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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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!
