A Flick of the Fingers

Thanks to his discovery of a collection of scrapbooks and memorabilia, writer and filmmaker Michael Burns is able to relate for the first time the remarkable story of Surrey and England cricketer Jack Crawford. A schoolboy prodigy who took Edwardian cricket by storm, the amateur all-rounder became Surrey's youngest ever centurion and, at 19 years and 32 days, England's youngest Test player. However, a row over captaining a weakened team against the Australians led to a spectacular fallout—and a life ban by his county. Emigration to Australia ensued, where Crawford established himself as one of the world's great all-rounders; yet controversy dogged him, on and off the pitch. Having married and deserted an Adelaide teenage beauty, Crawford then dodged involvement in World War I. He returned to England to divorce, remarry and fade into middle-aged obscurity, but not before playing two of the most remarkable innings of his life.

Michael Burns is a filmmaker who has produced nine cricket films, including A Gentleman Cricketer, which won the 2008 Cricket Society Media Award. He is also the author of a centenary history of his local club, Malden Wanderers, and articles for Wisden Cricket Monthly and the MCC Magazine.