Mistaken Identity

When travelling to different countries I have been amazed how cricket can still crop up in the furthermost parts of the world.

In December 1983 when I was wandering around the tea plantations of Sri Lanka near Nurelia, I got involved in a conversation about cricket with some local inhabitants and told them that I was a cricketer from England. Upon being invited to the local Tamil Indian village word got around that an England cricketer (not a cricketer from England) was visiting them. The village became a hive of excitement, women made themselves up, children ran to stare at me and before I realized what was happening I was being marched by villagers to the local field where I was requested to participate in a match between the men of the village.

 Within an hour it appeared that the whole population of the village had turned out to watch a dishevelled Englishman dressed in tracksuit bottoms and a T-shirt play cricket. Trying to perform with a bat that was too small, no pads or gloves, on a pitch that was in a worse condition than Rainham Recreation Ground wasn't an easy task. By the end of my innings I was severely bruised by the compound ball that was continually pitched into my unprotected legs. I did manage to hit several boundaries and played several good shots before a good length delivery took off and I was caught trying to fend it off my face. The crowd went crazy, cheering loudly and jumping with joy, the players hugged each other wildly, while I, a local cricketer from Rainham, limped off the pitch wondering what all the fuss was about. It wasn't until later when several children asked for my autograph that I was told that everybody thought that I was an England cricketer. In order not to cause disappointment I duly signed my name as Graham Gooch, as I resembled him at the time then departed with the villagers waving goodbye until I had disappeared into the distance. On reflection I think it was just a case of misinterpretation although it may well be that those villagers still tell the tale about the day that Graham Gooch visited their village and was dismissed by a local hero.

David Wood 2004