Page "John Snow (cricketer)" Paragraph 32

Snow was exhausted after the long tour of Australia and apart from his broken finger he suffered from a strained back and shoulder.

He was dropped from the Sussex County team because his " bowling performances, and more especially his fielding have been so lacking in effort that the selection committee had no alternative ".

However, instead of playing for the Sussex Second XI Snow was declared unfit by his doctor and missed the first half of the season and the Test series against Pakistan.

He recovered to take 4 / 45 & 7 / 73 against Essex and was picked for the First Test against India at Lords.

He rescued the England first innings when he came in at 183 / 7 and made 73 to hoist the total up to 304.

This was Snow's highest Test and equal highest First Class score, but Snow was disappointed not to realise his boyhood dream of a century at Lords when he was caught off a Chandrasekhar googly.

India needed 183 to win in the fourth inningsSnow had the opener Ashok Mankad caught by Knott for 8 and India were 21-2 when Sunil Gavaskar was called for a quick single after hitting the ball to mid-wicket.

Snow went for the ball and knocked him over, " I could imagine the horror on the faces of everybody watching the game from the committee room at Lord's ".

They were both uninjured, got up and continued with the game after Snow tossed Gavaskar's bat back to him.

A similar incident had happened in Georgetown in 1967-68 with Clive Lloyd, but the 5 ' 4 " Indian received far more sympathy than the 6 ' 4 " West Indian who had nearly trampled Snow into the ground.

From afar the incident had looked much worse and was replayed repeated on slow-motion television with a media furore and press demanding disciplinary action.

The replay can be seen in the Indian episode of the BBC documentary Empire of Cricket and it certainly appears that Snow recklessly barged into the Gavaskar as he knocked him over.

Many were more angry about the throwing of the bat back than the knocking him over in the first place.

At lunch Snow returned to the dressing room he apologised to the chairman of selectors Alec Bedser and promised to do so to Gavaskar when an enraged Mike Griffith charged in and shouted " That's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen on the field ".

Illingworth took him out and Snow waited until he had calmed down before apologising to Gavaskar on the field after lunch.

When he later saw the replay he said " Oh well, the scene's been far too quiet without me anyway ".

and realised he could not avoid being dropped for the Second Test.

The game was rained off with India needing 38 runs tio win, but with only two wickets in hand.

Snow returned for the Third Test at The Oval and tore off Gavaskar's chain and medallion with a bouncer that zipped under his chin and made him fall over.

He bowled the Indian for 6 in the first innings and had him lbw for a duck in the second, but this was not enough to prevent India winning the Test by four wickets and the series with it.

It was only the second Test defeat Snow had seen since he had become and England regular in 1966 and ended England's run of 27 Tests without loss.