Four balls with an aluminium bat

England chose to field at Perth on 14 December 1979 and had Australia 20 for three, Botham having taken two of them. Kim Hughes made 99 and Australia were 232 for eight at the close, Lillee 11 not out. The second morning is where the card’s general note begins, and it is not about a wicket.

The note

“DK Lillee faced four balls (from Botham) and scored three runs using an aluminium bat. Ten minutes were lost while the umpire persuaded Lillee to change the bat for a standard wooden one.” That is the whole of it. Four balls, three runs, ten minutes, and a wooden bat described as standard, which is the word doing the work.

Full scorecard: Australia v England, 1st Test, Perth, 14–19 December 1979 →

Lillee went on to 18 and was caught behind off Botham, the last man out at 244. Botham finished with six for 78 from 35 overs. The card’s match-days line says five days, and the ten minutes are inside the second of them.

What the Law says now

Law 5 opens by saying the bat consists of two parts, a handle and a blade. Clause 5.3.2 is a single sentence: “The blade shall consist solely of wood.” Solely. A bat with an aluminium blade is not a bat under the current code, and the umpire would not have needed ten minutes or persuasion.

The Wikipedia entry on Lillee says the Laws were amended after the game to specify wood, and that sales of the bat rose for a few months before they were.

Law 5, The bat: MCC Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code →

What the Law said then

The same entry says Lillee circumvented the Laws of the time rather than broke them. Mike Brearley complained to the umpires that the bat was damaging the ball, and Greg Chappell sent Rodney Hogg, who is not on the card, out with a wooden one. Lillee threw the aluminium bat towards the pavilion before taking it.

The umpires on the card are Donald Weser and Max O’Connell, and the note credits the persuasion to one umpire without saying which.

The standing question is what authority that umpire was using. The card says persuaded, not ordered. If the Laws of 1979 did not require wood, the ten minutes were spent on something the code did not cover, which is the ground Law 2 now gives to the umpires as sole judges of fair and unfair play. The note records the outcome and nothing about the argument.

The rest of the card

England were 228, Brearley 64 from 184 balls and Graham Dilley 38 not out on debut from 157. Lillee took four for 73, with a wooden bat nowhere in the line, and Chappell bowled eleven overs for five runs. Australia’s second innings was 337: Allan Border 115 from 296 balls, retired hurt on 109 at 296 for seven and back to be ninth out at 323. Botham took five for 98 and eleven in the match.

England needed 354. Geoff Boycott batted through the fifth day for 99 not out from 285 balls and ran out of partners one short: Geoff Dymock took six for 34 and the innings ended at 215. Australia won by 138 runs. The series line reads Australia led the 3-match series 1-0. It is Test number 864, the debuts are Julien Wiener and Dilley, and the coverage headlines below the card read Full metal racket and Heavy metal at the WACA.

Not the Ashes

The tour page on Wikipedia says the series was hastily arranged after the settlement between World Series Cricket and the Australian board, and that the Ashes were not at stake. Australia won it 3-0. The card does not say any of that. It says 1st Test, England tour of Australia, and puts the bat in the general notes between the close-of-play list and the ground.

What the card holds

A note about a bat, with a count of balls, runs and minutes. Six for 78 and five for 98 from the bowler who was bowling to it. A 99 not out carried through a lost fifth day. A hundred interrupted by injury and resumed. And a Law, written later, that puts the whole ten minutes into five words.

••••••

No. 17 in By the Book, a series of 17.

NextDeclared, and 387 chased