by Arunabha Sengupta
3 August 2000. Old Trafford.
A typical soggy Manchester day. Delayed start. Only 42 overs possible before play was called off.
Yet, it was a curious, happy quirk of fate. Two persevering stalwarts of the limping, stumbling England side of the 1990s together breasted the coveted tape of 100 Test matches.
Alec Stewart was 37, still agile and fit, still obliging the selectors by doubling up as the keeper.
Mike Atherton was five years his junior, troubled by a bad back, his days for England looking more numbered despite his relative youth.
On the eve of the match, Chairman of Selectors David Graveney was apprehensive: “"It's a worry for me how we're going to replace them. I'm not saying they can't be replaced, but it isn't going to be easy and I hope we can squeeze a good few more Tests out of them yet.”
Landmark reached in unison. At Atherton’s home ground.
But it was Stewart who excelled.
On the second day, England batted after Gough, Caddick and Cork had bowled West Indies out for a measly 157.
Atherton struggled for a quarter of an hour before getting an edge off Walsh for just one solitary run.
Stewart entered in a moment of crisis, on hattrick in front of Walsh, the score 17 for 3. And he took on Ambrose and Walsh, unleashing an array of regal strokes. Dazzling the crowd with a barrage of delightful off-side strokes and shepherding young Trescothick along.
Having seen off the more threatening bowling in some style he lorded it over the lesser bowlers, threading the field with ease. 13 boundaries, four of them off five balls from Reon King.
Stewart reached his hundred in 136 balls, becoming only the fourth man to do so in his 100th Test after Cowdrey, Greenidge and Miandad.
Since then Inzamam, Ponting (in both innings), Graeme Smith and Amla have done it.
On the third morning he flashed at Ambrose and fell on his overnight score of 105. But it was a gem of an innings, made to order for the occasion.
The Test however, ended in a draw. Jimmy Adams delayed the second innings declaration and rain came pouring down in the traditional Old Trafford style to end the match after Atherton had fallen for 28 in the second innings.
Atherton retired the following summer.
Stewart battled along for another three, playing till he was 40.
In many ways the two underline some stark facets of English cricket in the 90s (and beyond in either direction).
The only two men to have scored 7000 or more Test runs with batting average less than 40. If England struggled, there was a reason. There were not too many top performers.
Stewart was perhaps hard done by selectorial policies.
He played 82 times as keeper, averaging 35 when he donned the big gloves.
In the 51 Tests as specialist batsman, he scored 3923 at 46.70 with 9 of the 15 hundreds. Perhaps the Test record of a wonderful batsman was rendered mediocre because of the strange English fascination for squeezing in the David Capels, Mark Ealhams and Ronnie Iranis in place of a specialist wicketkeeper.
Atherton demonstrated a different facet of the English game.
Cambridge educated, articulate, intelligent, an approximation if not exactly a throwback of the amateur captain of yore.
Not quite world class except in the odd but oft-rerun and oft-remembered resistance acts against Allan Donald.
He led England in 54 of his 115 Tests to Stewart’s 15 of 133.
And is celebrated way more by the country’s media than more successful batsmen like Graham Thorpe or Marcus Trescothick, or later Ian Bell or Jonathan Trott.
To a great extent, Nasser Hussain—the captain in that Old Trafford Test— is another approximation of that English attitude. 5764 runs at 37.18, captain in 45 of his 96 Tests for England.
We get a sense why, say, Ken Barrington was less of a toast of England than Colin Cowdrey. Or why so there used to be so much hullabaloo over Bob Wyatt with the far more prolific Eddie Paynters and Maurice Leylands making runs around the world.
An immortal bit of the soul of English cricket perhaps. Inscrutable to others.
However, Atherton and Stewart did enjoy long careers for England and did their bit to carry the team through an extremely difficult period. So did Hussain although he stopped four short of 100 Tests.
Atherton and Stewart did reach 100 Tests. On that day in Old Trafford.