A TRUE ARTIST(E)

Jack Russell was a unique cricketer - brilliant, eccentric and as talented on the canvas as he was on the pitch

The 9th Champions Trophy is underway with India strong favourites despite them playing all their games on neutral soil in the UAE due to ongoing animus with hosts Pakistan. The tournament began life in 1998 when it was called the ICC International Knockout Trophy (Cricinfo bills it as the Wills International Cup) before someone reached for a dictionary of superlatives and it was renamed in 2002.

England played in that inaugural tournament hosted by Bangladesh and were knocked out in the opening stage by South Africa, the eventual winners. Nobody called the Saffers, who also won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, chokers that year.

Jack Russell, who is pictured here with paint pallet in the Lord’s dressing-room some seven years earlier, played in that match, making 19 at better than a run-a-ball. These days the selectors would have picked a batsman who knew which way round wicket-keeping gloves went, but back then Jack was a master of what was called intimidatory wicket-keeping so was first choice.

He would stand up to bowlers quick and slow and direct proceedings from there, chivvying close fielders and persuading batters that it would be pure folly for them to use their feet and leave the crease. Feeling hemmed in and under pressure, the batter would then do something stupid and lose their wicket.

Jack perfected the tactic with Gloucestershire who for a season or two became very difficult to beat in one-day cricket - their accurate bowlers backed by a fielding ring of steel kept motivated, every ball, by a moustachioed imp possessing a tatty sunhat and a neat line in taking the piss.

In the match against South Africa I’d be surprised if Jack didn’t stand up to every bowler in England’s attack which comprised: Peter Martin, Ian Austin, Adam Hollioake, Mark Ealham, Ashley Giles and Graeme Hick. Frightening it wasn’t which is maybe why it couldn’t defend the 281 England posted in their 50 overs, a decent score back then.

Jack, or Robert as Peter May, the chairman of selectors, used to call him, was pretty eccentric even for a wicket-keeper. He loved to drink tea, 15 plus cups a day, each made with the same tea bag which he would dip in once and then hang on one of the pegs where he changed. Once, during a Test at the Oval, he used the same tea bag across all five days, a feat of recycling that would have made Gwyneth Paltrow proud.

He also had a few dietary quirks which I became acquainted with during a tour match in Hamilton, New Zealand. I’d been given the game off but had to do some 12th man duties when Jack summoned me on to the field about 20 minutes before the lunch break.

“Ere mate, I’d like two Weetabix and a mashed-up banana, though I want the banana kept separate.”

“No probs Jack.”

“But I want you to soak the Weetabix in milk exactly eight minutes before we come off and I’d like the banana mashed up six minutes after that, or it’ll go brown before I eat it.”

Now I knew Jack was fussy about his food but there’s fussy and there’s FUSSY, of the kind that sees you end up in a straitjacket.

So I said. “Jack.”

“Yes mate.”

“Get f***ed.”

It was on an England tour, specifically to Pakistan where most of the current Champions Trophy will be played, that Jack started sketching land and cityscapes as something to do in his spare time. Since then he’s become an artist of note with several commissions from famous British institutions.

The photograph of him here, which I took during a rain break in the 2nd Test against the West Indies at Lord’s in 1991, has him hamming the artist thing up. Incredibly, Jack had his paints and easel with him in the dressing-room for just such moments of longueurs and of course I had my camera.

It rained most of the day and play was eventually called off at about 4pm (no super duper quick draining outfields then) which meant we didn’t get to meet the Queen during the lunch break as had been planned. Instead, she invited us and the West Indies team over to Buckingham Palace for tea, where cake and cucumber sandwiches were served on monogrammed plates.

Jack, meanwhile, admired the many fine paintings on show, his new found interest far more diverting than chewing the fat with royalty.

Jack Russell painting an alternative still life in Pakistan during the 1996 World Cup

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