Throwback Thursday: Andy Caddick inspires England's 2000 turnaround against West Indies
Saturday 2 May 2020 20:10, UK
The 1990s were said to be a dismal decade in the context of England's cricketing history.
But, with the turn of the century, the introduction of central contracts, a new coach and captain in place and an inspired Andy Caddick bowling, England's Test cricket turned a corner in the summer of 2000.
In the latest edition of Throwback Thursday, our weekly cricket feature which looks back on some memorable feats of years gone by, David Currie recalls his memories of England's 2000 series win over the West Indies...
I shouldn't be a cricket fan. Certainly not if my introduction to the game is anything.
My first memory of watching the England cricket team is one of them slipping to the bottom of the Test rankings with a 2-1 series defeat at home to New Zealand in 1999.
The memory of former captain, and now Sky Sports colleague, Nasser Hussain getting booed off The Oval balcony after losing his first series in charge.
The series is why Alex Tudor will always have a special place in my heart, for his match-winning 99 in the first Test, while also serving as a handy bit of trivia knowledge should I ever be posed the question 'who holds the highest Test score by an England nightwatchman?'.
It's why Aftab Habib's two-Test career, and batting average of 8.66, is firmly imprinted on my brain in a way that it likely is for no-one else.
There's also Chris Read and his 'ghost ball' dismissal to Chris Cairns at Lord's, ducking out of the way of an expected bouncer, only to be embarrassingly bowled through his legs by an expertly disguised yorker.
These are my earliest cricket memories.
I had not been gripped by the home World Cup that preceded the New Zealand series that summer, though, given England's group-stage exit, that's probably just as well. That said, I did just about cotton on in time to enjoy that semi-final thriller between Australia and South Africa at Edgbaston.
Despite England's troubled summer, they held my attention. So much so that I followed the team's progress, or lack thereof, that winter; the 2 for 4 debacle to open a convincing series defeat in South Africa, and that since tainted dead-rubber win at Centurion - a match subsequently found to be fixed by Proteas skipper Hanse Cronje.
I stuck with them. When England began the 2000 summer by ruthlessly disposing of Zimbabwe at Lord's - Ed Giddins taking 5-15 to bowl the visitors out for 83 in their first innings - I was naively optimistic for the visit of the West Indies that summer, failing to grasp the historical disadvantage that stood against the hosts.
The opening to the series played out just as the three-decades worth of beatings previously; England were overwhelmed at Edgbaston, losing the first Test convincingly by an innings and 93 runs.
I would race home from school, only to watch Courtney Walsh - match figures of 8-58 - toy with the England top order and Windies captain Jimmy Adams bat the home side into the dirt with 299-ball 98.
Then something switched in the second Test at Lord's.
Not immediately. Sherwin Campbell top-scored with 82 as the West Indies posted a fairly-modest score of 267, and then England failed to top 200 for the third successive time in the series, bundled out for 134 shortly after tea on day two.
But then in came Andy Caddick.
"When Caddick suddenly decided to get out of bed at Lord's and said `I'm going to bowl the West Indies out for 50' - that turned it around for us," said Hussain that summer.
That Friday afternoon at Lord's, Caddick would produce the first of two masterful, series-defining spells and this time I could not have timed my return from school any better.
I watched on as he first saw off Campbell and Wavell Hinds in the space of three balls in his second over, while in his sixth he claimed the key wicket of Brian Lara; the West Indies were reeling at 24-4, a score swiftly made worse as Darren Gough picked up Shivnarine Chanderpaul's wicket in the following over.
The visitors would ultimately crumble to 54 all out in 26.4 overs, with Caddick's sensational 13-over spell returning figures of 5-16 - as it proudly reads on the Lord's honours board.
England, left with a run-chase of 188 on day three, just about inched home with two wickets to spare. Dominic Cork was the unlikely hero with his unbeaten 33 down the order, after Walsh had accounted for every one of England's first six.
England were a changed team. They would go on to win series in Pakistan and Sri Lanka that winter, and much of their incredible 2005 Ashes win was owed to the initial building blocks put in place by Hussain and head coach Duncan Fletcher that summer - assisted by the introduction of central contracts.
There was a break between the second and third Tests for an ODI triangular series that added Zimbabwe into the mix and, now utterly hooked, I watched keenly as Marcus Trescothick made his England debut and Alec Stewart struck back-to-back centuries, following it up with a match-winning 97 in the final.
Trescothick was then added to the Test team for the third game against the West Indies at Old Trafford, a match that will mainly be remembered for a fine hundred from Lara.
Tied at 1-1 with two to play, England would swing the series their way within two extraordinary days at Headingley. Caddick again was the catalyst.
England held a 100-run first-innings lead midway through the afternoon session on day two when the home side again ripped through the Windies top order.
This time it was Gough, taking the first four wickets, but Caddick upstaged his bowling partner after the tea interval, taking four wickets in an unforgettable over.
Caddick, with his lengthy, languid run-up, arms flailing in his approach to the crease, trapped Ridley Jacobs lbw his first ball, clean-bowled left-handers Nixon McLean and Curtly Ambrose with his third and fourth deliveries and then dismantled the stumps again to dismiss Reon King with his sixth.
Caddick was renowned for bowling a shorter natural length. This was something new, with the 6 ft 5 seamer consistently searching for a fuller length, getting the ball swinging - back into the lefties in particular - and uprooting poles.
Walsh was cleaned up not long after and Caddick this time had figures of 5-14, England had an innings win and a 2-1 series lead that they would hold onto in the final Test at The Oval.
That Caddick spell. The one at Lord's too. Cork's winning runs at HQ. Ambrose's 400th Test wicket, taken in that Headingley Test. Walsh's series-leading 34 wickets, taking him to within striking distance of being the first bowler to 500. And The Oval guard of honour for those two West Indies greats in their final Test in England.
I will not forget any of it. It's just a shame I will also never forget Habib and that 1999 defeat to New Zealand.
