The best review of Jim Laker's 19 Wickets : England v Australia 1956

[@nickrider5220]

Utterly amazing performance, I remember Jim Laker as having a brilliant voice for test cricket, deep and mellow, I was born after his incredible feat, but a true legend - thanks Jim 👍🇬🇧

[@brusselssprouts560]

A proper gentleman, who was modest to the hilt, and a great commentator of the game too. A complete legend.

[@greymorris9006]

There was very little media coverage post match in those days. In a rare interview after the 1956 massacre Laker spoke of his brief stop at an Inn near Manchester. "I stopped and had a cup of tea and a sandwich while watching myself on television replays," he said. "No one in the room recognised me which was good after taking those 19 wickets."

[@Absuk007]

Absolutely hated the background music, Jim laker what a legend.

[@MrZORROish]

agreed - totally inappropriate arty rubbish

[@geofflucas6209]

Remember watching the Laker Test live.

[@Edward1312]

Incredible feat, but a very humble man and a great commentator.

[@whouster]

An astonishing feat that will surely never be equalled. Looking at Jim's body language, it was as if he was playing a knockabout village match rather than am Ashes Test. Such a modest and humble chap, and someone who probably felt a bit embarrassed at all the adulation this incredible performance merited.

[@latenightlogic]

50 years from 1956. ☺️ That was a good era.

[@MrHistorian123]

A great Yorkshireman who never played for Yorkshire, much to my regret.

[@ArchieFatcackie]

I hadn’t realised he’d already taken 10 wickets in an innings against the Aussies earlier in a tour match. Incredible.

[@besserman1]

The days when tour matches were played and were regarded as important. Attracted big crowds and were competitive.Then the counties started to put out weakened teams. Then they were scrapped altogether

[@Kevin-lf4xx]

I had not known that either.

[@michaelwhite8069]

I used to love Jim Laker’s commentary and Frank Tyson’s too...both very knowledgeable....👍👍👍

[@Moggy471]

Have no doubts. This will never be replicated. Unplayable.

[@silkenbeaut]

It was gentle men's game. But today its no more,

[@TheCleaner76]

A record that will not be beaten for a long long time.

[@johnenglish929]

…and if it is it will only be by one wicket !

[@prabhakarkmv4135]

Fantastic!🎉 Jim Laker! 🙏 🤲 🎉❤ 🏏

[@nevilleoliver1883]

In 1989 I spoke to Burt Flack who had prepared the wicket. I asked whether he had instructions on the preparation? He said headquarters told him to take the grass off it, he said , I went one better and took the dirt off it! Lovely man ,legendary groundsman at Old Trafford.

[@venkatvenka6282]

This feat is yet to be broken after a lapse of 68 years. Only Anil kumble did 50 percent by taking 10 wickets against Pakistan in Delhi n 1999.People who witnessed this golden Test match are luckiest. Remember Lakers did this against a mighty very strong batting lineup of Australia. Thanks for loading this golden clip.

[@stephenreeds3632]

Compare the reactions from all players to reactions today. Laker looks almost unconcerned.

[@handyvickers]

That's right... There would be never ending high-fives, aeroplanes, running about, whooping, etc etc etc... Wonder if he was man of the match?? 🤔🤣

[@neville695]

​@@handyvickersHow dare they😡

[@AsadAli-jc5tg]

Because it was nothing bigger than a club match, Australia and England was very much the same country back then.The standard of the game too was very low, umpires were unprofessional and players were cheating.

[@vilekangarooo5068]

It’s one thing for a bowler not to over celebrate taking a wicket but it’s almost as if Laker was furious at picking up wickets. At one point one of the dismissed batsmen walked of and jauntily threw his bat into the air while Laker looked really enraged. Taking the final wicket which gave him the match figures of 19 for 90 would have been the final straw for Laker and no doubt he went home and vandalised his own house in fury.

[@handyvickers]

@@AsadAli-jc5tg not sure you'd find many agreeing... Cowdrey, May, Bailey, Evans, Harvey, Benaud, Miller, Lindwall, etc etc etc... Some of the greats of Test cricket. I think a cut above club sides!

[@potdarkapil5365]

The surprising thing is at that time cricket was very very slow, but still people used to come in large attendance.., that shows love for sports

[@neilwhitehouse6833]

400 in one day is hardly slow. It was slow when survival was the agenda like Close and Boycott vs Liilee and Thompson

[@iiigraghu]

Excellent Enterprising Endeavour 👍

[@jimmyodriscoll9273]

All the great's have gone now R.I.P to all 🏏😢

[@cricket023]

Add Warne too 💔

[@kntlfrnz]

Harvey's still alive

[@hovefactually7505]

Strange picture at 3.14, considering Tony Lock bowled slow left-arm.

