Saturday Spotlight: Unlikely hero recalls his part in Ashes victory

Back then, Gary Pratt emerged as England’s unlikely fourth-Test match-winner, and Chief Sports Writer Scott Wilson met up with the former Durham batsman ahead of this summer’s renewal.

FOR many, it was the moment when the 2005 Ashes series swung decisively in England’s favour.

Following on in the fourth Test, with the series all square, Australia were progressing smoothly at 155-2 when Damien Martyn called captain Ricky Ponting for a quick single.

Ponting failed to make it, run out by a direct hit from the covers, and after the tourists were dismissed for 387, England went on to record a three-wicket victory that eventually sealed an historic series win.

The manner of Ponting’s dismissal is memorable enough, but it is the identity of the player who claimed his wicket that ensures that the incident is etched in Ashes folklore.

Bishop Auckland-born Gary Pratt was a fresh-faced 23- year-old on the fringes of the Durham team when, as a replacement for the injured Simon Jones, he swooped to send Ponting back to the pavilion. An instant later, and he was a fully-fledged national hero.

There was an open-topped bus tour through London as England’s players celebrated their Ashes success, and a Downing Street meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

There was a trip to the Sports Personality of the Year awards and an appearance on The Weakest Link. And there was a rapturous welcome when Pratt returned to Riverside to finish the season with Durham.

For a fleeting moment, at the end of a sensational summer, the North-Easterner was a bone fide sporting superstar.

“Looking back now, it all seems pretty surreal,” said Pratt, whose Trent Bridge cameo was criticised by Ponting, who felt England’s repeated use of substitute fielders was against the spirit of the game. “You never really expect anything like that to happen to you.

“One moment, I was a young lad who was thrilled just to be a part of the England set-up, sitting in the dressing room. The next, I was being treated like a celebrity.

One thing clicked, and it opened a whole host of doors for me.

“It gave me some wonderful memories, and I can always look back and say it was incredible part of my life. I’ll never forget being on that bus as it went through London, and I’ll never forget chatting with the Prime Minister about life in the North-East.

“I’ve still got a video of the run-out, although I can’t say I’ve ever watched it, and I’ve still got some books and signed shirts from various different people in the team.

“It’s not something I think about every day, but with the Ashes coming round again, more and more people seem to want to bring it up and talk about it.”

Like a one-hit wonder forced to reprise their greatest hit ad infinitum, Pratt is destined to be forever associated with one over-arm throw in Nottingham.

At the time, it looked as though his impromptu international appearance could be the first of many.

Four summers on, however, and he is not even involved on the county stage.

Despite starting the season after his Ashes heroics brightly, Pratt was one of four Durham players released when their contract expired at the end of the 2006 campaign.

A rumoured contract offer from Leicestershire failed to materialise, and like his brothers, Andrew and Neil, before him, Gary found himself cast onto the cricketing scrapheap at a painfully early age.

Unsurprisingly, the experience left its scars.

“At the time, it was really hard to take,” he said. “But now that a few years have passed, I’ve come to terms with it and mellowed.

“The opportunity was in my hands, and I suppose if I’m being brutally honest, I would say I didn’t take it. But on the other hand, I would also say I didn’t get the chance to play with some of the great players Durham have had in the last few years when I was a kid coming through.

“I had to fight for myself right from the start. I was at the top of the order with people like Goughy (Michael Gough) and (Gordon) Muchall – all young lads who were crying out for someone with a bit of experience. There was never any backbone to the side.

“Now, you look at the likes of Dale Benkenstein and Shivnarine Chanderpaul and think, ‘It would have been great to have played with people like that around you’.

“You can’t live your life thinking about what might have been, but I’m sure I would have been a much better player if I’d had the same opportunities as the young lads that are coming through at Durham now. I’ll never know what might have happened if that had been the case.”

As it is, Pratt’s cricketing career now revolves around Cumberland in the Minor Counties League and Bishop Auckland in the Darlington Building Society NYSD Premier League.

He remains an explosive batsman – his 117, including a century off 82 balls, helped Bishop record an 89-run win over Billingham Synthonia last weekend – and while some of his former international colleagues will be in Cardiff on Wednesday beginning their attempt to reclaim the Ashes, the left-hander, who now lives in Willington, is happy with his lot.

“I wouldn’t ever be bitter,”

he said. “I’m still enjoying my cricket, and I’m nowhere near as narrow-minded as I used to be. Back then, cricket was my life and that was it. Now, I’ve learned it’s not the be all and end all.

“I’m playing at a decent standard with Bishop Auckland, and I’m playing with a great group of lads who play for the love of the game.

“Then, for three days every fortnight, I get to head off to Cumbria and play at some beautiful grounds in places like Barrow, Keswick and Kendal. It’s like a holiday every time I go over there, and I honestly don’t think I’d swap what I’m doing right now.”

Away from the cricket pitch, Pratt has tried his hand at a number of different things in the last three years, but his future could prove to be tied up in the sport.

He is in the process of selling the self-storage container business he established two years ago, and having worked closely with Peter Lorimer Sports, the Bishop Auckland-based firm that supplies cricket kit to most of the local cricket clubs in the North-East, Pratt is hoping to branch out and become a supplier of cricketing equipment on his own.

“I did the container stuff for a couple of years, but I’m in the process of being bought out, so I don’t think I’ll be involved in that in the future,”

he said.

“I’ve done bits with Peter Lorimer Sports, who are the sponsors of Bishop Auckland Cricket Club, and that side of things is something I’ve always been interested in.

“I’d like to get involved with supplying cricketing equipment, and I’ll obviously continue playing for as long as I can as well.”

And, for a brief moment this summer, Pratt will also allow himself to revisit the past.

When England’s players walk onto the field at Sophia Gardens on Wednesday, the 27- year-old will revert to the role of a fan. Few of his fellow supporters, though, will have played such a pivotal role in years gone by.

“I’ll be cheering England on,” he said. “And I think they’re looking pretty good to win the Ashes back. They looked good in the Test series against the West Indies, and they’ll obviously have home advantage as well.

“It’s shaping up to be a brilliant series, but I’ll be surprised if it’s as exciting as it was four years ago.”

Or, he might have added, if it throws up as unlikely a hero as it did in 2005.