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ral scene of fenner s complete with suited undergraduates overshadowing trees and fred titmus black and white of course in the very same week sports illustrated published in glorious technicolour a famous photograph of muhammad ali knocking out sonny liston ali yelling gloves scarlet spectators craning in as ryan puts it the timing may be one of the century s strangest sports photography coincidences the contrast is certainly striking but eagar was not simply a reactionary retreating to the comforts of the traditional he received a fine training in photojournalism he travelled to vietnam in 1966 taking photos in military hospitals but he chose to continue to photograph cricket when he returned it seems that this is what ryan is probing questioning what did eagar see in cricket that caught his attention what kept him focussed on the game when he could have chosen to photograph the global great and good the social shifts of the second half of the twentieth century at times the political is inescapable in eagar s photography especially in his images depicting viv richards and other west indians proud black men at the pinnacle of their sport at other times ryan s nostalgia for eagar s photographic pinnacle seems problematic about the only woman in the photos of eagar s selected for the book is one walking past the sightscreen in the fenner s picture the images depict a male world and its homosocial spaces the congratulatory gathering of players at the fall of a wicket the inner sanctum of the changing room the chappell brothers recline moustachioed and smoking captured in their element by eagar the power of the images is undeniable they seem however remote as dated as the helmetless heads and buckled pads in their stern intimacy this intimacy is the main quality of eagar s photography what draws ryan to them now eagar tells him of his affinity for umpires without whom the game unspools the umpire is the person intimately involved with the game who most resembles the observer their slight detachment the mundane nature of many of their tasks counting checking adjusting their physical ability and appearance less intimidatingly distant than that of the players the photographer is necessarily distant the playing area bounded and exclusive unlike the umpire their role as watcher and recorder requiring proximity these roles have become blurred in the age of television line calls and referrals but for eagar in 1975 all his skill and technical expertise were required to capture the intimacies and intricacies of the game eagar might have got lucky occasionally but as ryan recognises he had to dream up the possibilities of the photograph in the first place photographs like the one of thomson contain the magic of possibility of momentary unknowing there is one of phil edmonds bowling a hat trick delivery on debut where the ball hovers inches from his fingers a deep breath that watching live or on television cannot prolong similarly there is one of roy fredericks hit wicket dismissal in the 1975 world cup final the eyes of the batsman and the square leg fielder are fixed on the ball sailing to fine leg but the bails lie disturbed at the base of the stumps it is a similar moment of unknowing one that only a photograph could capture these fragments of play shots of time and possibility are what ryan engages with alongside the emotional resonance of faces captured in action there is a surreal photo again of asif iqbal seeming to laugh as his off stump is knocked out of the ground another which captures ross edwards anxiety as his eyes track the ball towards the slip cordon from his edge the earnest concern of a parent or teacher on his middle aged face it is in these images that ryan searches for art and asks eagar for exposition or additional meaning the text is a rich one and can be read rather like the accompanying essay in the catalogue of an exhibition ryan s prose is characteristically engaging but acts largely as a prompt to consideration eagar s pictures so full of emotion brotherhood nostalgia energy potential and grace both explore a moment and a sport 1975 in cricket the year of the first world cup and the last ashes before world series cricket sits apart from cultural change yet also reflects it but eagar s photography also questions our ways of seeing cricket from the emotions of players to the contortions of bowling actions this is the great strength of feeling in the thing two people who stretch our conceptions of the game question our understandings and literal perspectives in conversation this search for meaning perhaps explains eagar s return to cricket post vietnam a recognition that sport even english cricket in the 1960s can reveal much of the human experience if 1975 seems distant its cast faded in the memory the sharpness of eagar s work retrieves it and continues to ask questions for cricket s present and future of its aesthetics and its meanings posted in cricket tagged art australia book reviews christian ryan cricket england patrick eagar photography sport technology leave a comment at the other end the ashes history and heritage posted on january 3 2018 by christian drury not many sporting encounters can match the pedigree of the ashes it is approaching 140 years of near unbroken competition largely at the pinnacle of the sport with a storied cast of combatants and a grand compendium of anecdote and legend each new series is written into this story is the latest battle for the urn historic trophy foregrounded at first glance the england australia rivalry seems overflowing with history narrative heritage but a closer look reveals each of those concepts plays a different role sometimes overlapping with the others and often to the detriment of the game and how we understand it in a terrific article written during the melbourne test george dobell criticised the standard of media coverage during the ashes and the deliberate attempts to stoke controversy and misinterpret nuanced statements here ashes history feeds into a narrative comprised of controversial incidents providing an explanation for supposedly inevitable skulduggery history leads to rivalry which must in turn lead to controversy manufactured controversy is of course attention grabbing good for viewing figures and clicks perhaps it is a sign of a game unsure of its ability to attract purely as a spectacle where a diverse media environment both swamps test cricket as a background to summer and has to repackage it as moments of partisan debate what retelling history for the purpose of a narrative of rivalry does is elide much of it at the expense of a few supposedly quintessential moments hence the constant references to bodyline the acme of ashes rivalry colonial conflict and blood on the wicket but almost no other mention of pre second world war ashes cricket except perhaps the inception of the urn or wg grace s gamesmanship cricket s history becomes one of ancient hatreds that lazy shortcut to understanding conflict the only other role the past provides besides explaining why it s so important that it all kicks off out there is as a repository of data against which the present can be set alongside the controversy the other great love of modern coverage is the record a neat statistic that can take the place of analytical judgement of a performance to be record breaking is to be notable and can therefore be used to grab attention alastair cook s 244 at melbourne was for example the highest score