[@Rex-wn3yf]

The background music is a recording of Tony Lock wailing!

[@sentimentalbloke185]

Background music is odd. Also, no mention that the groundsmen at Headingley & Old Trafford were ordered to produce dry, dusty pitches to suit England after Australia won at Lord's due to their pace attack.

[@johnnicholson956]

Why? England had Trueman, Tyson and Statham. Their pace attack was better than Australia's, who, after Crawford broke down, only had the ageing Miller.

[@sentimentalbloke185]

@@johnnicholson956 Read history. The English told the Aussies that, after Lord's, they wouldn't get another pitch like that.

[@david10101961]

@@johnnicholson956 At the time of the Old Trafford test, Miller was aged 36 and Ray Lindwall 34. Ron Archer was only 22. Ken Mackay (aged 30) could bowl military medium but wasn't used, I guess for obvious reasons. Neither Pat Crawford (22) nor Alan Davidson (27) played in that match. On the England side, Statham was 26. Neither Trueman (25) nor Tyson (26) was selected. Trevor Bailey was 32. Of the spinners playing, Laker was aged 34, Lock 27, Ian Johnson 38 and Richie Benaud 25. From memory this was also the match where the selectors recalled The Rev David Sheppard and he rewarded them by scoring a century. There's an anecdote when Sheppard (in another match) put down a sitter in the slips and the distraught bowler sought consolation from Fred Trueman who remarked "Don't be surprised, David only puts his hands together on Sundays".

[@peterfrazer1943]

Always one who has something nasty to say. Can't just accept brilliance.

[@sentimentalbloke185]

@@peterfrazer1943 which bit is nasty, pal?

[@rj6404]

JL a legend , the batsmen had no clue , the foot work, barely there , playing spin was a mystery back then.

[@0121CRICKET]

Alan oakman is my granddad and i miss him so much xx

[@cricket023]

Can't beleive it. Everybody in the video is no more apart from Neil Harvey. Warne gone too unexpected and too soon. A fortnight before his death I saw this video and thought Neil and Warne are the only ones alive from this video....

[@krishnansubramanian8955]

Harvey and Warne are 4 decades apart.Warne might not have been born when this Test match took place.Harvey did reasonably well in the Test if my memory goes right.I followed it up through A.I.R.commentary.

[@werdnarotcorp8991]

Interesting to see how batsmen that were out walked off quickly ... maybe to help hide their shame. Today they just hang around and walk off very slowly as they have no shame.

[@handyvickers]

These days there would be endless referring up to the TV umpire....

[@davidfranklin2242]

Remove the background music as it does not suit the clip

[@rahulbuddhadev8976]

Absolutely

[@saleemkirmani5583]

@@rahulbuddhadev8976 Yes, there's no use of any music in this video.

[@hyena131]

9:14 - get those cricket whites higher up to your barrel chest, jim!! I bet he had a lovely old chug on his pipe after his 19 wickets did jim. Fair play.

[@wobblertv8083]

Apparently he stopped off at a pub on the way home had a half and a sandwich. It came on over the radio about lakers achievement. Nobody recognised him .....different times .

[@huepix]

R. Hadlee could have done ten in an innings, but he would have had to drop a catch to do it. Je said he actually thought about it as the ball was in the air, but knew he couldn't deprive Evan Gray of his first test wicket. 19 in the match tho. Extraordinary.

[@paulbuckle2081]

How great to see players just shaking hands instead of all the ridiculous antics nowadays when a wicket falls. Just look at Broad sprinting round the field like a greyhound. The players will soon be pulling their shirts of like the pathetic footballers when they score a goal.

[@Allanfearn]

At the end of an innings the groundsmen used to tidy up the creases with an old fashioned broom. On the second day, mid afternoon, there were even worse dust clouds than in the Old Trafford Test against the West Indies in 1950. Unique. You hardly saw it in the county game there, and only in those two Tests. Apparently some Old Trafford grandee had ordered an extra shaving of the pitch on the first morning. Cowdrey and Richardson opened on an almost grassless surface. If Ian Johnson had won the toss........

[@michaelwhite8069]

My only brother was at Old Trafford to see Jim Laker take his final few wickets in his 10 wicket haul....

[@jayannan9897]

Don't see anyone beating that. Even in club cricket I don't see it happening after 12 years old👏👏👏👏

[@MrGranfield]

A great achievement but Laker would be the first to admit the pitch was a major factor in his record.

