Kaustubh Dudhane’s Reviews > Sticky Dogs and Stardust: When Cricket’s Legends Played in the Leagues > Status Update

"Carl (Hooper) just kept depositing Curtly (Ambrose) into the school yard over the leg-side boundary," observes Fare. The ball wasn't the only thing that went to school that afternoon.

Absolutely brilliant writing 🙏🏻

It was a tragedy for all three that Carrick was unable to see his two proteges carve their distinctive lines across the international stage: Laxman flipping fourth-stump balls through mid-wicket and, if the mood took him, steering leg-stump balls through extra cover; Hoggard sending down those leg-stump deliveries, until three-quarters of the way down the pitch they were suddenly something else entirely.

The following week, Woodhouse brought along RS Ghai, an Indian seamer who had already played the last of his six ODIs. "He was one of the few to raise eyebrows," recalls Sykes. "Especially when his first ball went straight over the keeper's head for four byes. I thought: bloody hell, what have we got here?"

It was Lancashire League tradition that any player scoring a fifty earned a collection - money tossed into a box taken round the crowd - and Bumble pocketed £105 for his efforts, with Accrington Pro - Bharat Arun picking up £135 for his 72.