Playing under pressure

Amiss had to concentrate despite outside pressure

With South Africa and India undertaking an unofficial Test match amidst political wrangling, BBC Sport Online's Thrasy Petropoulos speaks to a man who knows the pressures of playing when your mind is elsewhere.

It should have been one of the highlights of his life - walking off the field at Old Trafford with 28 not out to his name and England victorious by nine wickets against Australia.

And yet Dennis Amiss's overriding memories of that match, the second of the 1977 Ashes series, will be that it was his last for England.

The previous summer he had scored 203 in a comeback match against the West Indies at the Oval, followed by 178 against India in Delhi and 108 in the third match of the one-day series against Australia.

It doesn't matter how many people there are watching, you can't hear them when you're waiting for the ball to reach you

Dennis Amiss

Now, officially at least, he was being dropped after scoring nought and four at Lord's - bowled in both innings by Jeff Thompson - followed by another failure in the first innings at Old Trafford.

Realistically, however, the selectors would also have been swayed by the fact that Amiss had agreed to join a rebel series in Australia that winter.

The situation that summer was not dissimilar to that currently in South Africa, with cricketers being asked to perform in an atmosphere of uncertainty and no little criticism.

In 1977, almost half the Australian team had signed up to join Kerry's Packer's World Series Cricket, as had some notable members of the England side.

But the others - Tony Greig, Alan Knott and Derek Underwood - all played a full part in the Ashes series.

Greig, who was deposed as captain before the one-day series between the sides, responded in typically abrasive fashion with runs in the first two Tests, and Knott and Underwood maintained their usual high standard.

Amiss knows the pressure of preparing while under fire

But Amiss was denied the opportunity to answer his critics in the way that he would have liked.

"At a time of crisis, the best place for a cricketer to be is out in the middle," Amiss insists.

"There are always pressures in life, and different people deal with them in different ways, but one common area for cricketers is that the place they always want to be is out in the middle.

"It doesn't matter how many people there are watching, you can't hear them when you're waiting for the ball to reach you. It's only when you come off the field, in the dressing-room or at home that you feel the pressure.

"If you can't block it out it is unlikely that you will succeed."

It was county cricket, therefore, that Amiss turned to for solace - only for the Warwickshire members to be among the most vocal in the country.

"There were calls for me to be sacked from Warwickshire so the atmosphere back there wasn't particularly good," Amiss recalls.

Amiss never had a chance to play Test cricket again

"But I was driven to prove people wrong and show them just how much I wanted to stay at the county. Thankfully, I had an excellent season from that point."

"I can see why both the South Africans and Indians were so keen to play this match.

"And as far it not having official Test status, which was of course the case on the rebel tours, I suppose that yes there could be a tendency to not try as hard.

"But there is always the factor of wanting to do your best against your adversaries and you never know if the match will be given official status at some later date."

Fully reconciled, Amiss is now chief executive at Edgbaston.

But as he found out in 1977, sometimes there is no later date in international cricket.