Ryan Sidebottom seemed destined to be remembered as a one-cap wonder until his unexpected return to the England team in 2007. A year later, he was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
Ryan Sidebottom played for England until 2010 and had a key role in the side that won the World T20 that year.
Even seasoned England watchers would never have predicted the team’s seam attack for the First Test against India last summer. Not one member remained of the decorated quartet that had famously regained the Ashes two years before. In their place were James Anderson, Chris Tremlett and Ryan Sidebottom, pitting their inexperienced wits against four Indian batting galacticos – Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman – with more than 30,000 Test runs between them.
Yet from the moment the left-arm Sidebottom bent a delivery into the opener Dinesh Karthik’s pads, the Englishmen held sway. The four thunderbats made only 88 runs between them and India were dismissed for 201. The match was eventually drawn, but the young England bowlers had seized an initiative which, in subsequent Tests, their batsmen singularly failed to capitalise on.
Ryan Jay Sidebottom is that English speciality, a late developer. He was born in Huddersfield on January 15, 1978, by which time his father Arnie had finished his brief career as a professional footballer with Manchester United and was a prominent fixture in the Yorkshire team. An irrepressible seamer instantly recognisable for his ginger hair and a face purple from exertion that earned him the nickname Red Dog, Sidebottom senior was too preoccupied with his county commitments and the first rebel tour of South Africa to have a major influence on his young son’s sporting education.
Ryan was allowed the odd sortie on to the Headingley outfield before a Sunday League match, but it was his maternal grandfather who really nurtured his interest, especially on Blackpool beach during the family summer holiday.
Sidebottom’s galumphing run and Cavalier locks conjure up an impression of someone who has strayed on to the field from an earlier era, and his patient perseverance is something of a throwback to the seemingly bygone days of line and length. Such simple virtues, though, were sufficient for Glenn McGrath to become the most successful seam bowler ever.
