Cricket broadcaster
Well deserved recipient of our David Drabble Honorary Life Membership for 2023, Kevin was rewarded for his service to SCL over many years. Our guest was a veritable man on a mission on this visit. With preacher-like zeal he ripped into how the game was money dominated and moving further away from what ‘real fans’ want.
It is time, he implored, to virtually rip up the calendar and structure we have and give ‘a voice to the people’; to the ones who are heard the least, the spectators who like the County game and don’t want fewer matches. The theory is that our administrators score own goals too often – usually through the pursuit of money – resulting in democracy not working for the good of those who support cricket in this country.
Kevin’s alternative would more than rattle the corridors at Lord’s, beginning and ending with refocusing the game to put cricket on our doorsteps. How about ending the existing County system and forming a nucleus of teams that more conveniently allows fans to watch matches ie Northumberland v Shropshire or Cumbria v South Yorkshire? Over four days?
“Our starting point is the game of cricket on our doorstep,” we are reminded, “So spend the money on real local cricket, not the IPL etc. Let it be spent on the domestic game.”
Stirring stuff, delivered with zeal by an intelligent, totally authentic and thought provoking cricket enthusiast.