County scorer reminisces Ravi Shastri's Cardiff connect and Glamorgan stint
Andrew Higgins, who has been the official Glamorgan county scorer since 1978, reminisces the era when Ravi Shastri formed an integral part of the local side which played at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff. The current Indian national team coach represented Glamorgan from 1987 to 1991 as a player.
Ravi Shastri enjoyed a distinguished spell of cricket with English County team Glamorgan when he was part of the squad back in 1987. 1988 was by far the best of the seasons for Glamorgan in one-day matches. They finished fifth in the Sunday League up from 14th spot in 1987. Andrew Higgins, who has been the official scorer with the county since 1978, recalled Shastri’s stint in England in a recent interview with TOI.
“Shastri came here in 1987 when he had a few technical issues with his bowling action (he is a left-arm spinner). He was lucky enough to be here at a time when we had a wonderful man as our bowling coach, the late great Tom Shephered, who took 2,276 first-class wickets for Glamorgan. He was an off-spinner who would bowl off-cutters too. Ravi benefited massively from Tom’s advice. He subsequently attributed his success, and rediscovering his bowling action to the hard work he put here in the nets with Shephered at Glamorgan,” Higgins told TOI.
The Indian all-rounder scored a total of 1000 runs in 1989 and scored hundreds in both innings in the match against Middlesex that season. His best bowling performance of 7 for 49 (11 for 90) came in the match against Lancashire in 1988, where he got bounce and turn and was 'unplayable' according to Wisden. Shastri won the leading six-hitter award for the Sunday league matches of 1988 with 14 sixes.
“He hit several hundreds for us in one-day and championship cricket. He was an integral part of the Glamorgan team in 1988, when it reached the semifinals of the Benson and Hedges Cup, a 55-overs-a-side competition.
“Unfortunately, we lost in the semis at Swansea. As Glamorgan we were seemingly moving to victory when a Michael Holding delivery reared up and hit Matthew Maynard’s helmet. It fell on his wicket. Unfortunately, Ravi and the others couldn’t see us home. If we’d won that game, Ravi would have been able to say that he played in a final with us. He played for us at a time when we were rebuilding. He didn’t play in 1989 and 1990, because we had Viv Richards,” Higgins added.