The game has changed more drastically during the seventies than any in other decade. No one will argue about it if they just get reminded of some of the events that took place during this decade.
It all started with a ban on South Africa owing to their apartheid policies. Then a complete washed out test match at Melbourne in 1970/71 series led to the addition of a 7th test match to the series. More importantly it also led to the first ever official One Day International cricket match between two nations. The popularity of ODIs resulted in a World Cup tournament for the shorter version of the game five years later.
South Africa’s absence in test cricket resulted in hastily arranged unofficial test series against Rest of the world by England and Australia with Garfield Sobers coming out as the most dominant player from both those series.
For the first time the Ashes series included six test matches. Ray Illingworth led England regained Ashes for the first time in sixteen years. The Chappell Era unfolded and the names of Chappell, Lillee, Thomson and Marsh became very familiar to the cricket lovers all across the world. England and Australia played a centenary test to celebrate the 100 years of test cricket and with a remarkable coincidence, the result was same as the first ever test match, a victory for Australia by 45 runs.
But the biggest impact on the game came not from cricketing authorities but from a media mogul called Kerry Packer, though England might thank him as they won a test series with 5-1 margin. Only time England ever registered five wins in a test series against Australia can be attributed to Packer as most of the Australian leading players were barred from playing test cricket because of their participation in Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket. In the end ACB had to cut a truce with Packer and cricket has changed permanently from the way we knew till then.
In this edition of Ashes Countdown Quiz let us touch the tumultuous times of the turbulent Seventies.
Ashes Countdown 5 quiz: Turbulent Seventies
Q51. Which successful English batsmen of 1970/71 Ashes tour wrote an autobiography titled “Bootboy to President” and what is so odd about his last appearance in first class cricket.
Q52. Dennis Lillee made his debut in the sixth test of the 1970/71 series at Adelaide and opened the bowling a fast bowler who holds a unique record in ODIs. Four years later Lillee paired up with another fast bowler with last name. Name the bowler and the unique record he holds in ODIs which can never be surpassed.
Q53. Lord’s test of the 1972 Ashes will always be remembered as Massie’s Test. Which English batsman denied Bob Massie the record of 'claiming the wickets of all eleven opponents in a test match at least once' and be a part of an exclusive club? Also name the six current members of that exclusive club.
Q54. Tony Greig became the third English cricketer to achieve this feat in 1972 test series and only one other English player did it ever since. What rare feat did Tony Greig achieve and which other English cricketers achieved the same apart from Tony Greig?
Q55. During the 1974-75 series England’s captain Mike Denness has done something that no other cricketer has done either before him or ever since. What is it?
Q56. Who in 1974-75 Ashes played test cricket again after missing 62 tests for his country?
Q57. Which Englishman made his Ashes test debut in the first test of the 1975 Series and made his last appearance in Ashes in 1993 at Leeds?
Q58. What distinction does the fourth test match of the 1975 series holds in the history of cricket in England?
Q59. Which cricketer’s account of 1978/79 Ashes series has chapters named “Sacked”, “Skinned Alive” and “Slaughtered” and what is the title of the book?
Q60. The 1979/80 series between Australia and England saw the return of all WSC cricketers back to the test scene. It was played with an agreement that Ashes will not be yet stake. That season marked the beginning of a cricket tradition which still continues after 26 years. What is it?
This is the sixth of the 10 quizzes for the Ashes Countdown. Three winners will be selected at the end of the 10th quiz after tabulating all the results. The winners will be awarded exciting prizes courtesy of dreamcricket.com. In the event of a tie, we will have a tie-breaker among the top three positions.
Please do not forget to mail your answers to vijay@dreamcricket.com before 27th November, 2006 having the subject line as "Answers to Ashes Countdown XX Quiz" . Replace XX with the Countdown number.
Happy Quizzing....
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