by Kalyanbrata Bhattacharyya
Born on 27 December 1936 at Shipley in West Yorkshire, Phil Sharpe studied in Bradford Grammar School and subsequently went to Worksop College.
In 1955, he scored 240 not out against Wrekin, a record in English college cricket.
However, in those days his technique was suspect. He had the awkward tendency of getting square-on while playing defensively. His bat used to come down across the line of the ball. This was often the reason behind his undoing. He later said with an impish smile: ‘On the experience gained I suddenly realized that my real mistake was that I had been playing at cricket rather than playing cricket.’
He scored one more double century in the same year and made his first-class debut against Sussex in 1958. By 1960, he was a regular member of the Yorkshire team which won the championship from 1959 to 1968.
Editor’s Note: Sharpe played a role in Yorkshire's championship winning match against Sussex at Hove in 1959. The scorer was ill and Sharpe filled in for him. He did not make any mistakes!
In top league
Sharpe scored more than 1000 runs in a season from 1960 to 1962. In 1962, he amassed 2352 runs. He also took 71 catches, the third highest in a season behind Wally Hammond (78 catches in 1928) and Mickey Stewart (77 in 1957).
He was voted as the Cricketer of the Year by the Cricket Writers Club in 1962. Selecting him as one of Cricketers of the Year in 1963, Wisden wrote, ‘Yorkshire's faith in him has been fully justified and he is confidently expected to join the county's long list of successful Test players.’
However, his impressive batting failed to find favour with the selectors and he was ignored for the tour to Australia under the leadership of Ted Dexter in 1962-63. Many experts were taken by surprise. No less a person than Sir Len Hutton went on record saying: ‘He should have gone to Australia... The wickets would have suited him perfectly.’
He ultimately made his debut for England at Edgbaston in July, 1963, in the third Test against the formidable West Indies under Frank Worrell. Batting at number 6, he scored 23 and a gritty 85, the latter the top score, and England registered their only win in the series by 217 runs.
He finished the series in style at the Oval scoring 63 and 83, the highest in both the innings and virtually cemented his place in the national team.
He topped the batting table with 267 runs at an average of 56.
Start and stop
That winter Sharpe toured India with MJK Smith’s side. However, owing to health problems, he could play only a solitary Test match at Bombay. In one of the most tedious matches ever, he scored 27 and 31 not out.
Thereafter, he played two Test matches when Bobby Simpsons men visited in 1964. Thereafter, for uncertain reasons, he was sidelined for the next four years.
During the 1968 Ashes Keith Fletcher of Essex made his debut in the Headingly Test when Sharpe was very much in the running. Fletcher’s contributions, 0 and 23 not out and three dropped catches at first slip off John Snow, led the somewhat partisan Yorkshire crowd to jeer. Especially the catches—they believed their local hero Sharpe would have held them blindfolded. Fletcher was jeered all along. Brian Johnston, the famed BBC radio commentator wrote in his book, It’s Been A Piece of Cake ‘... Headingley is not a tactful subject of conversation with Fletcher!’
It was still talked of in 1975. In Yorkshire Mourns Slipper Sharpe, David Hopps wrote that after the damage of the pitch by vandals had forced abandonment of the Headingley Test, Freddie Trueman said that if he had his way, ‘they would have been thrown of the pavilion roof at Headingley... But I am not a cruel man... I’d have Keith Fletcher underneath to catch them.’
Sharpe was recalled in 1969 against West Indies and participated in all three Test matches. At Lord’s he scored 86.
He played against the visiting New Zealad side in all the three Test matches and scored 111, his maiden century, at Trent Bridge. He played his final Test match at the Oval and ended his brief tenure in international cricket with 48 and 45 not out.
The slipper
However, if Sharpe is to be remembered forever, it is for his catching skills in the slips. He made it look amazingly easy without any fuss and seldom dived. He said that his secret was a pair of relaxed hands and moving late so that the ball actually dropped in his waiting palms. His late reaction was often like an illusion for his baffled team-mates. They took some time to realize that the ball was actually in his safe hands since he often hid the ball into his pocket!
John Hampshire, a hard hitting middle-order batsman for Yorkshire, once said, ‘...he and the wicket-keeper, Jimmy Binks had a wonderful understanding and I can never remember the ball going between them.’ He further added, ‘If he had played more Test cricket he would have become known as one of the greatest of all slip fielders... He took catches that defied belief.’
Very few fielders have been eulogized the way Sharpe was. In spite of Hammond, the Chappells, Sobers, Mark Waugh and the others, with the possible exception of Simpson, most experts would hand the palm to Sharpe.
Short in stature, charming in character, Sharpe was endowed with a puckish sense of humour. He was often seen lazily smoking his pipe, in quaint Yorkshire manner.
He used to wear loose trousers with plenty of room in order to crouch and get up comfortably. He once said, ‘I like room to move and bend in comfort.’
The Guardian, in his obituary, alluded to his catching Sobers at Edgbaston, his debut Test match in 1963, ‘In that match, Sharpe brought Garry Sobers’ second innings to a close for nine as the great left-hander slashed at a ball from Derek Shackleton. Sharpe had held the near-invisible catch by his left ear.’
John Woodcock wrote in The Times, ‘In one action, Sharpe both protected his face and held the catch. This alone would have justified Sharpe’s selection, irrespective of the runs he scored.’ He wrote in his obituary in Wisden, ‘... Another Test catch to dismiss John Shepherd of West Indies of Ray Illingworth at Lord’s in 1969 was “in the nature of magic”.’
