Burns' Eye View

Thirty four years ago today, I was a 10 year-old member of Chelmsford Cricket Club Colts section, and excited at the possibility of boarding the Colts’ team bus at Chelmer Park, for our ‘away-day’ at The Oval.

We were going to see the second day’s play of  Tony Greig’s England versus the West Indies in the final match of the five Test Series, and watch the emerging superstar of world Cricket, Vivian Richards of Antigua, Somerset and the West Indies, who was soon to be annointed by Caribbean folk as ‘The King’. Richards was 200 not out overnight after the first day’s play, and I couldn’t wait to watch him bat.

Our trip had been organised by Bob Shortman, a wonderful man who gave so much of his time to establish, and develop, the club’s junior section. He was also an excellent Essex Premier League Club cricketer, whose accurate new-ball bowling spearheaded Chelmsford’s success as a highly-respected team for a couple of decades. His selfless contribution to the Club, and to young cricketers especially, enabled so many people from the local community to gain more from life. It was Bob who set me (and latterly Essex and Durham’s JJB Lewis) on the path to First-Class Cricket, and provided me and our family with so many wonderful memories from that period in our lives. One particualrly cherished memory is captaining Chelmsford Colts Under 15′s to win The Lord’s Taverners National Under 15′s Final at Moseley CC, near Birmingham, in 1981. We had previously lost in the semi-final at Finals Day the year before, at Leicestershire’s Grace Road Ground. For a Club which had only recently begun a Colts section, it reflected very well on Bob’s quality input.

Viv Richards’ appetite for run-making was making the headlines in The Summer of ’76, but the brutal and dismissive manner of his batting was also raising eyebrows  and drawing approving glances from some of the game’s most respected observers. I was too young to understand any of these finer points, but through my professional career, and the reading I have since undertaken about the history of the game, I grew to understand that a modern great of the game was in the process of announcing himself to the wider world as a sporting phenomenon.

I had been inspired (first) by Richards’ performance as a fielder (and his fashion sense with his flared trousers and neatly rolled-up shirt sleeves) in the inaugural World Cup Final (held at Lord’s) the year before, when Clive Lloyd destroyed Australia’s finest bowlers with some savage strokeplay off both front and back foot. I had watched the game on television at home and was amazed by Richards’ athleticism and captivated by his style in the field, as well as his uncontained joy when running out three Australian batsmen, (including the dangerous Chappell brothers) which confirmed his team’s dominance as the match unfolded.

I had followed West Indies as ‘my team’ in that tournament for some reason, which on reflection doesn’t say much for my patriotism! However, Essex’s Barbadian all-rounder Keith Boyce’s participation helped to make the connection stronger for me I suppose and also, I had seen Clive Lloyd on BBC TV playing for Lancashire , and as a young left-hander myself, I loved watching his languid strokeplay in the great Lancashire one-day team of the 1970′s. However, it was Viv Richards who was soon to become ‘my player’.

All of us on the Chelmsford Colts bus couldn’t wait to get to London, and watch the game. From a personal perspective, I wanted to see Alan Knott keep wicket, Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd bat ‘live’, rather than on TV. Demolishing our packed lunches before getting anywhere near The Oval, the journey seemed to take an eternity, but eventually we made our way through ‘The Hobbs Gates’  and found a vantage point to see the start of play.

Richards had dominated the Series to this point, with a double century (232 and 63) in the 1st Test at Trent Bridge; he was unavailable for the 2nd Test at Lord’s due to glandular fever; scored 4 and 135 in the 3rd Test at Old Trafford; made 66 and 38 in the 4th Test at Headingley, and was 200 not out at the close of play on Day One of the 5th Test at The Oval. For good measure, ‘The Master Blaster’ also went on to make 119 not out at Scarborough, and 97 at Lord’s, in The Prudential Trophy One Day Series which followed the Test Match Series that summer.

As one of the youngest boys on the trip, it was a thrill to be on the bus with the older ‘Colts’ who were far more ‘worldly’, but nothing on the bus could prepare me for the experience of being amongst the West Indian crowd paying homage to ‘The King’, who stroked a career-best 291 to all parts of The Oval. The atmosphere amongst the West Indians around us next to the Harleyford Road, was carnival-like. The drums, the music, the singing and chanting, plus the whistle-blowing was something else. Clive Lloyd told me recently how the team had perceived the widely-used term ‘Calypso Cricket’  in a negative way. He said he felt it had a derrogatory tone to it, as if his players were flashy and unable to ‘bat long’ (a long time) in the manner of some other nations. However, sitting amongst Clive’s supporters that day, Calypso is almost the perfect word to describe the environment I was in. It felt like an extended party. At the time, it was a challenging poitical period for non-white people and the success of the West Indies Cricket Team created a feel-good factor amongst their own community living in the UK. It felt like all of them had descended upon The Oval that day and they were going to party hard!

