciting area, but it will be a challenging
one given the way the test team have been batting of late I hope that Stokes can be the man
to be the leader and turn things around. Now, here are some names for you,
Deandra Dottin, Marizanne Kapp and Mignon du Preez are just some of the biggest names,
starring in a brand new women's cricket tournament that starts in Dubai this week. The Fairbreak
invitational is a T20 event featuring players from as many as thirty five different countries,
including Brazil, Vanuatu and Germany and we have spoken about some of these countries and their
cricketing exploits on stumped in the past. Now in a moment, we'll hear from the vice-captain of
Bhutan who is set to take part. But first, here's a tournament organiser Sean Martin
telling Stumped how the event was established. There's never been a cricket tournament like it,
there's never been thirty six countries involved in, I don't think to the best of my knowledge,
any sporting event, team sporting event outside of the Olympic Games. So it's quite interesting how
over the years, we've identified and unearthed a lot of talent in associate nations that
you don't get to see, because there's not the opportunity for them to play. So when you marry
that that talent with, well I would say the more the better known international players,
then that's quite a powerful mix of talent. That's Sean Martin, the founder of
Fairbreak Global. Well as I mentioned one of the players, set to benefit is the vice-captain
of the Bhutan cricket team Anju Gurung and I'm delighted that Anju joins us now from
her training base in Thailand, Anju welcome to Stumped, this Invitational Sounds like a
unique and very exciting opportunity for you. Yes, it is like for me this scheme is like, I'm
quite excited and nervous too, because it's the first time I'm playing in this kind of tournament.
Tell us about you and your cricket experience. How did you get involved in the sport?
The time when I was in grade 5 in my school the scheme was announced which I had never
heard and seen because during that time we don't know much game about this because this game is
not played in Bhutan, like other countries they play, but in Bhutan so this game was new in Bhutan
so I was excited and I signed up there and in 2007 from Bhutan cricket board they have understand
now for players like my area, where I host, my hometown is like in Southern area, so they say,
the board immediately put the coaches in like where I stay, my home town.
So I start training there and they had a camp for, like the say there would be like,
our international tour and selection camp. So I joined there and from there they are like I get in
National team which was like a great and exciting moment for me to get into that international team.
Anju hello this is Charu Sharma from Bangalore, India. Congratulations on being the vice-captain
of the Bhutan team. You've been playing for quite a while now you mentioned that 2007 it
all started in your area .Has it become a lot more popular? Are many more people now girls,
and boys playing cricket in Bhutan? I would say more currently I would say
in Bhutan cricket is fast growing game in Bhutan currently, because of like in 2018 when they
did a survey there was like 13,500 cricketers and now it's almost 50,000 cricketers in Bhutan
so I would say it s good news for Bhutan. Anju I'm curious to know your involvement in
Fairbreak the opportunity to participate in Fairbreak. How did that come about?
Well that, our cricket board applied in Fairbreaks and so that our beginners
get a chance to play there, so like they send like our top five
girls videos, clips and all good when they were during training. So from there I got selected.
Anju, it's been a real pleasure speaking to you and can't wait to see how you go with
the Fairbreak invitational and good luck with it all, thanks for being with us on Stumped.
Thankyou. Finally, on stumped,
what do you think you'll be doing when you reach eighty six years of age. You might already be
eighty six, you might be listening to us on Stumped which I do hope you are. You also might
be thinking of slowing down a little bit, spending time with your feet up maybe? But for Britain's
oldest cricket umpire Keith Dibb, that has never been an option. This cricket mad grandad had
just started his seventy first season in a career that has seen him take charge of over a thousand
matches and we are delighted to be joined by Keith, Keith great to see you've got your
whites on as well, your umpire's coat for those people watching on YouTube as well. How are you?
I'm not one that needs silly privileges you know all I need to do is get on with my job
and I don't expect anybody to sort of speak up for me, but since I've got to this age
everybody seems to be wanting to talk to me. Well yeah, you are Britain's oldest umpire
and first thing I've got to ask is why are you still doing it at this age when
you could just be kicking back and relaxing, enjoying watching the cricket from the stands?
I like to be involved and I like to I mean I have had the privilege of umpiring at Headingley for
the famous to Dickie Bird umpire with his foundations. So I've been around a bit and
I was ready to help people out if they re stuck, so I always carry my coat with me
on holiday in case somebody needs me. So it's just a way of life isn't it, really.
You've mentioned the great Dickie Bird of course you're speaking to us from your home in Yorkshire
in the north of England. Tell us briefly then when did you first start officiating cricket matches?
1947 and to prove it I've got a picture here of 1947.
Oh my word, holding up a photo if you're watching on YouTube.
I know that you umpire plenty in your home town, but you've,
you mentioned the travelling, you've taken charge of matches right around the world is that right?
Well, I went on holiday to see my daughter when she used to work in New Zealand and
I got called up because they were short of an umpire in the Wellington Lee, so ended up doing
four weekends for them, it didn't matter I enjoyed it and I quite like the company as well you see,
and the banter. The highlight was I went to Barbados on holiday and I got called up to help
out Warwickshire County Cricket club and the first match was against Barbados and Gordon Greenidge
came out and shook hands with me and he said, I've won the toss I'm going to bat, and he got
one hundred and three in forty minutes and came down the wicket and took his gloves off and shook
hands with me. He said and I'm going out umpire thank you very much. So I really enjoyed that.
Keith what has cricket meant to you over the years. You are eighty six. It sounds like it
is remains essential part of your life. Can you sum up the game has given to you?
Well, I mean the main thing is we've had a year out with this virus which has been terrible for
everybody all over the world. And the thing I missed when we couldn't meet up was the
comradeship and the banter. I love the banter. And with being six foot four and a half a lot
of people think I'm an ex police officer, which is rather nice. So I'll get a bit of respect as well.
It's been, well when I got married to my wife I said, will you, I'm marrying you I
play cricket and on a Saturday you can go and see your mother and your friends
and we'll meet back for a meal or we'd go to the pictures and that's it and she agreed
to do it. Fifty nine years of marriage I had with her before I lost her to the coronavirus.
I've had two marriages I've had a marriage with my wife, Margaret and I've a marriage to cricket.
Keith, keep doing the good work on the field. We look forward to perhaps catching up with
you on your ninetieth birthday and see how you're going then, let's hope you're still
standing in the middle. Thank you very much.
Well, that's all we've got time for on Stumped here on All India Radio. Don't forget the you
can follow us on Twitter. We're @BBCWSsport and use the hashtag #BBCStumped and you can watch us
on YouTube as well, find the BBC World Service's YouTube channel. My thanks to Charu Sharma
and Brett Sprigg and to you for listening and watching we'll see you again next week. Bye Bye.
From the BBC World Service in association with ABC and all India Radio. This is stumped.