Northants Chances In The County Champs

A report looking at Northamptonshire's prospects for the 1971 County Championship, featuring interviews with captain P.J. Watts and returning player Colin Milburn.

At Northamptonshire County Cricket Ground, players dressed in white make their way onto the pitch to restrained cheers and whistles from the crowd. The camera shows a number of balls being bowled to various batsmen, and a couple of boundaries are scored to the sound of respectful applause from the crowd. In an interview with Chris Young, Northamptonshire captain P.J. Watts explains that it’s important for the team to do well in the County Championship due to their relative lack of success in one-day games recently. He goes on to say that the current line-up is the best he’s ever played with, and he believes them to be the best bowling side in the country. After being shown donning his shin pads, cricketer Colin Milburn is interviewed. Milburn says that he feels the season is going well after returning to cricket following the loss of his left eye in an accident, and he was pleased to have scored a number of runs whilst playing for the second team. He acknowledges the difficulty of batting number six in the first team after being out of the sport for some time. When probed by Young about the particular difficulties he experiences, Milburn says that light levels make a lot of difference to his “good eye” but the main difficulty he has is confidence. He goes no to say that his second team games have helped to build his confidence levels, and he hopes to be able to start scoring well in first team games. Milburn is then shown in bat: hitting one ball to the boundary for a four, then hitting another but not scoring any runs.

Keywords

Cricket; County Cricket

Background Information

"Colin Milburn (nicknamed Ollie; 23 October 1941 – 28 February 1990 was an English cricketer, who played in nine Test matches for England, before an accident led to the loss of much of his sight and prompted his retirement." "Returning to Northampton for the 1969 season, Milburn started out with 158 against Leicestershire. On 23 May, he was returning home when he was involved in a motor accident. This cost him the sight of his left eye, the lead eye for a right-handed batsman. His right eye was also damaged. Taking as an example the Nawab of Pataudi, who had resumed his career after suffering eye damage, Milburn harboured thoughts of a comeback. On 8 January 1971, The Times reported his retirement, but Milburn did return in 1973 and 1974. However, he was a shadow of his former self, and these games did little beyond reducing his career batting average. Milburn continued in league cricket, and went into the world of after dinner speaking, public appearances and radio commentary." Wikipedia