John Lever: If the ball doesn’t swing, it’s going to be a very boring game, isn’t it? Premium

John Lever's eventful Test debut in India, including a Vaseline controversy, match-winning performance, and reflections on his career.

On England’s tour of India in 1976-77, John Lever found himself becoming an unintended brand ambassador for Vaseline. The series might be remembered more for the Vaseline-ball controversy from the third Test in Chennai, but before that, the pacer had registered match figures of 10 for 70 after making 53 lower down the order on his Test debut at New Delhi. A decade later, he made a comeback to end his career with the 1986 Leeds Test against India. Excerpts from an interview Lever gave The Hindu.

It was quite a Test debut, wasn’t it? Ten wickets in the match, a half-century, and an innings win for England.

Coming to India, I was expecting hot conditions and flat wickets. But it was really cool in New Delhi; it was nearly a two-sweater occasion, long-sleeve sweater.

So were the wickets rather flat on that tour?

They were fairly flat. There was one quick wicket in that Test series; I think it was in Bangalore or Madras. The ball went quite quickly from Bob Willis, but it always turned a bit and Derek Underwood was our premier spin bowler. And I think he got the most wickets on the tour, didn’t he?

Yes, he did – 29. And you had the second-highest number of wickets: 26. Ten of them came in the first Test in Delhi.

The Indian ball swung a bit, but it wasn’t the first ball. It had gone soft fast and they had changed it. The conditions also helped a bit; there was some sort of a mist around. We had batted first and posted good runs on the board, and that meant there was less pressure.