Bob Shortman had a desire for members of Chelmsford Colts to see ‘top-class’ Cricket, and was prepared to ‘shepherd’ us into The Oval, and then set us free, till Close of Play. We were able to explore the opportunity of absorbing the atmosphere of an  ’Oval Test’. We had the time of our lives.

In those days, there was far less security, we even played an impromptu game of Cricket in the nets at the Vauxhall End. Two of us found our way onto the outfield, and sat by the boundary rope, spending the afternoon alongside the photographer Ken Kelly. Ken was very generous in his ways, by educating us about his profession and the art of capturing ‘the moment’ through his telephoto lens. We collected autographs from players and famous ex-players, aswell as Peter West, the famous BBC anchorman of the day and the great Jim Laker who was BBC’s co-commentator. Laker was immortalised as a cricketer after taking 19-90 in 1956 with his off-spinners against Australia at Old Trafford. I was later to discover that he took all ten wickets at The Oval earlier in the summer of 1956 against Australia for Surrey. What a bowler! I remember him being very generous with his comments and time when I asked for his autograph. The impression I got was that he seemed to thank me for asking him, which suggests a level of humility which seems lacking in many modern sports stars.

The weather was scorching hot, and the outfield was bare and brown after the unprecedented amount of sunshine and lack of rainfall that year. All this added up to a quickening outfield, and a ball which appeared to be reluctant to move off the straight for England’s finest bowlers until ‘Deadly’ Derek Underwood got one to turn and bounce past Viv’s outside edge, and draw him out of his crease, enabling the wicket-keeping genius of Alan Knott to whip the bails off in an instant, thus ending a great innings.

Any disappointment of not witnessing a Test triple century (and also the extinguishing of any further possibility that Viv may have overtaken Sir Len Hutton’s score of 364 on the same ground and then Sir Garry Sobers’ world record score of 365 not out), was soon overcome as we watched Clive Lloyd and Collis King delight the crowd with more scintillating strokeplay. The final hour gave us an opportunity to watch Michael Holding bowl like an express train to (the late) Bob Woolmer and Dennis Amiss, and tantalise a waiting slip cordon which looked like it was almost on the boundary edge!

The match is remembered for Holding’s excellence. The man who became known as ‘Whispering Death’ for his soft-footed sprinting approach to the crease, ended up with 14 wickets in the match, and stole some of Viv’s thunder in the process! In its 1977 Wisden Cricketer of the Year write-up for Michael Holding, the ’Bible of Cricket’ noted that “on a depressingly lifeless pitch, the other fast bowlers of both teams could only take five wickets between them at a cost of 477 runs. Yet the conditions seemed to act as a catalyst which lifted Holding to an extraordinary performance.” Extraordinary, as it would turn out, in more ways than one. The bare facts of Holding’s returns in West Indies’ 231-run victory are startling, even more so for a player who had made his debut a year before. He took eight for 92 in the first innings and six for 57 in the second, with 12 of his 14 victims bowled or lbw.

The match was also current England National Selector Geoff Miller’s Test debut, and this narrative forms part of his superb after-dinner routine today, which I have had the pleasure of listening to on many occasions. The beauty for me, each time I have the opportunity to hear ’Dusty’ speak, is the re-awakening of a brilliant schoolboy experience that day at The Oval.

The atmosphere at The Oval in ’76 got more and more rowdy throughout the day, but at no stage can I recall it ever feeling hostile or intimidating in the slightest.

In time, I have come to understand that each ‘Test’ venue has an atmosphere of its own. Lord’s has a wonderful sense of history and tradition, plus all the pomp and ceremony of an English Garden Party.  Melbourne has a family ‘feel’ being the Boxing Day Test, as all the spectators walk through the Park to the historic ground, carrrying their picnics and ‘eskies’. Meanwhile, Barbados offers a party atmosphere with its steel drums and rum-fuelled banter from the stands named after the legends of Barbados and West Indies Cricket, such as The 3 W’s; Sir Garry Sobers; Haynes and Greenidge, plus the Garner and Marshall Ends. Headingley’s Western Terrace offers a more colorful perspective and a sense of humour which is only funny if they love you as player, or you are a Yorkshireman playing for England. However, the other Headingley stands are filled with spectatoers who are deeply knowledgable about Cricket and aren’t easily impressed, meaning that only good quality Cricket gets applauded.

