Crowe and the Cowdrey lecture

Crowe had a fine series personally but remembers, during his century in the second Test in Lahore, a game played on a green top with a lush outfield, picking up the ball and noticing chunks removed from one side. In that innings Waqar Younis took 7 for 86 and Wasim Akram, he said, was unplayable. "It was the first we really saw of reverse swing. They said it had roughed up on the outfield." Next Test, Crowe recounted, they decided that they too should have some of this. So they took bottle tops on to the field with them, the better to gouge the ball. Pakistan were blown away, bowled out for 102 by a medium-pacer called Chris Pringle, who took 7 for 52. A dozen wickets in the game for Waqar meant that the Kiwis lost that match, too, but at least they felt there had been some equality.