A regular feature charting the lives of the game’s stars, this week the TMS frontman – who will stand down as the BBC’s cricket correspondent this summer – on his life in whites and behind the mic.
FALLING FOR THE GAME
My dad was a fairly average club cricketer but he was very keen on the game and so very patiently he built me a simple bowling action which stayed with me throughout my career. He was determined I should be an off-spinner though. He liked the whole business of spin – the flight, the guile – and was very disappointed when I moved up a few gears.
Then when I was 16, Dad took me to Alf Gover’s cricket school in Wandsworth – he had this amazing old coaching centre above a petrol station – and made a last-ditch attempt for me to be an off-spinner. Alf said, “You must be joking, this lad’s going to be a fast bowler”, and that was that.
EARLY HERO
In 1971 my dad took me to the Gillette Cup final at Lord’s between Lancashire and Kent and I was transfixed by Peter Lever, the Lancashire fast bowler. I was sitting in the Grand Stand and he was running in from the Nursery End. I’d never seen someone run in so far, and I said to my dad, “That’s who I want to be”.
Peter had good pace, he swung the ball away and he had quite a deliberate drawback – almost cocking his right arm as he drew it back into a bit of a sling and letting go. I remember trying to copy that for a bit but in the end you work out what’s comfortable for you.
The first time I saw myself bowl on video was the highlights of my first Test match. I was a bit surprised when I saw it.
GROWING PAINS
Alf Gover took me for trials at Surrey when I was 16. Bear in mind I was the son of a Lincolnshire farmer and we never went to London but my mum and dad agreed for me to go down and stay in this boarding house with Mrs Bushell. I would get the Northern Line up to The Oval, play cricket and then go back down to Morden and Mrs Bushell’s tender care.
That wouldn’t happen now and so I’m incredibly grateful to Mum and Dad for letting me do it – they must have really wondered if they were doing the right thing.
It ended quite unhappily, though. It was a pretty tricky two years of my life, not for any reason except I was completely a fish out of water. I didn’t know anybody and there was a really quite unpleasant atmosphere at The Oval, with senior pros not wanting younger players to come in and threaten their places. It was a very unhealthy environment.
I couldn’t wait to get away so when I was 18 Maurice Hallam, the former Leicestershire coach who was my school coach at Uppingham, got in touch with Leicestershire and said, “You ought to have a look at this lad”. Every time Mike T
