by Arunabha Sengupta
It was while making his first forays into the game at Derby that Fred Root formulated a method of attack diametrically opposed to the off-theory prevalent in those days.
It was against Nottinghamshire that he tried it out for the first time. It was at Chesterfield, second half of May, 1914. The strong Notts side had been set a mere 149 to win and the ball was tossed to young Root, to do as he pleased. The professional set a leg-field, with four fielders close to the bat on the leg side, and three in the outfield, and bowled his in-swingers. Wickets tumbled one after the other. George Gunn had opened and he was the only one who managed to play this new-fangled strategy. So, with nine wickets down, two of them run out as Gunn tried to hog the strike, there were six runs to win. Gunn on 79 anticipated the in-swinger and Root bowled him neck and crop with a leg-break. Derbyshire won by 5 runs. Leg-theory was thus born and vindicated, but not encouraged. Richard Baggally led Derbyshire against Hampshire in the next game and would have nothing to do with leg theory.
It required a War and a post-War captain of a different county, more concerned about wickets than tradition, to realise the value of inswing bowled to a leg-field. Bowling for Worcestershire under Maurice Jewell and more so under Maurice Foster, he perfected his art, picking up wickets by the bushel in the first half of the 1920s.
When Herbie Collins brought his Australians over in 1926, Root was 36 but considered a major force in English cricket. Arthur Carr led North of England against the visitors and Root shared the new ball with a very young Harold Larwood.
With the sun shining and the wicket holding no demons, the Worcestershire professional bowled with four fielders in a suicidal ring on the leg side, ranging from silly mid-on to backward short-leg. One man stood in deep-square-leg, one at mid-on. Three men wasted their time at backward point, cover point and mid-off. Root swerved his inswingers late, combining them with incredibly accurate length. Carr had no qualms in maintaining that field as he witnessed batsman after batsman perish. Root claimed 7 for 42, his scalps being stand-in captain Bardsley, Woodfull Taylor, Andrews, Ryder, Gregory and Ponsford. The tourists were blown away for 105.
More than the immediate humiliation, and pitchforking Root as a Test prospect, the session of play left profound impression on Carr and Larwood, something that would lead to sensational climax seven years down the line. Curiously, that same afternoon was rendered gloomy by the news of the death of Fred Spofforth, the original demon bowler.
Carr, the captain of England as well, did not quite want Australians to have more practice against leg-theory. Hence, he did not enforce follow-on. Root was not surprised when he was invited to play for England versus the Rest at Lord’s—the official Test trial. He travelled overnight to London, and was fascinated by the number of spectators who had gathered for the fixture. Everyone wanted to know all about the mystery bowler.
However, Plum Warner called him back as he was about to take the field. “Root, I must ask you to be twelfth man in this game for diplomatic reasons.”
Root could hardly hide his disappointment, but Warner’s reasons were solid. “Don’t look so glum. Warwick Armstrong and Clem Hill have just arrived and have asked for seats on the pavilion, directly behind the bowler’s arm. Their object is to see how English batsmen play your leg-theory. My object is to stop them. As some consolation, however, I can assure you of your place in the first Test. You are the only one chosen yet.”
The official version was that Root had contracted influenza. Root had no problems playing along with the ruse but for two problems. First of all, his wife saw the news in a Birmingham newspaper and rushed down to London to play the ministering angel. She arrived to find the professional bowler enjoying himself as a guest of CB Cochran in the Lord’s pavilion.
The second problem was that Root pocketed the allowance of a twelfth man. That was considerably less than what he would have made as a player, even less than what he would have been paid if he had played for Worcestershire against Leicestershire at Amblecote.
But then, in retrospect, Warner’s diplomatic duplicity, especially when it came to leg-theory, always carried some curious compromise for others.
Root played in three Tests that series. His debut at Trent Bridge was washed away. But at Lord’s, the Test in which Larwood made his debut, he operated with five men between fine leg and mid-on, capturing four wickets in the match, remaining very stingy in giving away runs.
At Old Trafford, Carr went down with tonsillitis and at the epochal moment Jack Hobbs became captain on the field. Roots bowled to Macartney and Woodfull with an astonishing field of two fine legs two yards apart, square leg thee yards away, a silly short leg, a wide mid-off and a deep square leg. Only a mid-off and cover patrolled the off side. Root bowled 52 overs to finish with 4 for 84.
In the final Test, Root was left out in favour of Larwood. That was the epic encounter that saw Chapman replacing Carr as captain, Hobbs and Sutcliffe hitting hundreds on a sticky, and an old Wilfred Rhodes and a young Larwood bowling England to The Ashes win. According to Denzil Batchellor, “Having served his turn [Fred Root was] not called upon to be present when the bouquets were handed over and the toasts drunk… The honourable role of decoy duck was important for the first four acts, but not in the fifth.”
Root never played another Test, but continued to bowl in first-class cricket for six more seasons. He ended with 1512 wickets at 21.11.
Larwood took the theory of Root and added frightening pace to it, most often shortening the length by some yards. It became the most effective, and the most controversial, ploys ever. Root, by then a journalist, defended his former new-ball partner. Jardine, Sutcliffe and Allen could play leg-theory with a walking stick, he wrote. The Australians must either learn to play it or switch to playing with tennis balls.
Root was born on April 16, 1890, at Somercotes, Derbyshire.
Illustration by Maha