‘Tiger’ Bill O’Reilly after his leg was amputated: They can’t no-ball me any more.
It was reported widely in many Indian newspapers that Hitler wanted to use cricket to train troops for war but found it “insufficiently violent” for German Fascists.
If he had watched Bodyline series of 1932–33, he would have certainly not said so.
But when it comes to today's cricket, Hitler was right.
Mike Selvey:"The great Sir Viv (no surname needed) has been sounding off. Modern batsmen, he feels, are namby-pambies, donning their armour as if preparing for the tilting yard, human frailties cocooned and camouflaged behind all the padding and helmet. How can you test a man's mettle if it doesn't at least smart a bit when he gets hit?"
Kevin Mitchell: "There are individuals out there who use the body protection as a form of staying power," he (Viv Richards) said, "to go on as long as possible. That's the worst way anybody can be thinking, that you should cover yourself in a suit of armour, to make yourself brave, or to enable you to hook – when you never hooked in your life – just because you've got a helmet on. That's rubbish. Even though they say cricket is a gentleman's game, it's a man's game."
Also read this story told by Viv Richards:
"...I think I was pretty tough as a youngster. But (Brain) Closey was tougher still. He reinforced the message that you yield to no one...
...Man, he was brave. I remember playing against Gloucestershire and Closey was fielding at silly point. Mike Procter leant back and cracked a square cut. The ball hit Closey on the head and ballooned towards Dennis Breakwell. But Dennis watched the man rather than the ball and joined the rush to see if the captain was OK. When he came to Close's first words were "Did we get him?" He was none too pleased to hear that Dennis had failed to complete the catch...
...Anyway, at Old Trafford, Close got hit in the chest by Wayne Daniel and sank to the floor. OK, I was playing for my country, but this was my skipper on the ground and in pain. So I went up to him. "Are you OK, skipper?" Closey eventually gathered himself together and bellowed "Fuck off." What a man..."
Mike Atherton:
"...The advent of protection for batsmen from the late 1970s has been the biggest change to the game since the introduction of overarm bowling. It has altered profoundly the balance between bat and ball and changed batting techniques, to the point at which modern batsmen (Matthew Hayden and Kevin Pietersen, for example) can walk down the pitch to 90 mph balls and where some (Justin Langer, say) can play on despite numerous blows to the head.
That is before we even start talking about the strokes, such as the overhead “Dilscoop” that are routinely played in limited-overs matches, which would be a non-starter without helmets..."