First published in 2017

Patrick Eagar, the doyen of cricket photography who first started shooting the game in 1957, has retired. He is responsible for the image which opens this feature, of Rod Marsh catching Tony Greig during the first World Cup, along with many of the sport’s iconic pictures.

The photo appears as one of many memorable shots taken by Eagar in that 1975 season, documented in Christian Ryan’s brilliant new book Feeling is the Thing that Happens in 1000th of a Second. “People like the Marsh catch,” says Eagar, an understatement if ever there was one.

Thirty-six shots. That was all that a roll of film could hold when Eagar started out. You could change rolls, but then you risked missing something. And cost would soon add up.

Still, it is impossible not to wonder what might have been, and though he is able to be philosophical about his decision to retire – “You’ve got to stop somewhere!” – there is one who he wishes he could have photographed properly, and perhaps the player in which we find Eagar’s closest analogue: Joe Root.

“Joe has that style of play like him,” says Tom Shaw. “Very smooth and clean, liquid. It wouldn’t surprise me if one day he just turned up, ‘Oh, I just fancied taking some pictures of him’.”

“I suspect he’s better than any English batsman I’ve ever photographed,” says Eagar. “I’d love to photograph him.” We should be so lucky.