Jim Laker will be remembered forever!

By A. C. De Silva

CRICKET: James Charles Laker - those three magical words somewhat will spin in the years of the die-hard followers of the game of cricket especially in England and Australia with his 25th death anniversary on April 23 this year. He breathed his last on April 23 in 1986.

Laker was well-known to cricket fans the world over as a fine off-spin bowler and some fans here in Sri Lanka too had the opportunity of seeing him in action as he played a one-day match against Sri Lanka on April 21st in 1958 at the present SSC grounds.

The match, however, was washed out by rain. But before the rain, Laker bowled and teased some of the Sri Lankan batsmen, but there was one batsmen - Anton Sethupathy who silenced all his critics for his selection and scored three spanking boundaries off Laker.

Peter May - the England captain at that time, described Laker as "one of the greatest off-spinners of the time."

Laker will go down in history for his superb performance in the 1956 Old Trafford Test against Australia for his fine bowling performance. He had figures of 9 for 37 and 10 for 53 that gave England the win by an innings and 170 runs.

Career 12 years

May added: "It was an honour to play with him throughout the 1950s".

Laker played for Surrey from 1946 to 1959 and for Essex between 1962 and 1964. Laker's England career spanned 12 years, ending in 1959.

Born at Frizinghal, Bradford (Yorkshire) on February 9, 1922, Laker made his Test debut against the West Indies at Barbados on January 21 in 1948 in the 1947-48 series along with D. Brookes, W. Place, G. A. Smithson and M. F. Tremlett. The last four named would like to forget their debut, as they fared miserably.

Laker cherished his debut with a sterling performance taking 7 for 103 and 2 for 95. His first innings bowling figures included a spell of 6 for 25 in the morning of the second day's play. The West Indies fourth wicket fell at 245 after being 245 for 3 and finally they were all out for 296.

On that historic day, Laker's wickets included Clive Walcott, G. E. Gomez, skipper G. A. Headley, R. J. Christiani, E. A. V. Williams and B. B. H. Gaskin, in the first innings and Weeks and Goddard in the second.

In the next match of the series Laker had little success. Laker appeared 46 times for England and bowled his country to victory many times. The following are his performances in a nutshell: 46 Tests; Balls bowled: 12,027 in 63 innings, gave away 676 runs, avg: 21.24. Batting scored 63 as his highest.

His breakup of wickets against each country: Australia 79, South Africa 32, West Indies 51, New Zealand 21, India 8, Pakistan 2.

Not permanent member

Because of illness or poor time, Laker was not a permanent member of the England squad. He had to fight for his place. Laker was brought back into the Test team for the final Test of the 1955 series against South Africa. His figures in the match read - 23 overs 13 maidens, 28 runs and 2 wickets and 37.4 overs, 18 maidens, 56 runs and 5 wickets. After the above match he played against Australia in 1956 at home and that series is history now - with those magical figures 9 for 37 in the first innings and 10 for 53 in the second innings. In that particular series he took 46 wickets in five Tests, including those magical figures at Manchester.

Laker's 50 wickets in just six Tests is a record. Laker took seven wickets in 22 deliveries in that Manchester Test. Laker is the first bowler in Test cricket to dismiss all the ten batsmen in a match. Earlier playing for his country Surrey, he took all the ten Australian wickets at the Oval in 1956 and repeated the feat in that Test at Manchester.

The bowler's dream of a hat-trick was achieved by Laker on four occasions: for P. E. Warner's vs South of England at Hastings, 1947; for Surrey vs Gloucestershire at Gloucester, 1951; for Surrey vs Warwickshire at Oval, 1953; and for Surrey vs Cambridge University at Bradford 1953.

	SCORE BOARD
World record-breaking match for Laker - 19 wickets for 90 runs 

ENGLAND 1ST INNINGS 
P.E. Richardson c Maddocks b Benaud    104
M.C. Cowdrey c Maddocks b Lindwall 	80
D.S. Sheppard b Archer 		       113
P.B.H. May c Archer b Benaud 	 	43
T.E. Bailey b Johnson 	 		20
C. Washbrook lbw b Johnson 	  	06
A.S.M. Oakman c. Archer b Johnson	10
T.G. Evans st. Maddocks b Johnson 	47
J.C. Laker run out 	  		03
G.A.R. Lock not out 	 		25
J.B. Statham c Maddocks b Lindwall 	00
Extras (B 2, LB 5, W 1) 	  	08
Total 				       459

Fall of wickets: 1-174, 2-195, 3-288, 4-321
		 5-327, 6-339, 7-401, 8-417, 9-458
Bowling:  Ray Lindwall 21.3-6-63-2
	  Keith Miller 21-6-41-0
	  Ron Archer 22-6-73-1
	  R. Johnson 47-10-151-4
	  Richie Benaud 47-17-123-2 

AUSTRALIA 1ST INNINGS 
C.C. Mcdonald c Lock b Laker 	 	32
J.W. Burke c Cowdrey b Lock 	 	22	
R. N. Harvey b Laker 	  		00
I.D. Craig lbw b Laker 	  		08
Keith Miller c Oakman b Laker 	  	06
Ken Mackay c Oakman b Laker 	  	00
Ron Archer st. Evans b Laker 	  	06
Richie Benaud c Statham b Laker 	00
Ray Lindwall not out 	  		06
Len Maddocks b Laker 	  		04
W. Johnson b Laker 	  		00
Extras 	  				00
Total 	 				84

Fall of wickets:  1-48, 2-48, 3-62, 4-62, 5-62
		  6-73, 7-73, 8-78, 9-84
Bowling:  J. B. Statham 6-3-6-0
	  Travor Bailey 4-3-4-0
	  Jim Laker 16.4- 4-37-9
	  Tony Lock 14-3-37-1

AUSTRALIA 2ND INNINGS 
C.C. Mcdonald c Oakman b Laker 	 	89
J.W. Burke c Lock b Laker 	 	33
Neil Harvey c Cowdrey b Laker 	  	00
Ian Craig lbw b Laker 	 		38
Ken Mackay c Oakman b Laker 	  	00
Keith Miller b Laker 	  		00
Ron Archer c Oakman b Laker 	  	00
Richie Benaud b Laker 	 		18
Ray Lindwall c Lock b Laker 	  	08
W. Johnson not out 	  		01
Len Maddocks lbw b Laker	  	02
Extras (B 12, LB 4) 	 		16
Total  				       205 

Fall of wickets:  1-28, 2-55, 3-114, 4-124
		  5-130, 6-130, 7-181, 8-198, 9-203
Bowling:  J. B. Statham 16-10-15-0
	  Travor Bailey 20-8-31-0
	  Jim Laker 51.2-23-53-10
	  Tony Lock 55-30-69-0
	  A. Oakman 8-3-21-0