MARTIN JOHNSON

I used to think that Ted Dexter’s 70 off 75 balls at Lord’s in 1963, against a West Indies’ fast bowling attack including Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith in their pomp, was one of the finest Test innings ever played by an Englishman. But how wrong can you be? I now realise that it was as shameful a performance as has ever been witnessed at the Home of Cricket, and if it had happened today, Lord Ted would have had to have been smuggled out of the ground in the boot of Colin Cowdrey’s car to avoid being lynched.
It’s very much a mo...