Sharpe once flouted his father’s advice that it was an exaggerated and ostentatious display of one’s catching prowess if the ball was flung in the sky in glee; it should be underplayed in the true British tradition. It was while pouching that one his many incredible catches that is still discussed in awe and bewilderment. It was when he caught Joey Carew, the West Indian opener, at Old Trafford in 1969. He was so enchanted that in a moment of excitement he threw the ball up in the air in glee and was proud of his act all his life.
The Guardian wrote, ‘Another of his 17 Test catches considered extraordinary was from the bat of the West Indies left-hander Joey Carew at Old Trafford in 1969 off Basil D'Oliveira's medium pace... No player matched him as a slip fielder; he was utterly reliable, relaxed, and confident, never throwing the ball up after catching it; his father said this was only for swanks.’
Ian Wooldridge reported that ‘...onlookers seemed to be deceived, searching towards the boundary when a roar pulled our eyes back to the slips’.
Freddie Trueman and Ray Illingworth, two Yorkshiremen to the core, were of the opinion that there was none, not only in the county, but probably in the world in any era, who could have matched Sharpe at slip. The Independent reported umpire Dickie Bird saying, ‘I grew up with him in the nets at Yorkshire. He was one of best slip fielders I ever saw. He would be ranked amongst the very best alongside the likes of Mark Waugh, Bobby Simpson, Ian Botham, and Ian Chappell. In my opinion, he should have played more times for England... Philip was a true gentleman, and he will be a sad loss to Yorkshire cricket.’
Richard Hutton, a quick bowling allrounder for Yorkshire and England and son of the great Len, once said, ‘He stood perfectly still and did not commit himself, did not anticipate, ... The method explains why he so often caught the ball when it appeared to have gone behind him... He had very rapid hand-eye co-ordination...’ And finally, Don Mosey wrote in his book, We Don't Play It For Fun, ‘He raised slip catching not only to an art form but a geometrical science by working out the optimum place to stand after taking into account the pace of the pitch, the type of bowling, the positioning of the wicketkeeper and the known technique of the batsman.’
His razor-sharp reflex and the ability to judge the pace of the ball was the secret behind his phenomenal capability.
In his autobiography, ‘Ball of Fire’, Freddie Trueman wrote in his characteristic hyperbole that Yorkshire could beat any World Eleven Cricket Team if he had been bowling from one end, Len Hutton and Geoffrey Boycott opened the innings, Brian Close was stationed at forward short leg, and Phil Sharpe stood at first slip. Any ther six cricketers were welcome to complete the team of 11 players.
However, of course one cannot assume that Sharpe never missed one. His occasional lapses surprised his team-mates and became part of the dressing-room folklore. Such as the relatively easy ones from successive deliveries from Richard Hutton at Bath in 1974 where the fortunate batsman was Mervyn Kitchen. ‘They both went between his knees.’, Hutton recalled much to his dismay.
When not at slip
In spite of Sharpe’s miraculous performance as a fielder, the charge labeled against him was that his batting lacked in technique required to perform consistently at the highest level of the game. Apart from his tendency to turn square on, he did not move his feet well. No doubt, he was a good puller and a cutter but his footwork was suspect against spin.
Sharpe played in 12 Test matches, scored 786 runs at an average of 46.23. In first-class cricket his aggregate was 20,530 runs in 493 matches which contained 29 centuries at an average of 30.73. He held 618 catches.
Only John Tunnicliffe, another Yorkshire slipper, had a marginal edge r with 695 catches in 498 first-class matches during the turn of the last century. But he was a tall man with long arms; called Long John, while Sharpe was only 5 feet and 7 inches in height.
Sharpe was also good at hockey and was once called for selection for the English team.
Mike Brearley, the former England captain and one of the sharpest minds ever to play the game, wrote in a personal communication that Sharpe was a full-back and Brearley representing Northumberland, often found it hard to dribble past him. He served as a selector for Yorkshire, as well as for the England Test team from 1983 to 1988, a difficult time for English cricket, when Peter May was the chairman.
Sharpe’s suave manners and personable character helped in dealing with differences in opinion in a tough and unyielding Yorkshire team. Geoffrey Boycott did not see eye to eye with him and felt threatened at the idea that Sharpe was going to be the vice-captain to Brian Close in 1971. In his autobiography, ‘Boycott’, published in 1987, he wrote, ‘... his tactical skills were very limited and he had no leadership qualities to speak of... Sharpe liked a jolly good game and a gin and tonic, preferably accompanied by a singsong round the piano... seemed to have little to offer in discussion himself and led the side as though it were a debating society.’
In 1965, Sharpe wrote a thoughtful and analytical book, Cricket for Schoolboys, and he was critical of Richie Benaud’s style of placing slip fielders who stationed them wide apart.
Sharpe looked anything but a cricketer and Wisden wrote, ‘To the casual observer, Philip Sharpe, the Yorkshire number three batsman, could be anything except a professional sportsman... and there is more of a suggestion of the bowler hat and rolled umbrella than a cricket bat or hockey stick.’ Wisden wrote in his obituary, ‘The sight of Philip Sharpe taking another apparently effortless slip catch became as much a part of Yorkshire cricket in the 1960s as Fred Trueman’s theatrics, Geoffrey Boycott’s patience, and Brian Close’s aggression.’
Indeed, Philip Sharpe was a phenomenon in his own right and the art of fielding in the slips came naturally to him. The world perhaps will hardly ever see such a unique fielder who could be inducted into any cricket side solely for his fielding skills.
Sharpe passed away after a period of brief illness on 20 May 2014.