But don’t try it without that 10%

Hi everyone!

Captaincy is 90% Luck and 10% Skill.

But don’t try it without that 10%.

Richie Benaud

Captain of Australia 1958-64

Australia did not lose a Test series under Benaud

As the grandfather clock in the hall of 102 Farmcombe Road tick-tocked towards five minutes to six on the evening of Friday 2 May 1969, I tuned the wireless in the dining room to BBC Radio 4.

I heard the weather forecaster say that “In London and the Home Counties it will be a sunny day on Saturday in the mid-60s (Fahrenheit – 20 degrees Centigrade).”

It was Game On for Skinners v Ravensbourne on Saturday 3 May 1969.

My first ever game as Captain.

Exactly 50 years ago today.

I was feeling nervous about how I would fare.

I knew I needed plenty of Luck; and I rather doubted that I had much Skill.

Many years later in 2012 Ed Smith, who is the current England Cricket National Selector, wrote:

 Luck – What it means and Why it matters.

Ed has a Double First in History from Cambridge and played cricket for Kent & Middlesex (where he was Captain) and for England.

He starts with the thesis that:
“each of us makes our own luck by an application of will power, elimination of error, and the relentless pursuit of excellence.”

But Ed only met his future wife entirely by chance -  due to a late-running South Eastern Train !!

He comes to accept that:
 “the role of luck is essential for keeping a sense of perspective, particularly for people who like to claim the credit for all their own success.”

Yes, I certainly would need Luck.

But as for Skill … Who better to get advice from than a former Captain of Sussex.

Founded in 1839 and the oldest professional sports club in the world, in its first 180 years Sussex has had 47 Captains.

We don’t need to waste any time at all deciding who is the most successful.

Sussex has won the County Championship three times, in 2003, 2006 and 2007.

All under Chris Adams.

This is Captain Adams on Skill:

It wasn’t long after six o’clock when Dad arrived home.

He could see I was very nervous.

“Off to The Brecknock, Young Richard !”

As we sat in the pub garden in Bells Yew Green, Dad gave me a piece of paper.

It was words of encouragement from Xenophon.

Dad told me that in about 500 BC when the Greek city states were faced with threats of invasion from Persia, Xenophon wrote about the personal requirements for an elected general.

On one side of the paper was written:

Αν σκέφτεστε, σκεφτείτε τεράστια!

And on the other:

Be ingenious, energetic, of stamina and presence of mind ... loving and tough, straightforward and crafty, ready to gamble everything and wishing to, greedy, trusting and suspicious

I would do my very best to lead the XI with all the Skill I had.

The following morning Dad dropped me off outside the school.

The coach drove through Southborough, Tonbridge & Hildenborough and then along the newly opened Sevenoaks bypass.

As we climbed Polhill, I remember thinking:

I felt as if I was walking with Destiny.

And that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.

I was sure I should not fail.

[Editor: Ric was indeed thinking this… but then again he had been reading Winston Churchill’s The Second World War !!!]

The Ravensbourne Captain tossed the coin & I called Heads.

It was Tails.

As I would have done, he chose to bat.

I opened with Graham Clayton from the Hayes Road end, with Richard Moreton bowling from the Town end.

After he bowled five overs, I said to Graham: “Have one more over & then have a rest.”

He immediately took two wickets !

I never have known whether to put my decision - and Graham’s response  - down to Luck or Skill !!

He ended with bowling figures of 7 for 48 off 14 overs.

50 years on … Graham still turns out for Harberton village in Devon.

He has never bowled better than he did that Saturday afternoon long, long ago.

With 46 from Tovey and 35 from Towell, Ravensbourne ended their innings on 150.

Skinners’ response relied heavily on Peter Williams – a good friend from primary school days – who top scored with 24.

I was bowled for 4.

If we had had the TV umpire… It looked like a No Ball to me !!

The umpires called Stumps with us on 65 for 9.

A mere 86 to get for a Win … …

We had escaped with a Draw.

The team went on to have a successful season.

The Leopard, the school magazine, reported:

“Success this year was mainly due to team spirit.”

As the school song says:

Floreat Sodalitas. [ Let companionship flourish]

Little matter, well or ill,

Sentiment is more than Skill

I retired from playing (with hindsight, far too early) many a long year ago.

But I still love Cricket as much as – even more than – I did exactly 50 years ago today.

Do come and watch with me …

After all ….

Why read a Lord Ric Cricket Blog, when you can star in your own. 

See you soon!!

Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace

Follow me on Twitter: LordRic52

PS

It turned out I would go on to Captain on a rather bigger stage …

After Skinners’ School, I went to Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge (probably, the best college at the best university in the world), where my tutor was Sir Angus Deaton, the future Nobel Prize winner, who was instrumental in me getting a Double First in Economics.

Alongside my academic work, I won three Blues for Cricket, captaining the XI in his final year and playing for Sussex in the Summer vacations.

After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte, I joined the Treasurer’s Department of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), then the biggest company by market cap on the London Stock Exchange.

I took a two Summers’ sabbatical to captain Sussex, during which I was selected to play for England.

I led England on the Ashes tour to Australia.

With the series tied 2-2 going into the deciding Test at Sydney, by the final ball of the game England were down to their last wicket and needing three to win. With Phil Edmonds, a friend from school and college at the non-striker’s end, I found himself facing the great Shane Warne bowling from the Pavilion End. 

Warnie bowled a googly (not that I read it !); and I hit it for four, one bounce through midwicket. 

The Ashes were won!!

Retiring from professional cricket, I was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen in front of the Pavilion during the Lords Test.

Returning to ICI, I was successively FD of their businesses in the West Indies, South Africa and Australia & New Zealand.

Aged 41, I was appointed Group FD of ICI. Over the next 15 years, ICI's Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) trebled and I became one of the UK’s best known FDs. 

My faux-anonymous fortnightly column Tales from an Old Dog was a must-read in the FT. I was never sued, well not successfully!

Retiring from ICI, HM Treasury parachuted me in to be Chairman of Lloyds Bank a few months after the disastrous acquisition of HBOS. The Daily Telegraph famously quoted me :
“I do not know whether Victor Blank was personally responsible for the £billions that were lost; but it happened on his watch.”

As Prime Minister Gordon Brown had promised me if I sorted out the mess, I was appointed to the House of Lords.

Indeed it really was Lord Ric !!

I am currently Chairman of AECOM (leading the merger with Atkins to create the world’s largest engineering services company), headquartered in San Diego in California.

I am honoured to also be Chairman of the Trustees of Glyndebourne and a director of Arsenal FC.

Lady Piper & I live in London and West Sussex with Mylo, our  #SpoiltBeyondBelief black labrador.

There is nothing we like better than visits from both our Girls, their families and our friends.

In 2020 - exactly 60 seasons after I first sat with Dad by the sight screen up at the Cromwell Road end to watch our beloved Sussex at Hove – it is the ultimate honour that I  will become President of Sussex.

When – as we regularly do – my Guardian Angel Gigi and I look back over my Life (so far) …

We often wonder (as we imagine you do too, Dear Reader):

Could any of it even possibly be true?

Of course, we do know that Xenophon was absolutely right:

Αν σκέφτεστε, σκεφτείτε τεράστια!

If you are going to think, think HUGE!