The ‘feel’ of each venue can contribute towards the performance and nature of the Cricket, as some players get distracted by the occasion, while others can be inspired by a particular venue.

The Oval has been host to some of Cricket’s most remarkable history, which I am sure adds to the opportunity for every player preparing to play in a Test. Notable occasions include: WG Grace’s First-Class debut, Test debut and final First-Class match; England’s first-ever home Test in 1880 ; WG Grace scoring England’s first Test century in 1880; the birth of ‘the Ashes’  and England’s first Test defeat in 1882; WL Murdoch scoring Test Cricket’s first double century (211) in 1884; Australia having 9 batsman bowled in 1890, the most in a Test innings; WJ Bardsley, in 1909, became the first batsman to score a century in each innings of a Test; Sir Donald Bradman making the final run of his world record 974 runs (5 Tests, 7 innings) in a Test Series in 1930; England’s highest score of 903-7, Hutton’s world record score of 364 in 1938, most century partnerships in a Test innings (4), and Test Cricket’s highest winning margin of an innings and 579 runs all in the same game!; Bradman’s last Test and second ball duck to leave him ‘stranded’ on a Test average of 99.94 in 1948 when he needed only four runs to make 7,000 Test runs and an average of 100; Sir Len Hutton, in 1951, becoming the only batsman in Test Cricket to be dismissed for ‘obstructing the field’; England’s famous Ashes wins to regain the Urn in 1953 (after 19 years) and 2005 (after 18 years); Fred Trueman becoming the first bowler in Test history to take 300 Test wickets when he dismissed Australian Neil Hawke at The Oval in 1964; Sir Ian Botham taking the world record number of Test wickets (at the time) in 1986, when returning to the England side after a ban, he took a wicket with his first ball against New Zealand (his 355th), equalling the then world record, and then broke it with his 356th soon after when getting Jeff Crowe LBW; Sir Vivian Richards bowing out of Test Cricket in 1991, alongside Jeffrey Dujon and the great bowler Malcolm Marshall. Viv was given a standing ovation as he arrived in the second innings and made the 20 runs he needed for an average of 50, and then Ian Botham, playing his first Test for two years, theatrically hit his first ball for four to win the match and finally secure a Test victory over West Indies at the 20th attempt; he also famously ”failed to get his leg over” in the first innings; Devon Malcolm taking the best figures in a home Test for an England seam bowler (9 for 57) v South Africa in 1994; Surrey and England player Alec Stewart’s 133rd and last Test in 2003, making him the most capped England Test cricketer; Kevin Pietersen breaking Sir Ian Botham’s record number of 6 sixes in an Ashes Test innings, when hitting 7 sixes in his match-saving, and Ashes-winning century (158) in 2005.

Next week, England play Pakistan at The Oval. It will be the first time the two teams have returned to the venue where they were involved in Test Cricket’s  first ‘forfeiting’ of a result, after Pakistan Captain Inzammam Ul-Haq refused to take his team back on to the field after Australian Umpire Darrell Hair had accused Pakistan of ‘ball-tampering’, thus creating more cricketing history for The Oval.

I have been privileged in my life to watch Test Cricket at several venues around different parts of the world, and now with the advent of satellite television it is possible to sample Test Cricket from different countries at the same time. To sit in my living room and watch a Test at Newlands, in Cape Town, co-incide with a Test at The Sydney Cricket Ground, over the New Year holiday, in between sweeping up the snow outside my home in Ascot, Berkshire, is one of the many advancements for me and other sports fans in the modern era. The quality of the broadcasting adds to the experience, but as my Summer of ’76 experience taught me – ‘live’ sport can create so many memories which get triggered as one gets older and dates or re-connection with a person or place re-awakens previous experiences which may have been lying dormant in one’s being for so long.

The Oval is a special venue with a unique atmosphere.

By some flukey co-incidence, my First-Class playing career in England began there (1986 Surrey v Essex), and finished there (2002 Surrey v Leicestershire). This statisitc was matched by WG Grace too! Sadly for me, I was unable to add the distinction of a Test debut at The Oval like WG did…. 

