by Mayukh Ghosh
"Our ship's captain announced the name of the vessel we could see in the distance sailing parallel to us, and it turned out to be the one on which his wife was sailing. So there we were, two ships sailing the same direction, husband on one, wife on the other. The ludicrous aspect was that he could have had a mistress on board but not his wife."
Richie Benaud recalling a voyage in the Mediterranean.
Pat Crawford was a speedster. He was well built, had a dramatic action, and often troubled batsmen with sheer pace.
In his first two seasons in first-class cricket he took 69 wickets at an average of 18.
In between those two seasons, he played for East Lancashire in the Lancashire League and took 78 wickets at 13. He was taking a wicket every 25 balls!
He was by then touted as a successor to Ray Lindwall.
While he was in England, Crawford married a Blackburn girl, Sheila Wormby, and they together came back to Sydney at the end of the season.
1956: Crawford gets selected for the Ashes tour. But he is unsure about the trip.
Sheila is pregnant.
Moreover, Crawford has offers to play county cricket in England.
He mulls over it but eventually accepts the offer, thinking that Sheila would come along and stay with her parents in Blackburn.
He is well aware of the rule that a cricketer and his wife are not allowed to travel together.
Sheila takes a second-class cabin while her husband travels in first-class.
In Sydney, though, board secretary Alan Barnes finds them together and wires manager Bill Dowling.
Breach of contract. The verdict comes in a flash.
Shela is forced to wait for a week in Melbourne until the Strathaird comes through.
And then the ridiculous journey happens.
They reach England.
September 1956: Sheila is due to deliver. Crawford wants to be there. The tour administration opposes the request. Crawford, in desperation, leaves the camp.
"I am going. It's up to you whether I come back or not."
Lindwall is forced to cancel his plan to play golf at St. Andrews. He plays in place of Crawford.
Oddly enough, Crawford, as per his teammates, was not very keen to meet Sheila in the few months they were in England. The rift is evident.
Sheila stays back in England with their newborn son as Crawford leaves for Karachi ( via Rome). She refuses to return to Australia.
Kent, meanwhile, shows interest in Crawford. They want him to play for them in 1957.
Crawford sees that as the only way to get back to England and save his marriage.
Not to be.
When he returns to Australia, he rereads his contract. And finds one clause which prohibits him from playing first-class cricket overseas within two years of playing for Australia.
Crawford finds himself in trouble.
The board is unsympathetic.
He also finds that he has lost his job as a hospital X-ray technician.
He plays two matches in the next two seasons.
"Worn out. Bowling from memory."
He stays in a small flat, with his sister.
Wifeless and jobless.
He still loves the game but the politics is too much for him to handle.
When there is a taxation demand on his 1956 tour fee, he goes out to find a job. He works as a labourer, a windmiller. And in a pub.
Even selling Bibles.
He is now a heavy drinker.
There are still a few friends who wants him back playing the game but he is tired.
Tired of how the game is run in his country.
In 1963, while working as a cellarman in a hotel, he meets a widow eight years his senior.
Nona Hayes.
Crawford, being a catholic and not annulling his marriage, begins living with Hayes as a de facto couple. Things do not change in the next forty-odd years.
He was to take Lindwall's place in the team. He was to become the next fast bowling sensation.
But his 'if-only' story remains as a footnote in Australia's cricket history.
Pat Crawford was born on 3 August 1933.