Lord's welcome voice of calm (29 September 1998)

29 September 1998

Lord's welcome voice of calm

By Donald Trelford

MCC'S gain is the viewers' loss. The decision of Tony Lewis to quit as cricket's leading television presenter on his election as president of MCC cannot be allowed to pass without an appreciative comment on behalf of all who love the game.

When Jim Laker died in 1986, his was a hard act to follow. Yet the Welshman has maintained the same qualities of urbanity, enthusiasm, knowledge and humour with which Laker, and before him John Arlott, E W Swanton and Howard Marshall, established the authentic voice of cricket.

That voice had acquired a rougher, less civilised edge in the public mind in recent years with the bloody-minded refusal of MCC members to admit women to membership. An issue that once seemed quaintly old-fashioned took on an uglier aspect that threatened to damage the club and with it the image and fortunes of cricket.

With that blemish removed in an historic vote at last night's special meeting at Lord's, Lewis's job should be easier than that of his predecessor, Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie, who deserves credit for having braved unpopularity to do what he knew was right for the club and for cricket.

The election of Lewis, a working journalist (albeit a former England cricket captain) to the top job at Lord's shows that MCC are less hidebound and unadventurous than people think. The outgoing president nominates the next man in, whether he is an MCC committee man or not.

That tradition has been vindicated by several inspired recent appointments that should help rid the club of their image as a haven for blazered buffoons. For me that day will be finally signalled when Sir Tim Rice gets the job.

Without wishing to make Tony's job any harder, I feel bound to give notice, however, that simply changing the rules in favour of women will not be enough, at least for some of us. Putting women at the back of a 17-year queue - even if fast-track membership is allowed for some distinguished women players - fails to redress an historic injustice.

Meanwhile, despite the headlines about the MCC, the real changes in the domestic game will come from elsewhere. The key events are a discussion meeting called by Lord MacLaurin, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, on Oct 13 and 14, at which a range of ideas for the game's future will be aired, and a meeting of the First Class Forum on Dec 3 and 4, at which decisions about changes will be made. If the sport really needs to boost its income from £60 million a year to £300 million, as 'Lord Tesco' recently claimed, it will have to make non-Test match cricket more attractive to a new generation of supporters and sponsors, probably through innovative formats on television.

What must not be lost sight of is the inspirational effect of a successful national side, as we saw all too briefly this summer after the series victory over South Africa.

Finding and nurturing the talent of a single Ian Botham or a David Gower will achieve far more than any number of meetings or marketing gimmicks.

MENTION of E W Swanton reminds me that I should have included him in my list of golfing oldies. Mr H T H Snowden, from Sandwich in Kent, says the 92-year-old Jim still plays there in a buggy.

The leading golf oldie is still Gordon Adams, aged 94, from the Ponteland club in Northumberland.

Playing recently in Majorca, it occurred to me that the only record I am ever likely to break on a golf course is for the number of balls I lose.

I mislaid eight in nine holes; my best is 14 lost balls, mostly in water, over the full 18 in Marbella.

Sid Lilliman, aged 76, from Kempston in Bedfordshire, claims to be the country's leading oldie ping-pong player. He writes: "Having won nothing in my first 75 years, this year I have accumulated four trophies."

He attributes his success to "a pub lunch every day followed by an afternoon nap."

Source :: The Christchurch Press (https://www.press.co.nz/)