All this bullshit talk about choking got me thinking back to the 1987 world cup final, it’s strange how I think of that game whenever I hear the term ‘choker.’
The reasons why? Well my lasting memories of that match are of England getting into a winning position and then chucking it away with Mike Gatting playing a stupid needless reverse sweep shot off Allan Border.
In short, I believe England choked that day. The world cup was there for the taking and we blew it.
This leads me onto Mike Gatting, Gat has got to be blamed for a lot of what went wrong with English cricket in the late 80’s – early 90’s and probably beyond.
First, that bloody reverse sweep shot, I still hate that shot til this day. I cringe whenever I hear a TMS commentator say it, or I watch someone play it on TV.
If Gat had never played it, we might well have gone on and won that world cup. What would a world cup win have done for the future of cricket in this country?
Just look at contrast in fortunes for Australia and England after that day/shot.
Second, that ball from Warne. Again Gatting is responsible, if he had got any part of his gut or bat in the way of that, the ball would never have happened, the Warne factor may never have materialized and after that he wouldn’t have had 3 wickets in the bag everytime he played against England before he’d even bowled a bloody ball.
From that ball onwards, Warne had England in his pocket for the next 15 years.
So in conclusion, I can now confirm that Mike Gatting is responsible for all that has been wrong with English cricket from 1987-2007. And we didn’t need no research by any nutty professor or geek in a white jacket on the tax payer’s payroll to work that out as suggested.
So in future, just ask me instead.
