Following on from yesterday’s article I have another extract from the same article about cricket’s maverick characters.

This time we take a look into the world of George Gunn who regularly played cricket at the worlds greatest venues in the early 1900’s through to the 1930’s. His career was interrupted by the First World War, and he still came back to play Test match cricket for England.

George was described as unpredictable and volatile, and on one famous occasion at Lord’s when lunch had been delayed by 40 minutes he gave his wicket away on the stroke of 1 o’clock. As he departed from the middle the square leg umpire asked him why he had given his wicket away ? To which he replied, “I always have my lunch at 1 o’clock.”

George was also renowned for the way in which he treated fast bowlers. Amazingly on a tour to the West Indies with England he advanced down the pitch to all fast bowling that he faced. This was in the days before helmets and his contemporaries saw him as either, “Very brave or very stupid.” The West Indian bowlers didn’t like what they saw happening to their averages so they reacted by digging the ball in short and treating George to a barrage of bouncers. But in true maverick style George still advanced and blocked bouncers in front of his face, and followed up by blowing a raspberry to the bowler !

But make no mistake, George Gunn was not just a maverick he was also one of the best cricketers this country has ever seen which was proven when he was the 1914 Wisden Cricketer of the Year.

What can we learn from this story of a true maverick at our level of cricket ? Well, I don’t think there is any need for us to stick to rigid food break times, and I don’t think we should necessarily blow raspberries at fast bowlers, but I do think we should take inspiration from a man who clearly lived for his cricket.