|
MCC in safe hands with Mike Brearley
By
Mike Atherton
My favourite Mike Brearley story is a rather unlikely one, and since
it was conveyed by Simon Hughes, the Analyst, it may be assumed
to include an element of exaggeration. Hughes relates that Brearley,
as Middlesex captain, was once so enraged by Roland Butcher running
out two colleagues that he stormed out on to the Middlesex balcony
and at the top of his voice, over the hallowed greensward itself,
let forth a stream of invective so raw as to be deemed unprintable
in this newspaper.
As one of England’s finest captains, and certainly the most
cerebral, Brearley is often thought, particularly by those who don’t
know him, to occupy permanently a slightly more elevated plane to
the rest of the cricket fraternity. But here he was, momentarily
tossing his degree in people to one side (after all, such criticism
can hardly have been what Butcher wanted to hear at that moment),
as passionate, red-blooded and illogical as the rest of us. A human
being, with all the flaws that our condition entails.
The image has always made me chuckle for another reason. There wouldn’t
have been many MCC members at a county match, perhaps, but there
would have been some sitting in the pavilion below the home dressing
room as Brearley’s tirade spewed forth. Assuming they were
not too hard of hearing, how did they react? And, if they are still
alive, what do they think now of the MCC’s new president?
President Brearley is a slightly incongruous thought for a number
of reasons. It is a grand title for a man who is not in the least
grand or showy; he is so obviously not a clubbable sort (clubbable
in the sense of wanting to belong to elite, exclusive institutions
rather than in the sociable sense), and as a player his relationship
with the MCC was frosty.
In 1969 he and the late David Sheppard pushed for an extraordinary
general meeting of the MCC over the South Africa issue. Brearley
and Sheppard were against sending an MCC team to the land of apartheid
and the MCC were keen to dissuade the two rebels. Alec Douglas-Home,
former Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary, was one grandee wheeled
out by the MCC and generally Brearley felt as though he and Sheppard
were being given “naughty-boy nets”. EW Swanton was also
keen to bring Brearley back into the establishment fold, scolding
him (and those who knew Swanton might well imagine how he would
have said this) “that there is such a thing as inverted snobbery,
Michael”.
His ambivalent relationship with the club continued later as Middlesex
captain when he wasn’t allowed to speak to the Lord’s
groundsman (an MCC, rather than a Middlesex employee) for about
two years. With an attack led by Vintcent van der Bijl and Wayne
Daniel, backed up by John Emburey and Phil Edmonds, Brearley wanted
pacey, dry pitches - good pitches, in fact - and he was invariably
given damp, green seamers.
Now, 30 years later, Brearley is the lord and master of Lord’s.
We meet in a restaurant called Odin’s in Marylebone, the same
restaurant where he interviewed me some 14 years ago when I became
England captain. Back then, new to London, the restaurant with its
wall-lined oil paintings seemed impossibly grand; now I see the
grandeur as slightly faded, although this might be more a reflection
on me than the restaurant. Brearley, though, has not changed: white-haired,
and wearing a Nehru-style shirt in homage to the influence of his
delightful Indian wife, Mana.
Did the offer of the presidency surprise him? Did he think of turning
it down? Why, given the boring nature of some parts of the job -
the cocktail parties, the speeches - did he accept?
“The presidency is actually in the patronage of the outgoing
president and the committee only finds out about two hours before
it is announced. Doug Insole [Brearley’s predecessor] asked
me. I know Doug well, having toured with him and I was pleased to
be asked by him. I suppose there might have been a small collective
intake of breath from the committee.
“But Mana thought I would enjoy it and encouraged me to accept.
Charles Fry [the chairman] heads most of the meetings and it won’t
impinge on my work as a psychoanalyst. Most importantly, I do think
that the MCC has changed considerably over the last 20 years or
so. Just to look at the ground, and the risks they have taken with
the architecture, tells you a lot. The grandstand, the Mound [Stand]
and the media centre are all architecturally adventurous and, unlike
the Oval, they have kept the historic pavilion at the heart of things.
I think it’s a marvellous ground.
“The appointment of Keith Bradshaw [the Tasmanian chief executive
of the MCC] could not have happened 20 years ago. He’s very
forward-thinking and keen to keep Lord’s and the MCC relevant.
In short, the MCC has become, I think, more obviously human, not
so aloof and distant.” [Telegraph]
|