by a test opener carrying their bat a striking but slightly recondite stat yet this seemed to lead much of the coverage a record breaking performance by the england opener hence little else needed to be said in terms of subjective analysis context or interesting historical background the record is easily conveyed to the audience but genuinely informative coverage is limited so history as part of narrative of controversy or silo of statistical data fails to do the ashes or the game justice at the same time one must beware fetishize the past meaningless nostalgia helps no one the pre war history that bodyline overshadows relates to a game very different to the modern one although the channel nine commentary team s cloying insistence on reliving their 90s glory days can rival any golden age yarn for irrelevance the danger is that history stagnates into heritage a procession of unexamined reference points bodyline headingley 81 2005 with little sense of what is missed out by our ashes story moreover a reactionary tendency to revere the past can easily creep in a reluctance to engage with and appreciate what is unfolding in front of us even if steve smith is not the new bradman his innovative technique and staggering run scoring deserve the recognition of the contemporary spectator it is also easy to miss the pleasures of ashes cricket when the frisson of rivalry becomes all consuming antagonism blind jingoism is a relatively rare if not entirely recent phenomenon in cricket but the culture of antagonism is reinforced by the narrative of controversy the degradation of whinging poms mindless convicts is tedious exclusionary and once again depends on a selective weaponisation of the past rather than an engagement with the rich backstory it adds little and detracts notably from the occasion overseas tours of the length that the ashes maintain now seem indulgent given the international cricketing calendar they should be savoured not soured the ashes remains a supreme sporting contest but this has as much to do with the current construction of international cricket as its history a lengthy overseas tour is the ultimate test of a cricketer buffeted and baked by foreign conditions and as such an ashes tour has a value outside of its historical continuum that england win in australia so rarely adds a context but not the only meaning to the series a refusal to see the ashes in the wider context of international cricket further hinders our understanding of the contest other matches are not just warm ups they are significant as previous ashes series england and australia should see winning in south asia as important as an overseas ashes win moreover this should apply to the history of the game as well both for considering players legacies and for the sheer pleasure of enjoying a wider range of cricket more seriously the modern game can no longer be reduced to the ashes and little else on and off the field cricket more than any other sport in britain and australia deals with the postcolonial and reducing this to snide stereotypes of exiles and masters is a deeply uninteresting approach to this in australia engaging aboriginal communities is hardly likely to be aided by an australian self identity as plucky colonials as well as obscuring events such as the tour to england by a team of indigenous players in 1868 with a fog of baggy green nationalism in both countries there are significant south asian communities who are deeply engaged in cricket but for whom the ashes centric international focus can seem narrow as kamran abbasi has recently described similarly england australia women s cricket has only recently entered the mainstream and its long history is still often obscured despite the work of scholars like raf nicholson the history of the ashes then is manipulated in two ways by being press ganged into a narrative of eternal rivalry and consequential conflict and by being reduced into a simplistic series of familiar events useful for selling the current series through association and nostalgia this is not necessarily a new thing but there is no reason we cannot do better there is much fine writing and commentary out there but it struggles to define the discourse perceptive analysis over controversy and statistics as records would be welcome online on television and in the press the predominance of former players in commentary teams ought to provide valuable insight but there seems to be a reluctance to allow them to be analytical and without insight surely knowledgeable journalists would provide better colour a lay audience is as likely to be alienated by chummy in jokes as by technical analysis and historical context without its history test cricket would surely struggle who now would want a five day sports match even the ashes supposedly immune from the pressures of low attendance faced by other series and nations relies on its past to sustain it this history however has been misused and reduced to a neat story of heroes and battles easily swallowed and little questioned it is not too late to rescue the interesting and informative whilst appreciating the significance of the present and widening our gazes when the former australian opener arthur morris was asked where he was when bradman made his famous final innings duck at the oval in 1948 he answered truthfully i was at the other end morris made 196 his innings also four short of centennial neatness at the moment we are like morris asked to remember moments quirks and freeze frames let understand the contexts the details the men and women at the other end the game will be better for it posted in cricket history and politics tagged ashes cricket england history memory sport leave a comment dancing in the dark a day night at the test posted on august 23 2017 by christian drury the eric hollies stand was full of vestments but the west indies never had a prayer the third day of the first day night test match in england featured a steady fall of wickets never a flood but a drip drip of edges misses and misjudgement nineteen west indian wickets fell with eight batsmen dismissed twice in a day as the quality of the england attack never wavered james anderson was as skilful as always his control over line length and movement thoroughly examining the wonky techniques of the west indian top order late in the day stuart broad produced one of those spells where his knees rise in his run up he runs through the crease powerfully and the ball seems to pick up pace off the pitch the comprehensive castling of shane dowrich was an impressive way to pass ian botham as england s second highest wicket taker ben stokes bowled with pace and control and toby roland jones moved the ball whilst bowling an aggressive length moeen ali complemented the seamers well his work with saqlain mushtaq visible in his control and his modified quick stepping run up that england won comfortably wickets shared round following runs from joe root and alastair cook is hardly surprising the real interest was in the format a floodlight final session and a pink ball throughout in the end it had little impact on the result kemar roach s testing spell on the first evening was the only passage of play that seemed influenced by the alternative conditions it rained on the second evening on the third the gulf in class rendered the conditions irrelevant the consensus seemed to be that the pink ball held up reasonably well on a normal edgbaston test pitch and that the ap...
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