[@theyaduvanshiindian391]

Laker took 19 Kumble took 14 and Aijaz Patel took 15 wickets

[@leerockx357]

Nopes. Ajaz also took 14.

[@douglasporter3865]

Hedley Verity took 15 against Australia, Lord's 1934, and Wilfred Rhodes took 15 several years earlier. Both slow left-arm bowlers from Yorkshire!

[@flamingfrancis]

Bob Massie 16-137 in his debut Ashes Test, Lord's 1972

[@douglasporter3865]

@@flamingfrancis Yes, and as you may remember, Narendra Hirwani beat that by one run (16-136) on *his* debut, on a raging bunsen in India. But neither he nor Massie ever hit those heights again.

[@besserman1]

@@flamingfrancis I think he only played 5 tests in total

[@stephenkerensky710]

jim laker 19 wickets in 1956 test v Australia.

[@ritchybinoo9150]

Hope Imran didn't regret that beamer to Lloyd when he himself had to bat against Holding, Roberts & Marshall later! LOL!

[@judgementravi5086]

A lot Of Cricketers played n won da Cup but never & ever Unforeseeable The greatest Oldest more beautiful Lords playground Of Shapes 👍💪👌✍👈

[@ray.shoesmith]

what?

[@brianhaskard1042]

In local cricket I once took 9-32. My team mate says he wished he had purposely dropped the catch he took for the last wicket 😣

[@TheQ-Continuum]

What a contrast to Baz Ball in 2023 !

[@DJ-ct6so]

Re Laker's ball that bowled Neil Harvey..... John Bracewell bowled Allan Border with an almost identical delivery in Sydney in 1985. (See kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHvEeX2mdqZlgJY at around 35:35)

[@paulclissold1525]

From memory the next highest ashes haul was bob massie with 16.

[@krishnansubramanian8955]

Narendra Gidwani also took 16 wickets in a Test Match.

[@krishnansubramanian8955]

Hidwani for Gidwani.

[@paulclissold1525]

@@krishnansubramanian8955 in the ashes lol.

[@tonyparry9334]

Great video - shame about the screaming banshee background cacophony.

[@laurencepiper]

I find the over celebrating and berating of the umpire appalling. So pleased we have moved on from this behaviour.

[@auroraticroshan181]

Who was not out in the 2nd innings? Whose wicket did Laker cannot capture in the 1st innings?

[@guodade2239]

Ian Johnson was not out. Jimmy Burke was the wicket Laker did not take in the first innings.

[@dpinto6278]

who were the commentators?

[@ernietarling5829]

Brian Johnston was certainly one.

[@paulmurphy5648]

Ted Laker Yorkshireman...'nuff said...

[@terranceparsons5185]

Ted Laker? I think you mean his brother, Jim!

[@potdog1000]

Bradford's finest

[@sumanthm629]

Aussie batters going backfoot to full length off spinners - cannot fathom why they did not go front foot to the pitch of the ball and play with soft hands.

[@hemantvaidya1772]

What about Narendra Hirwani?

[@Alan-gh8X]

WHO.

[@capt.anilpadhy1768]

Actual cricket then played.After1985 money spoiled the game

[@guodade2239]

Money actually began to spoil the game much sooner. Television was already having an impact upon live audiences even when this game was played. Television, undoubtedly, was what enforced covering upon English pitches, although it was clear to most observers that covered pitches were rigged against spin bowlers (Trevor Bailey himself and David Green said that quite clearly between the 1980s and 2000s). If you watch the game, the ball spins or appears to spin incredibly fast compared to anything observed today under fully covered pitches. Reading 1980s Wisdens voraciously in the 1990s, I always assumed that Lloyd’s and Richards’ West Indian sides of the 1980s would have had no chance of beating Laker and Lock under the conditions prevailing in 1956 (of course excluding the second test where their fast bowlers certainly would have triumphed easily).

[@stevo2992]

What an odd choice of music that doesn’t suit the video at all. It’s the sort of music you have when opening an artery! 😳

[@abhishekshekhawat9612]

🙌

[@johnmehaffey9953]

Uncovered pitches and the captain tells the groundsmen what sort of pitch he wants

[@johnflynn4126]

what a stupid music background. Get rid of it............

[@jamesfahey4508]

The groundskeeper would be arrested for match fixing if he prepared a wicket like that these days.

