The pub landlord at Josh Tongue’s local will collect £50,000 when he makes his Test debut for England against Ireland on Thursday after making an outlay of just £100 when the seam bowler was 11.
Tim Piper, from the Cricketers Arms pub in the Worcestershire town of Redditch, got odds of 500-1 with a bookmaker 14 years ago after he made the speculative lash on the junior cricketer he thought had what it took to go all the way.
“A couple of mates phoned me and said I should watch Sky Sports because he’s playing,” said Piper, a long-time friend of the Tongue family in an interview with the UK Telegraph. “I always thought they announced it on the day but I saw that he was playing! It’s wonderful.
“He was touch and go thinking of calling it a day and 12 months later here he is playing for England.
Josh Tongue bowls during England’s training session before the Test against Ireland. (Photo by Philip Brown/Getty Images)
“Of course I’m not going to play down £50,000 (around $A95,000) &, but it’s just such a wonderful story in itself.”
Piper actually tried to make the bet five years earlier when Tongue was just six but the bookies knocked him back.
“They didn’t take it seriously. I’m not sure why,” Piper said. “I used to go and see him in the garden playing with his dad when he was just a year old and then when he was two or three he was playing in the nets and he knew how to bowl properly with leg-spin, top-spin and everything.”
Tongue, who dismissed Steve Smith in county cricket recently, could hold his spot for the Ashes if he impresses on debut while filling in for the injured James Anderson and Ollie Robinson.
Bad news for Aussies bats
England captain Ben Stokes has no concerns over his ability to bowl in the upcoming Ashes series, which is bad news for the Aussie batters who thought they may have been able to avoid his dangerous spells as the fourth seamer.
Stokes’ long-standing left knee issue caused him problems during February’s tour of New Zealand and his recent time at the Indian Premier League proved fruitless.
The all-rounder played only twice for Chennai Super Kings and sent down just one over for 18 runs during his IPL stint.
But ahead of this week’s one-off Test with Ireland at Lord’s, the 31-year-old is confident he can have an impact when the Ashes series against Australia begins on June 16.
He said: “Yeah, look the knee is in a much better place than it was in Wellington.
“I’ve been over in India for the IPL and these last eight or nine weeks I know I have got myself in a position where I can’t say I regret anything.
Ben Stokes at the Gabba. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
“I have got myself into a place where I feel like in a 2019, 2020 space in terms of my own body and fitness. I have definitely given myself the best opportunity (to bowl this summer).
“We know what it is (the problem) and now it is about managing it.”
Stokes can feel the excitement building ahead of the Ashes and is in no doubt over the long-term future of Test cricket.
Eyebrows were raised ahead of the Ashes precursor when Ireland left out star bowler Josh Little, with the seamer ordered to rest after a successful Indian Premier League spell with runners-up Gujarat Titans ahead of next month’s 50-over World Cup qualification tournament.
Cricket Ireland’s high performance director Richard Holdsworth defended their decision by insisting the Lord’s Test was not a “pinnacle event” to draw further concerns over the future of international red-ball cricket with more and more franchise leagues filling the cricket calendar.
Stokes, who admitted he can understand Holdsworth’s comments, said: “I’ve always been a huge advocate of the Test format.
“The whole landscape and the whole game of cricket is literally just changing in front of everyone’s eyes so quickly.
“I see T20 and Test cricket being able to keep being successful and progress side by side.
“Look at what T20 has done for the game in general, the amount of attraction it’s brought – new fans, new players its brought into playing cricket regardless of the format and also what T20 has been able to bring in terms of Test cricket.
“The transition between the two games is so different but at certain periods in Test matches you do see that T20 side come out, which is only because the players have been playing it.
“So, I don’t see a world where T20 and Tests aren’t being played in the future.
“I don’t know what this build-up period before the Ashes is like compared to 2005, no idea, but it’s very hard to ignore and not be able to see the excitement.”
England’s aggressive ‘Bazball’ style has helped them put Test cricket at the forefront of the conversation over the past 12 months.
After winning 10 of their 12 matches since Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum took over the red-ball team last May, all eyes are on what England can achieve when the stakes are at its highest this summer after they have hit conventional thinking for six during the past year.
England scored at 5.50 runs an over to post 506 for four on day one in Rawalpindi during the 3-0 series win in Pakistan.
Asked if a 500-run day in the Ashes is possible, Stokes replied: “Be alright, wouldn’t it? Anything is possible I think if you have the backing to go out and do it.
Hussain’s warning for England
Former England captain Nasser Hussain has warned England to treat their clash with Ireland as a proper Test or they could be caught with their pants down.
The four-day fixture at Lord’s will feature an under-strength England team with James Anderson and Ollie Robinson resting to get over niggling injuries but Hussain wrote in a column for the UK Daily Mail that it would be wrong to treat this match as anything less than a full-on contest.
“You can never treat a Test match as a warm-up, no matter what lies ahead,” he wrote, warning that Ireland famously upset England at the 20111 World Cup and last year’s T20 version in Australia while also skittling them for 85 the last time they played a Test at Lord’s.
(Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
“Clearly England’s summer will be judged on how they get on in the Ashes, though, and the biggest challenge for Stokes and McCullum will be to keep playing as if it doesn’t really matter, even though they know deep down that it does.”
That’s the key, to the Ashes, according to Hussain. Being able to trust the Bazball way even when early wickets fall.
“Stokes has to try to keep his team in that headspace, even if they are 20 for three or whatever in a crucial Ashes game. It’s been crucial to their success and it’s why the messaging they convey to the team this week against Ireland is so important.”
Ashes countdown: Days to go …
15
The number of Ashes Tests played by Harold Larwood, the legendary fast bowler who captain Douglas Jardine used to great and controversial effect during the 1932-33 Bodyline series in Australia.
Larwood took 64 Australian wickets in his career but never represented his country again after refusing to apologise to the MCC for the “leg theory” tactics, saying he was just following the captain’s orders.
On This Day …
June 1 – Australian legend Victor Trumper made his Test debut at Nottingham in 1899, as did England all-rounder Wilfred Rhodes but it was the last of 22 for the one and only WG Grace, at age 50. Trumper made a duck and 11, Rhodes took seven wickets for the match and The Doctor was out for 28 and 1 in the nail-biting draw with the hosts hanging on with just three wickets to spare.
with AAP
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