by Mayukh Ghosh

August 24, 1957.
Worcestershire v Sussex at New Road.
16-year old Mansur Ali Khan walks out to bat as Sussex find themselves on 115 for 4.
He is greeted by a barrage of bouncers by the red-haired, red-faced fast bowler.
Soon, he fails to handle a bouncer well and departs for 0.
In the second innings, the same treatment awaits him. This time the bat hangs in the air as the ball kisses it on its way to the third-man boundary.
The Nawab of Pataudi never forgot those deliveries..
But the bowler didn't remember them that well.
He had bowled many such in his glittering career.

Jack Flavell was a promising footballer who accidentally became a top notch cricketer.
He could bowl really fast.
He just used to stick the ball in his hand and come up and bowl.
"Flav, look after the ball!", his partner in crime Len Coldwell used to shout from fine-leg. Flavell never bothered.

Flavell and Coldwell.
The most feared opening bowlers in the county championship during the 1960s.
They often bowled in tandem till lunch.
Flavell was fast and straight. Anything which didn't hit the middle-stump was wayward in his book.
Coldwell was slower but could swing the ball at will.
This duo, along with Tom Graveney's masterly batting, usurped Yorkshire in the mid 1960s.

Flavell was injured for much of the 1964 season.
Yet he took over a 100 wickets. More wickets followed in the next year.
233 wickets in two years, helping Worcestershire win the championship.
No one in Worcester earned more from a benefit match.
He was that popular.

Flavell and Coldwell.
The crowd used to pour in to watch them bowl.
And shout at the top of their voice as 'Mad Jack' ran in.....
David Foot wrote in his obituary: "He never much liked the fuss when his teammates stood aside for him to receive the warm acclaim of the New Road faithful. Contemporaries still catch their breath in eloquent approval as they reel off memories of difficult overs they survived against him."

Jack Flavell was born on 15 May 1929.