Bob Willis was seriously fast.
Towering at 6 feet 6 inches, his curly hair like a bouncy, tangled mop on his head, he steamed from a 30-yard run up, faster than any Englishman since Frank Tyson. Perhaps Fred Trueman was as fast, but in the pre-speed gun days, that remains debatable.
The image that sticks in our minds is his celebration at the end of the 500:1 Test at Headingley, 1981. Botham’s Test and all that is true, but it was Willis who picked up 8 for 43 to stop Australia short of the finishing line.
He was getting tired. “Too old for that,” he moaned, asking for a go from the other end. Brearley refused. The bowler grumbled and carried on.
In due course the end was changed. He came charging in, again and again, till Ray Bright’s middle stump was sent cartwheeling. Willis, floppy hair bouncing all over the place, raised both his fists heavenward and broke into a victory run. That Willis will live with us forever.
He made his debut as the partner in pace to John Snow during the triumphant 1970-71 Ashes tour. Curious indeed, since he always pretended to be John Snow in his backyard as a child. Or he was Brian Statham. In the end he needed to be neither. Bob Willis had carved a niche for himself, in spite of all the near comical worry, all the imaginary ailments that seemed to plague him before every Test match.
Willis strangely became far more successful after both his knees were operated on in 1975. Fortunately, at 26, he was still young and full of ambition. Running five miles a day to recover the necessary strength, and almost always grimacing with pain, he came back to enjoy the most rewarding part of his career.
He pulverised the Indians in India alongside John Lever. He ran through the visiting Australians in 1977 and scythed through them again in their backyard in 1978-79, and made short work of the visiting New Zealand and Pakistan teams in the late 1970s. And then of course there was Headingley.
When Mike Brearley moved aside, Willis became one of the few fast bowlers to lead his country in Tests. He captained England in 18 Tests, winning 7 and losing 5, victorious in all the home series and on the losing side on all away tours. His bowling, curiously, became more incisive when he lowered himself into the hot seat. In those 18 Tests, he captured 77 wickets at 21.59, several notches above his career average. He also led England in 29 ODIs, including the 1983 World Cup campaign.
Willis retired with 325 wickets from 90 Tests at 25.20 apiece — at that time the highest number of wickets scalped by an Englishman before Botham went past him a year down the line. His also holds the (perhaps unwanted) record for most Test wickets without ever taking 10 wickets in a Test.
Given his rather rudimentary batting methods, it seems quite amazing that he managed to average in the double figures in Test cricket. Part shovelling, part drawing a curtain, his manouevres with the bat were comical.
After retirement, Willis moved into the commentary box and spent years as a respected, laconic and outspoken commentator. When Ishant Sharma’s spate of short pitched balls earned India a Test victory in 2014, it was he who said, “There were more happy hookers at Lord’s today than in Soho.”
But, he was popular. In that very series, England captain Alastair Cook had mimicked his curious run up, with the right hand tucked away behind his body.
Bob WIllis passed away on Dec 4, 2019. He was 70.