From bigstarcricket.com Mushtaq Mohammed I learned with great sadness on Saturday that the great Fred Trueman had passed away. I loved my battles with Fred and they are moments I will always cherish. Understandably people will talk of his great statistics, of his place as one of England’s greatest-ever players, but I would just like to recall one of my favourite memories of him, both from personal pride in doing well against such a champion bowler and also because of the great character that Fred was. During the fourth Test at Trent Bridge on our 1962 tour of England, we were 3-0 down in the series and facing a whitewash. However, I scored 55 and 100 not out and managed to help us draw the match. The challenge of facing Trueman was a massive one for a 19-year-old lad, which I was at the time. We followed on and I again went in at three after the captain had promoted me. It was a very green wicket and was difficult keeping Trueman at bay. This turned out to be one of my best innings because, though we were 3-0 down in the series, I decided take the fight to England. My attitude was that if we were going to lose another bloody match we may as well go down showing some aggression and spirit, so I went for it and played my shots. I had no problems against Barry Knight or Fred’s strike partner Brian Statham, but I paid a bit of respect to the spinners Fred Titmus and Tony Lock because they were fine line and length bowlers. Trueman, though, was again the danger-man with his out-swingers. Fred kept bouncing me and I kept hooking him; I took him on and hooked him from midwicket, square leg through to fine leg. It was one of those days when everything seemed to hit the middle of the bat. I wasn’t a ducker of the ball. I had to either stand on my toes and play it or just go for it and play the hook, which I did. But when I was on 88 I skied one to square leg off Fred. The twelfth man was underneath it; a young lad from Nottingham, and he had Fred in his ear shouting ‘catch the bloody thing’ and he dropped it. It was a real dolly and Fred had a few chosen words for me and the young lad. I couldn’t follow his Yorkshire accent very well but the words ‘lucky bastard’ I did hear. Fred was the kind of guy that even if he was paying you a compliment it still sounded like a rollicking. When I reached my hundred he said: ‘You should have been in the bloody hut a long time ago lad. You’re not good enough to get a nick on it. And when you skied that bugger down there, the idiot dropped a f****** dolly. Someone is shining on you today.’ But after all that normal Fred bluster he came down and tapped me on my shoulder and said, ‘Well played son.’ That was typical Fred Trueman. He’ll never be forgotten. Former Pakistan captain Mushtaq Mohammed will release his autobiography on July 4. E-mail enquiries@bigstarcricket.com to order a signed a copy. © Copyright bigstarcricket.com |