Video: Worst teammate in cricket history

Kerry Packer’s wallet had reduced Australian cricket to one of its lowest pits ever. World Series Cricket took away most of the champions and the nation ran through a terrible phase that included their worst Ashes performance (a 1-5 defeat at home) among other humiliating defeats. It was during these dark days that the moustachioed Western Australian Graeme Malcolm Wood had appeared on the international scenario. Wood was brave, never flinched, and mastered the West Indians at their den. In short, he was Australia’s crisis man when it seemed that there was no man who could bail them out against the most furious fast bowlers of the world.

The greatest enemy of Wood was, however, the man himself: he was so poor a runner between the wickets that he was nicknamed, not too fondly, the Kamikaze Kid. Indeed, the Australian dressing-room often had their heart in their mouth with Wood at the crease, and his batting partners were in a worse state of mind: the phrase running-between-the-wickets was probably not a lesson taught in his cricket coaching days. Wood has famous earned the name “Worst teammate in cricket history”, thanks to his calamitous running between the wickets.

Came across a tweet which went like this “Watch ‘im Watto. That little cockroach prick would run out his own grandfather to save his wicket. #ausvsl” and the evidence is there for all to see in the following clip. Wood intially seemed to be keen on the run, but hesitation led to Andrew Hilditch’s dismissal after a solid start from the Aussies. In the second segment, we see that Wood had responded to the call, but stopped dead in his tracks after covering half the length of the pitch, and the bowler knocked the bails to get Wayne Philips dismissed, the commentator questioning a “conspiracy of silence”. Later on, we see that Wood called for the second run and got his teammate run out because of his indecision.

Wood even got involved in a spat with a spectator who seemed to suggest Wood’s casual approach led to the dismissals of his teammates. One would expect someone who was batting unbeaten on 104 to conduct himself better on the pitch. The final segment of the clip captures Wood at his best, rather worst. A horrible mix-up results in a suicidal run out as Wood called for a run that wasn’t on.