LET THE BELLS RING FOR A TRUE ENGLAND GREAT

I an Bell never had the chance to depart the international stage in what, for England cricketers, has always been considered the grand manner.

- Peter Hayter

Not for the most stylish batsman of his generation that emotional farewell in the shadow of the Oval gasholder, guard of honour and all, and a last wave of the bat to a standing ovation following his final innings of his final Test summer.

His class and his numbers surely qualified England’s ninth highest run scorer, with a record of 22 centuries bettered only by Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook, for that crowning moment.

Instead, it was left to the men of Glamorgan to applaud him to the crease in front of a Covid-empty Sophia Gardens before he bowed out by scoring a classy 90 for his beloved Bears.

One reason for that is that, while he did retire from ODI cricket in 2015, he never did actually announce he no longer wished to be considered for Test cricket.

Indeed, for some time after he played what turned out to be his last innings for England, a six-ball duck ended when he was bowled by Shoaib Malik in the third Test against Pakistan in Sharjah that November, so unsuccessful were they in trying to find a new number three there were occasional calls for him to be invited back, and one suspects he only finally gave up hope when injury destroyed the 2019 season for him.

Yet such a low-key end to the 38-yearold’s golden career somehow serves to sharpen the memory of the impact and effect his beginning in Test cricket made on what remains arguably their greatest achievement in the past fifty years and unarguably the greatest Ashes series ever played.

Bell was the last player still at it who took part in that unforgettable collision between Australia and England in 2005 and, in terms of his stats, his contribution was not an unqualified success.