The Inside track
Mike Selvey
Josh Hazlewood’s left bowling boot during last year’s Boxing Day Test against Pakistan
A gentleman to boot
The summer before last I emerged from a lengthy retirement to play a match against Bedford School, alma mater of Alastair Cook and my sons, one of whom had been in the 1st XI and with whom I was thrilled to open the bowling now.
He was, I noted, still wearing boots that had belonged to Tim Bresnan, who had taken them to India in 2012/13 as a spare pair before handing them on to Josh. My old boots had long gone, but for this game I had blagged a pair from Jimmy Anderson, who, I’m told, wears a new pair in practice before a Test, then in the match, before discarding them. That amounts to a lot of jettisoned footwear.