Kanhai can do as Croft is clattered

TROPHY ROOM: Mel Whittle, among prizes picked up over his long career

MEL Whittle retired from cricket last summer at the age of 63. In conversation with KEITH McHUGH he describes playing alongside the great Rohan Kanhai at Crompton — and facing up to fearsome fast bowler Colin Croft.

I HAVE many good memories of my time at Crompton and high on the list is the club’s association with the great West Indies batsman Rohan Kanhai.

When I was elected Crompton skipper in 1979 we had the chance to get Kanhai as professional as he had just married Miss Blackpool and was living over there.

So we went over to see him and got him to sign for us.

Our first game of the CLL season was against Werneth at Crompton and I bowled 20 overs. Kanhai watched this and asked me why I was taking such a long run-up.

You have to bear in mind you are listening to a great West Indies captain, so I took his views on board and never looked back.

Off that shorter run, I was able to bowl even longer spells with more control.

I was always able to move it away from the right-hander, but once I started off a shorter run I began experimenting, always in the nets and never in the middle. It was then that I was able to get the ball ducking back into the right-handers.

Crompton finished third in the league that season and lost by 45 runs in the Wood Cup final to Oldham.

But we made amends the following year with a 60-runs victory over Stockport.

Kanhai was the professional again and I remain the only player to have captained a Crompton side to Wood Cup final success.

As I have mentioned, Kanhai was a very high-class player and had enjoyed a fantastic career with the West Indies, scoring mountains of runs.

But his international career was over, whereas Royton professional Colin Croft was still involved and was a member of that famous pace battery which struck fear into opposing countries.

Croft was a bit of a nutcase and struck me a serious blow in a game at the Paddock.

I stood upright and kept hitting him over the slips for four, but then he decided to come around the wicket and asked the captain Jack Scholes to put in a silly point (John Punchard) and silly mid-off two yards from the bat.

I was out to a catch next ball and he broke a couple of my fingers.

In the same game, Croft bowled at Kanhai who hit him for two massive sixes straight over the flats.

And the very next ball he virtually sat on his backside and hooked Croft for another six on to the bowling green.

The West Indies were the top side in the world at that time, with Croft as one of their pace bowlers, and when we played Royton at home we had a lad called Paul Fitton batting for us.

As a bit of fun, he wrote to a national newspaper expressing his disbelief that the England batsmen of the time could not cope with the Windies quicks, pointing out that he had shared an opening partnership of 68 against Croft.

What he did not say was that although Crompton had reached 68 for none, Kanhai was 66 not out!

Of course, Kanhai was primarily a batsman, but I remember another occasion against Royton at Glebe Street when Jack Scholes looked set to make a century.

Jack had never made a ton and after 20 overs he was 99 not out when Kanhai said ‘skipper, give me the ball and I will get him out’.

With his first delivery, Kanhai produced a full toss and Jack gave him a caught and bowled.

Everyone was waiting for Jack to get his 100, but it never happened. That was Kanhai for you.

The year after that we went for Garth Le Roux, a left-armer from South Africa, but he backed out and we got Steve Jeffries as a last-minute replacement.

Halfway through the season he had only eight wickets to his name and he was nearly sacked by the club.

But I knew how good he was in the nets and although I cannot say in this newspaper what turned things around, I do admit to having a part in it.

The next game he arrived at the ground 20 minutes late, but when I gave him the ball he took eight for 22 and followed it up with 41 not out as we beat Littleborough.

In the game after, he took eight for 36 and scored 79 at Walsden and he went on to score over 800 runs in the second half of the season — not bad for someone Crompton were on the verge of sending home!

Next time: Taking on the great Gary Sobers and Andy Roberts.