Jim Laker

Presenter0:00

This download is the only extract the B B C has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley. Jim, do you m do you remember how old you were when you first took an interest in cricket?

Presenter0:12

Well, I've taken an interest in cricket ever since I can remember. Almost since I could walk, I think I've had either a ball or a bat in my hand, yeah.

Presenter0:19

And uh it it's it's just been a very very important part of my life. I played as a small boy in in playing fields, I played at school, in fact I played at school in the morning and played in in Bradford League, that is professional league cricket in on Saturday afternoon. You were professional while you were at school? Oh oh no, no. I I was an amateur of course when I was at school, but each of the teams had uh roughly about four or five professional players. Yes. Which of course gave me a very good ground in i in the game of cricket. Did you become a professional as soon as you left school? Oh no, no. I left school at about seventeen, seventeen and a half and and spent uh

Presenter0:56

Approximately two years in a bank. What went wrong with that?

Presenter1:00

Well, the war, principally. Yeah, uh the war came along in thirty nine and uh I I joined the army and and and went abroad.

Presenter1:07

Do it.

Presenter1:08

I went to Middle East and uh I spent approximately four and a half years out there. Did you get any chance for cricket there between your duties?

Presenter1:17

Well, the first couple of years we got very little cricket. There was

Presenter1:21

rather a lot to do apart from playing cricket. But latterly in the last two, two and a half years I was there, when when the war front had moved away from Egypt up to uh Italy and uh and Europe, of course, and we had much more leisure time.

Presenter1:34

And I suppose I play cricket for often five times a week.

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And what happened after after you had immobilized them? Did you go back to banking?

Presenter1:44

Uh no, I didn't actually. I spent uh a short while in London before I was demobilised and during that time played some uh club cricket in London. Whilst I played this club cricket uh I was spotted I suppose and uh asked to go to Kennington Oval and play in a trial match.

Presenter2:02

This I did and uh almost immediately after the match they they asked me to become a professional cricketer. So there was a Yorkshire and the Zurry team. Yes, no trouble at all. When did you play your first game for England?

Presenter2:14

Well, I joined Surrey at the end of 1946. I played an odd match. I got into the Candyside in 47 and the same year I was lucky enough to go to the West Indies and played in the first Test match out there. Yeah, so I seem to remember in in one of those innings in the West Indies, Laker six for 25, wasn't that right?

Presenter2:35

Yes, that's right. Actually it uh it was one for eighty overnight and six for twenty-five the next morning. It's a drop of rain.

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Jim, we hear a lot these days about the the strain on on bowlers, bowlers cracking up, especially fast bowlers, before the end of the season.

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What what are your views on that? I is it a a terrific strain? Yes, it is, of course, particularly for a fast bowler. If you imagine that a bowler's got to pound his heart out for six and often seven days a week for four months, then

Presenter3:02

By July and August comes he's going to be pretty tired and if he's overexerted himself when he was a little tired earlier on then he's going to pull a muscle or get a strain. I think it's it's a very arduous programme indeed for a fastbow. Mm-hmm. Of course nowadays uh cricket is is more or less w with with charity matches on Sunday and so forth, it's really seven days a week. Does that raise the point is that perhaps a bit too much cricket?

Presenter3:24

Yes, I think there I think there is too much. Not not so much the charity matches, which really are not hard work, but uh the candidate programme itself.

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Uh it's uh it's a very difficult question actually and uh although it's easy to condemn it until there's a a better alternative suggested then then what are we going to do?

Presenter3:43

Well you showed me your your right forefinger, which the joint is about twice the size of of your left forefinger that that that shows really what um

Presenter3:52

Uh the strain spinning the ball must be yes, that can be called an occupational disease, I suppose. It's it's purely a strain on that joint, it's the forefinger which imparts a spin and

Jim Laker3:55

So

Presenter4:04

and bowling every day for for nearly ten years now and then of course the the joint becomes enlarged and and you get a little arthritis in there and

Presenter4:11

Mm. In fact, at times it gets quite painful. Oh, yeah. The words there.

Presenter4:16

You've had about ten years now as a professional cricketer, Jim. Have you noticed any any changes in that time? I mean, is the standard, in your opinion, getting higher or is it dropping at all?

Presenter4:26

I should say that quite definitely the standard is much higher now than it was soon after the war. It's uh I notice it particularly as a bowl, it's much harder to get wickets here than it was then. And I think looking at the England sides just after the war and looking at them o over the last two or three years

Presenter4:43

It is proof enough, I believe, that the the standard of English cricket has improved tremendously. Nowadays, for instance, we we've got half a dozen fast bowlers to pick from. After the war we hadn't got one.