The Summer of ’76 opened my eyes to the spirit of The Oval, and the excellence of Test Cricket. It also gave me a chance to observe a truly great player at his peak. At the end of that ’76 Test Series, the incomparable Viv Richards had scored 829 runs. He ended the calendar year with 1726 Test runs – a world record which stood for 30 years, until Pakistan’s  Mohammed Yousuf scored 1788 Test runs in 2006.

As the players spend this weekend dealing with their excitement and anxiety in preparing for the 3rd Test between England and Pakistan, I imagine some speical dreams are formulating in different people’s minds.

Maybe some more Cricket history will be made next week ?

On this day, 12th August,  two London County Greats, WG Grace and WL (Billy) Murdoch made cricketing history.

Wisden confirms that on August 12th, 1886, WG Grace scored the highest-ever Test score by an England batsman, when he made 170 at The Oval versus Australia. This trumped his previous Test best of 152, which he made on debut (also against Australia), at The Oval in 1880, in the first-ever Test to be played in England. Grace’s brothers EM and GF (who bagged ‘a pair’ in the match) were also in England’s XI thus making it the first instance of three brothers playing together in Test Cricket.

In the same match, WL Murdoch made 153 not out in the second innings for Australia (following on) after making nought in the first innnings. England recorded their first Test victory in the process.

WL (Billy) Murdoch scored Test Cricket’s first-ever double century on this day in history, 1884, when he made 211 at The Oval, for Australia versus England.

Murdoch’s innings remained Test Cricket’s highest individual score until 1903-4, when RE ‘Tip’ Foster made 287 on debut for England v Australia at The Sydney Cricket Ground. Foster was a genuine sporting ‘all-rounder’, who remains the only person to have captained England at Cricket and Football.

Murdoch achieved another notable Test performance in 1891-2, when he represented England (having previously played for Australia) on their Tour to South Africa, playing in the Newlands Test Match (December 1891) on debut. Murdoch became Test Cricket’s highest scorer (with 860 runs at the time of his record), a record he held until August 1886, when England’s Arthur Shrewsbury (rated by WG Grace as the best England player of the day) superceded it with 1,277 career Test runs – a record Shrewsbury held until January 1902.

These two great friends blazed a trail in Test Cricket for other iconic names to follow, before joining forces in 1899 to help establish London County Cricket Club as a vehicle for developing talented young players to play First-Class Cricket.

I enjoyed one of life’s great privileges today – I went to Lord’s Cricket Ground and saw Cricket being played on a glorious summer’s day.

To add to my enjoyment, I was in the company of two friends who were experiencing the very same pleasure for the first time in their lives. One of them, Billy Rogers, is a very promising 12 year old All-Rounder, who has played with distinction for (and occasionally captained) London County Colts this summer. He is also the Vice-Captain of Berkshire Under 12′s and a delightful young person, who is a credit to his parents.

His father, Bill, joined us too, and it took me back in time to the first time I watched Cricket at Lord’s with my father, Roy, who has been a constant source of inspiration and support throughout my life.

I also met Jamie McIntyre and his 10 year-old son, Angus, for the first time. They were on a special ‘away-day’ from Ross-on-Wye CC, where Angus plays his cricket under the watchful eye of former Somerset batsman and Umpire Peter Wight. Father and son taking their first trip to Lord’s together is a momentous occasion in what is already a special relationship. Jamie told me he hadn’t been to Lord’s since the late 1960′s, and couldn’t believe how much the iconic venue had changed, and how immaculate the ground was, including the groundsman’s shed and his mowers.

The spiritual sense of Lord’s can be felt by people when they enter the Grace Gates, especially within cricketers, who have read and heard so much about the ground and all the remarkable games it has staged throughout its distinguished history.

The joyous experience I had today has evoked so many powerful memories in me.

To be with friends and see the ground in such splendid condition, to sit in the Edrich Stand (Upper)  and witness quality bowling from behind the bowler’s arm, with the historical splendour of the Lord’s Pavilion as a backdrop, made it close to being the perfect day. It was also pleasing to see a young (English)batsman, Greg Smith, play with style and substance for one of my former clubs, Leicestershire.

