Ashes Heroes No 48: Chris Broad

After Ken Barrington was last week's Ashes Hero, our countdown of 50 men who shaped the Ashes reaches No 48 and an opening batsman who burnt brightly but briefly in 1986-87, setting up a series win that would be the last Ashes victory by England for 18 years. And don't worry, Aussies. After three Poms in the first three weeks, your dominance of this list begins next week.

Twelve sons have followed their father into the England team but so far none of the pairs have had the mutual satisfaction of both players being on Ashes-winning teams. Could that change next summer if Stuart Broad learns to control his variable length and emerges as one of England's quicks for the 2009 Ashes? If Broad Jr does end the summer kissing the little red urn, he will be following his father's feat 23 years earlier, when Stuart was just a babe in arms.

"He's big, he's bad, he's better than his dad" was a chant that the Barmy Army came up with last winter in New Zealand when it looked as if Stuart was going to break through as a bowling all-rounder. He still needs maturing, but then so did his father at a similar stage of his career. Dropped after five Tests in 1984, Broad Sr was averaging only 31 in Tests and with a top score of 86 it appeared that the 27-year-old's name would be added to the list of tried and rejected opening batsmen of the 1980s, joining Geoff Cook, Graeme Fowler and Tim Robinson on the remaindered shelf.

But after a season when he scored 1,600 first-class runs, Broad was selected for the 1986-87 Ashes tour, which was the making of him. Despite Broad contributing only eight in the first innings at Brisbane, England reached 456 and then their bowlers ripped apart Australia, making their hosts follow on. The visiting side needed 75 to go 1-0 up in the series and Broad played a patient 35 not out to see them home. Then his series spectacularly ignited.

In Perth, Broad made 162 in the first innings, adding 223 for the first wicket with Bill Athey as England reached 592 for eight before declaring. As sod's law would have it, they would probably have won the game if they had carried on for a few more overs. Australia were dismissed for 401, nine more than the follow-on target, and then, chasing 391 to level the Test in just over a day, decided to stonewall for 97 overs.

Australia got their act together in the third Test at Adelaide, declaring on 515 for five, but Broad's second hundred of the series, 116, ensured that England drew the match and stayed one-up. So it was on to the MCG and after his first two hundreds had failed to lead to victories, Broad's third in successive matches was every bit as crucial in winning the Ashes as Gladstone Small's five wickets. Replying to an inadequate Australia score of 141, Broad almost passed them on his own. He reached 112 in six and a half hours before edging Merv Hughes behind, by which stage England were well on the way to the 200-run lead that would be too much for Australia to pass.

Broad began the series a faltering wastrel and ended it as part of Ashes folklore, his average soaring in four matches from 31 to 53. His three hundreds in successive Ashes matches matched the record of Jack Hobbs and Wally Hammond, but he would never reach their heights and his fortunes began to decline.

Broad made only three more hundreds in his next 15 Tests, one of them being his 139 in the bicentenary Test in Australia in 1988, an innings more memorable for him smashing down his stumps after being bowled. He was developing a reputation as a bad boy, one that had begun five years earlier when he left Gloucestershire for Nottinghamshire with a few ungallant words about his first employer. Refusing to leave the crease after receiving a poor decision when playing for England against Pakistan in Lahore in 1987 did not impress the England selectors either.

Naturally, he became an official after retiring from playing. To date he has been a match referee in 27 Tests and 128 ODIs and has reported more players for misdemeanours than any other referee apart from Clive Lloyd. Talk about poacher turned gamekeeper.

Broad's final Test matches as a player were against Australia in 1989 but 82 runs in four innings proved terminal and he was dropped after the second Test. In that series, Broad's opposite number at the top of the Australia order was Geoff Marsh, whose son Shaun has just made the breakthrough into the Australia one-day side and is being talked up as a future Test opener. It seems that the 2009 Ashes may well be about more than just one urn. The pride of two families and the title of first son to follow an Ashes-winning father could be at stake.

Comments

[Vishy]

Ashes 86-87 was the first Ashes that I followed and I remember Chris Broad making those three hundreds. It was sad that he couldn't continue in the same vain for a few more years. But his becoming a match referee was an interesting thing beautifully put by the article as 'poacher turned game keeper' :-)

[Graham]

If Broad is one of the best bowlers we have got then the Aussies must be having a right laugh.My monies on them.

[Offspinner]

Well Geoff, we'll be discounting a lot of the great Aussie performances from the Ashes series in 90s and 2000s then shall we? CB did what he had to do at the time he had to do it and played a big role in winning one series.

[geoff from Melbourne]

Chris Broad ? Surely you jest.
How can you possibly place a person into the list of the top 50 people to play Ashes cricket when that person has only played well in a single Ashes series, and against a very mediocre Australian team at that (apologies to Merv and AB).

Are the feats of the players not calibrated against the strength of the opposition ?

Hmm ...

or ...

are the Mead and the Broad families related ?

[Jon Mead]

Great lunchtime reading Paddy, hopefully Broad Jr will hit a few centuries of his own next year!
Better get back to work!