by Mayukh Ghosh

Easter Saturday, 1915.
London.
Less than a mile from Lord's.
Andrew Stoddart, the man who led England in the first great Ashes series, lay on his bed and shot himself.
One of three great cricketers who died in 1915.
W.G. Grace and Victor Trumper were the other two.

In 1912, at the conclusion of Stoddart's career, the magazine 'Cricket' assessed, " But this will be regarded in these days of rush and scramble as ancient history. It is strange how seldom one sees Stoddart's name mentioned when heroes of the past are descanted upon nowadays. Yet he was one of the very greatest, a far finer bat than some of those who are named more often."
No wonder no one remembers him in this frantic age.

Luckily, a certain David Frith thought otherwise, way back in 1968.
He quickly found out that certain writers ( principally Neville Cardus) always praised their favourites and not other more deserving candidates.
The other major reason is the ever present stigma about suicide.
There was obviously no internet but Frith made good use of the local libraries.
And then he found a 100-year old man who knew Stoddart from his schooldays.
Finally, two scrapbooks of Stoddart.

No one was quite ready to publish a book on an unknown cricketer by an unknown writer.
They were more keen on the junk periodically dished out by some celebrated names ( little has changed).
Frith finally published the book with the help of a wealthy young collector.
400 signed copies.
It won awards, besides getting good reviews from the likes of John Arlott and Ian Wooldridge.
Seven years later, it was republished, with a foreword by Arlott and some additional footnotes.

Years went by. Frith became a collector.
And then internet invaded our lives.
All that resulted in a definitive volume on Stoddart, published in 2015.
With the subtitle "England's Finest Sportsman" .

Despite all this, Stoddy is still forgotten.
He will always be.
Even Frith knows that.

Andrew Stoddart was born on Mar 11, 1863.