It has been my privilege to have played many times at ‘The Home of Cricket’. I have very fond, and proud memories of my two ‘debuts’ there. The first was an Essex Under 11′s match on The Nursery, and the second, was as a professional, in a Benson and Hedges Cup match in 1987 for Somerset, when I made 51 and stumped the (then) England Captain Mike Gatting off Vic Marks’ canny off-spin as one of my four dismissals.

My other cherished memories of playing at Lord’s include watching my Somerset team-mate Stephen Waugh make a Lord’s debut century against Middlesex, when he made 140 not out after we were 20-2 and Stephen had been unable to find his way to ‘the middle’, thinking that the entrance to the pitch via The Long Room was out of bounds for players! He finally entered the arena from the Bowlers’ Bar and had such respect for the place, that he walked along the white fence, until he reached the gates in the middle of the Pavilion, and proceeded to walk out to bat, compose himself, and then hammer Middlesex all around Lord’s. It was brilliant to witness.

History shows that the Waugh went on to make 150 not out in 1989 on his Lord’s Test debut too, which was part of an amazing run of form where he scored 393 runs in an Ashes series before he was dismissed, and became an Ashes legend. Stephen also captained his Australian team to a World Cup triumph there in 1999.

Lord’s has a habit of bringing out the best in players, especially overseas teams. Thankfully, England has played better at Headquarters in recent years and the 2009 Ashes victory helped to end a 75 year drought against the old enemy, Australia. I sat in the front of the pavilion on the final morning and feel very grateful that I was able to witness Andrew Flintoff’s heroic spell which ultimately determined the result of the match and turned a series in England’s favour from that moment on. It was fast bowling of the highest order and a Herculean display of physical and mental strength befitting a ‘world-class’ performer.

The other special moment was a Benson and Hedges Cup match in 1990, when Sir Len Hutton visited our Somerset dressing room during the match to see his old friend, and our coach Jack Birkenshaw. The match went into two days because of the bad weather, and on the second day Sir Len was kind enough to share some wonderful stories about his career and the game in general. He was very modest about his own success and spoke of how challenging he found batting after injuring an arm in the Second World War. It was also fascinating to see him go round the dressing room looking at our equipment, and picking up different bats, as if he were a schoolboy in a sweet shop.

He seemed in awe of South African Jimmy Cook, who was busy making a mockery of county cricket with numerous centuries, as our opening batsman.  Hutton was the man who beat Sir Donald Bradman’s world-record highest Test score of 334, when he scored 364 for England v Australia at The Oval in 1938, as England made their record Test score of 903-7, and achieved Test Cricket’s highest win margin of an innings and 579 runs. When one considers Sir Len Hutton’s stature in the game,  his consideration and respect for fellow cricketers (of a more modern vintage) was a great example to us all.

My playing highlight was appearing in a domestic Cup Final in 2001 for Leicestershire against Somerset. I will always remember the special feeling of walking through The Long Room, packed with MCC members, and following the umpires onto the hallowed turf for the start of play. After the first over, I took my place behind the stumps at the Nursery End to receive the second over of the match from Scott Boswell, and for a second or two, I took in the mesmeric sight of a packed house and the awesome Pavilion, basking in the mid-morning, late summer sunshine.

It was everything I had dreamed of as a schoolboy, and a moment which will always reside in a special place in my heart.

Sadly, the result went against us that day, but the ‘magic’ of playing in a Lord’s Final is able to supercede any personal disappointment, over time.

I was fascinated by what the 12 year-old Billy was experiencing today, partly because it brought back memories from my own Lord’s experiences as a child. He seemed very impressed with the quality (and colour) of the grass, and how the spectators were constantly chatting to each other during the play. He was also impressed with the degree of movement the professional bowlers on show were able to achieve, and the pace of the game.

My first visit to Lord’s was as an 8 year old (in 1974), when I saw England play Pakistan in a Test match with my brother and our childhood friends. plus our ‘host’, Ken Iliffe, who was the father of two of our neighbourhood  ’gang’ called ‘the combination’, who played football and cricket with each other at every available opportunity. Ken was our next door neighbour and a cricket ‘nut’. He was knowledgable and passionate about the game aswell as having two sons Robert (now Professor Iliffe) and Tom, both of  whom went on to play for Essex 2nd XI with me as non-contract players in the early 1980′s, as well as excelling in Club Cricket circles until recently.

