Cricket: Silk Cut Challenge for all-rounders

“I count myself extremely fortunate to have played the bulk of my international career in the company of a clutch of outstanding all-rounders,” Ian Botham wrote in Botham’s Century. “It was quite a freaky time in that respect, and the fact that Kapil, Imran Khan and Richard Hadlee were vying with each other and myself for the unofficial title of ‘the best in the world’ undoubtedly spurred us all on.”

Cricket was indeed blessed during the 1980s. It was a period in the sport that saw great all-rounders go head-to-head, each with their own claims regarding who was the best in the world. Even now you could start a lively debate about the relative merits of Botham, Kapil, Imran and Hadlee.

With this in mind, a competition was established in 1984 that would pit these great men directly against each other. The Silk Cut Challenge may not have settled the argument about who was king of the all-rounders, but at the time it was an interesting concept that was a welcome addition to the end of the English cricketing summer.

The first event at Taunton would be contested between Botham, Kapil, Hadlee, Clive Rice, and Malcolm Marshall, with Imran side-lined due to injury. Screened on ITV’s World of Sport, with the concluding part on Channel 4, 3,000 people came through the gates to catch a glimpse of these international heroes. Hopefully the spectators brought a calculator with them too.

Players would bowl four overs at each of their rivals, giving a batsman a 16-over innings, with points calculated throughout the day based on the following formula: number of runs scored divided by the number of innings batted multiplied by the number of wickets each bowler took. Confused? Many were.

“Bill Frindall was hired by ITV to keep the score,” Frank Keating stated in the Times. “Few except schoolboy swots who had brought their logarithm tables had the slightest idea what was going on mathematically.” One man had the system cracked, though.

“On the day, I worked out the system better than my opponents,” Rice admitted. Batting first, Rice managed just 73 in his 16 overs, but crucially was not dismissed. When he proceeded to take seven wickets in the rest of the day, including a hat-trick whilst bowling to Marshall, his mammoth score of 511 points was unsurpassable.

The scoring system was far from perfect. Using a bat leant to him by Viv Richards, Botham blasted 163 runs, and clobbered 70 in Rice’s four overs. Yet runs conceded whilst bowling was not taken into account, and the fact that Botham batted in three innings meant that he would have needed to take ten wickets to beat Rice (he only took one). It was even worse for Hadlee and Marshall. Neither took a wicket throughout the day, and both ended up on minus points.

Throughout the day, the all-rounders were supported by Paul Downton and Bob Taylor behind the stumps, with Somerset and Gloucestershire players used as fielders and batting partners; Botham was run out after a mix-up with Somerset’s Julian Wyatt, which proved costly to his chances.

For Rice, at least this visit to Taunton provided a better outcome than his recent County Championship heartbreak. “If I’d come second today, I’d have gone out and shot myself,” he joked, before leaving Somerset with a trophy and £7,000. Even Marshall, who finished last, banked £2,000.

Although the scoring system was slightly flawed, the event had proved popular, and with a few tweaks the competition returned a year later at Arundel. Played over two days, runs conceded were now deducted from individual scores, with 25 points gained and subtracted per wicket taken or lost. It led to a much closer contest.

Kapil and Marshall did not take part, but the other survivors were now joined by Imran, Viv Richards, Australian Simon O’Donnell, and Graham Gooch. Again, each player bowled four overs to everyone else, and Rice stuck to his game plan from his 1984 success.

Scoring 128 runs without being dismissed in his 24 overs, Rice took 6/135 with the ball to hold off a late challenge from Imran who would have won the event had he managed to take Rice’s wicket in the final over of the competition. The World of Sport viewers and spectators at Arundel at least witnessed more drama than the previous year.

Botham had been hampered throughout with a calf strain, batting with a runner and bowling off-spin. Nevertheless, he did manage to score one of three centuries over the two days, finishing fifth behind Richards and Hadlee. O’Donnell and Gooch scored the other hundreds, but still finished in the red, O’Donnell mainly due to his bowling, and Gooch because he was dismissed twelve times.

Gooch’s next experience in the tournament was just as disappointing. With the event moving to Hong Kong in December 1986, Botham was unavailable due to the small matter of an Ashes tour taking place at the same time. Gooch, who had decided not to tour with England, took part in the five-man event.

Both Gooch and Madan Lal exited at the first round stage, leaving Rice, Imran and Hadlee to battle it out in the final, and for the first time in the short history of the tournament, Rice did not come out on top. Imran was victorious, although injury would prevent him from defending his crown in November 1987.

Strangely the fourth tournament was organised over the same weekend as the World Cup final, as nine men made their way to Hong Kong. Split into three groups, Rice saw off the challenge of Greg Matthews and Phil Edmonds (in for the injured Imran), Dermot Reeve caused a shock in knocking out Botham and Lal, with Hadlee narrowly squeaking past Marshall and Rumesh Ratnayake.

With the all-rounders playing in purple kits, the fielders in green, and with an orange ball, Hadlee described it all as “a gimmicky, fun competition,” providing some extra revenue for the players. Umpires were even provided pocket televisions to be used for any debatable decisions, in an extremely early example of technology entering the sport.

Yet another new scoring system was adopted; a batsman was given 100 points to start with and awarded a point for every run scored, but deducted 10 each time they were dismissed. Every run conceded whilst bowling saw a point deducted, and ten points were earned for taking a wicket. Rice once again knew how to work the system.

In Botham’s Century, the author reveals just how determined Rice was to regain his title. “Where I regarded it as little more than a holiday with a bit of heave-ho, he treated the whole thing with deadly seriousness. One morning, I passed Rice in the hotel foyer at about 7.30am as I was coming in from a long innings at the bar, and he was on his way out to loosen up and practice at the ground.”

Rice’s third win would prove to be the last time the event was staged. It may not have proved one way or the other who was the greatest all-rounder at the time; in reality it was never going to achieve this, and if we’re being honest, money was probably the real reason behind the tournament.

But to a young cricket enthusiast, the Silk Cut Challenge was refreshing, and a great opportunity to see legends of the sport take to the field at the same time. And for a man who could not play Test match cricket due to Apartheid, the competition proved welcome to Clive Rice.

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