[@patrickkelly9110]

Nonsense , the home team can prepare the wicket in any way they choose as long as it’s not dangerous

[@jonathonjubb6626]

"It promised to be a turning wicket .." Meaning: Right Groundsman, produce a bunsen or find another job...

[@eaterofjams]

So Colin McDonald was not a walker then :)

[@J_Teriyaki]

You can ONLY rely on 'taking the piss' when you are NOT the genius everyone is talking about. Is it true the bowler who had 6 x 6's taken off his over in a county game by Gary Sobers said to him: "Remember I go into the record books with you!!."??

[@stewartdavies929]

Oh no, it rained in Manchester. What are the chances of 5hat ever happening again?

[@petercharles8306]

Wicket was unplayable..

[@davec8730]

01:55 LORDS the usual england graveyard, stop playing at the museam.

[@MOGGS1942]

The wicket was doctored.

[@guodade2239]

It may have been, but other teams did such much more in later years, for instance the West Indies did it in the 1985/1986 series to make it easier for their pace battery, and Pakistan made deliberately spin-friendly pitches two seasons later.

[@stephenwright1476]

Doctored wicket, pure and simple. Great bowler? Too funny.

[@MarkMeade-e1y]

It still takes skill to get those wickets, and Locke was just as good and only got one wicket during the whole test match , the same can be said of Derrick Underwood at the Oval in 1968 and took 7 wickets to draw the series at 1-1 against Australia, and Headingley in 1972 to retain the Ashes , and not forgetting Lords in 1974 where he took 13 wickets on another turning pitch, but you need the skill to take those wickets ……. Jim Laker , Tony Locke and Derrick Underwood where fantastic test match spinners for England, the past is gone and the present is for the moment baz ball……

[@venderstrat]

To say, 'It'll never happen again', is stupid.

[@sentimentalbloke185]

To say "To say, 'It'll never happen again', is stupid" is stupid.

[@JimMcCrudden-w6g]

How much would you bet it will never happen again?

[@amitgokhale6578]

Laker would pull out the seam..so its no big feat

[@hyena131]

amit gokhale What are you getting at/inferring?

[@portcullis5622]

Even if that was true, he still had to land the ball in the right place, and did so, 19 times.

[@peterchessell28]

Talking out of your arse mate.

[@beefy1986]

​@@hyena131 Mate ignore him. Typical Indian fan. When Indian spinners do well, it's talent. When foreign spinners do it it's ball tampering. Just idiots. Ruin the fun of cricket

[@Rapture_Ready_Rabbit]

? TIME HAS RUN OUT !! John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Don't ignore this message... REPENT NOW !! TRUST that God raised Him from the dead !! By FAITH accept JESUS's blood alone as payment for your sins unto Salvation, to escape what's about to happen !!

[@warsil3735]

Muralithatan has boweled far bertter unplayable ballscampared ro lsker or warne😂

[@cquilty1]

@warsil3735 But Murali was a chucker - everyone knows that:)

[@warsil3735]

@@cquilty1 😂😂😂😂 was proven beyond reasonable doubt that he was not chucker as per extensive tests analysis in world renowned biomechanics laboratories not only in Australia but also in the UK and also by video evidence using thousands of footages 😂😂. . So majority goes by scientific evidence not by white Australian policies or few white man's preference over performance based on skin tone😂😂

[@cquilty1]

@@warsil3735 Here is an exert from Murali's profile on the widely respected ESPN cricinfo: "Perhaps no cricketer since Douglas Jardine has polarised opinion quite like Muthiah Muralidaran. For the believers, he's among the greatest to ever spin a ball. For the doubters, he's a charlatan undeserving of the game's greatest records, responsible for changes in the laws that they think have legitimised throwing." Still doubts linger over the chucker Murali:) As for your "So majority goes by scientific evidence not by white Australian policies or few white man's preference over performance based on skin tone", this is what many would consider hate speech/racism (I did not mention skin tone or race and nor do I see a need to) and clearly reveals your anger, impotence and lack of height. And of course we all know this type of race related rage and anger nearly always comes almost exclusively from the sub-continent, and your KZbin account can be terminated for this. Sad really.

[@cquilty1]

@warsil3735 "Muralithatan has boweled far bertter unplayable ballscampared ro lsker or warne", you babble. Huh?? Some friendly advice - spend more time learning the basics of written English in lieu of being so hate filled and obsessed with nationalism. Trust me - you'll be much happier:) PS. This video has *N-O-T-H-I-N-G* to with Warne. But your racism, hate, rage and anger makes you bring him up. *LOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!*

[@sidneygreen9120]

Bowled laker 👍👍