Our respective families have remained loyal friends since we moved next door to them in 1973. Ken passed away two years ago, and while Essex Cricket lost a loyal supporter and the Iliffe family lost a very good man, many will recall Ken with great fondness. For me, I will never forget the fact that he took me to Lord’s for the first time to see a Test Match and from that day, I  began a lifelong fascination with the ultimate form of the game.

Sadly, the rain prevented much play until late afternoon on the first day of the match, so we went to Madame Tussaud’s next to Baker Street Tube Station to kill a few hours. The seven of us, including my brother Ian, had great fun, and our adventure was complete when we returned to Lord’s to learn that play was due to start ahead of the scheduled tea interval.

In the remaining overs, I witnessed Tony Greig catching Wasim Raja off Derek Underwood at full stretch in front of the Nursery End sightscreen – an effort which amazed even his own team-mates. Greig was a charismatic cricketer, and impact of his catch was such that I can remember it like it was yesterday. Ironically, the batsman, Wasim Raja, was to become a friend later in life after we shared the same accommodation at Lilleshall where we gained our Advanced Coaching qualification in 1986. I shared my earliest Lord’s memory with him and said how amazed I was that we were now professional colleagues. Such is the paradox of life, especially in sport, where it is possible to become an opponent or team-mate of your childhood heroes. Sadly, a couple of years ago, Wasim was to die young, and a good man was lost to the game, not too long after his professional playing career had finished.

As a schoolboy, I captained Essex age-group teams, and my brother represented the County too, as did our next door neighbours Rob and Tom, and our ‘next-door but-two’ neighbour Clive Beagles. As a special treat, my father took me and my brother with him to see Essex play in the county’s first-ever Lord’s Final. The experience was one of the two most vivid childhood memories I have, especially as I had heard so many great stories about Lord’s and Denis Compton (my father’s hero) from a very early age.

On reflection (as a 44 year-old now) I imagine it was a heart-warming experience for my father too, as it must have brought back childhood memories for him of his own father bringing him to Lord’s from their home in Finchley to witness the possibility of another dashing century from the sporting superstar of the day.

Graham Gooch’ s stellar century (120) in the 1979 Benson and Hedges Cup Final when Essex beat Surrey to win their first-ever domestic trophy set up the victory, and left an indelible impression on me. I wanted to be an Essex cricketer more than ever after that day, and experience what it was like to be out in ‘the middle’ at Lord’s. The historic result for Essex that day at Lord’s was soon to be followed by a first County Championship County Champions pennant later the same summer, and opened the floodgates for a decade of trophies for my boyhood club.

Gooch’s influence (as a role model) on my early life was significant, and on reflection, that day at Lord’s must have played a big part in that process. To have made my Essex first team debut with him as Captain, was amazing, as it had not seemed that many years beforehand that I was a schoolboy in the Mound Stand ducking out of the way of his powerful sixes off a variety of Surrey bowlers including pacemen Robin Jackamn and Hugh Wilson, both of whom were later to become friends from our time spent coaching together in Cape Town.

Earlier the same summer, my brother and I witnesssed Sir Vivian Richards score a magnificent 138 not out in The World Cup Final against England from The Warner Stand. He was the best batsman I have ever seen, and played with the flair and skill only possessed by the world’s greatest ever sportsmen. One of the greatest privileges of my life has been to have played against some of the world’s best cricketers, and to have witnessed ‘up close and personal’ just how good they really were. Viv Richards’ ability to bat and field were beyond any cricketer I have ever played against and the fact that he was kind enough to lend his support to my venture to re-form WG Grace’s London County Cricket Club, by captaining the team in our Prestige Fixture v MCC in 2004, remains one of the proudest moments in my professional life.

Viv has been the modern icon of Cricket, and in the manner Grace had done one hundred years before him, totally dominated the cricket scene, with his skill and personality. At Lord’s, his steely temperament regularly combined with his world-class ability to deliver on the greatest occasions, regularly securing major victories for his club and country.

The nature of these influential childhood experiences can never be put (properly) into words – they go deep into one’s psyche, as they touch both heart and mind. I imagine they have contributed significantly to the path my life has taken, and I hope that young Billy Rogers, who was captivated by his Lord’s experience today, can go on to enjoy the game and the people he meets, as much as I have been fortunate to do so.

On days like today, when I bring a young person to the Home of Cricket, and coach him in the nets to further develop his ability to enjoy and excel at the game, I feel very blessed to continue to lead the life I live.

Today, as ever, Lord’s was perfect.