Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
England and Middlesex cricketer, acknowledged as a player of the highest class and a notably awkward character.
On the island
Eight records
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 'Choral': IV. Ode to Joy
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Colin Davis
Well, this is the Ode to Joy by Beethoven, mainly because it brings back the Indian trip, which was very successful from our point of view. I find it very, very rousing, which I think is important. We've got to think positively in cricket before going out onto the field. Funnily enough, I also find it relaxing while rousing. And, well, thirdly, my wife Frances spends a lot of time over in Brussels as an interpreter in the European common market, and this is part of the European hymn.
New Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
It is another very rousing piece. These were the twelfth century monks roaming round the country with a a vocal tradition, and this is very much the same in Africa, where they're they're tremendous vocalists. You go into any village and at the drop of a hat you know they'll put together their local choir and it really, it really is tremendous. So it brings back very happy memories from my boyhood in Zambia.
Really, this coincides with my time over here, having come to school here after independence. Fleetwood Mac, late sixties, Albatross. I think for me it's one of the real classics and I can listen to it any time, anywhere.
This really marks the transition from Cranbrook through to Cambridge University in the early seventies. This is yet another sort of folk classic. And again, it's something that I can listen to day in, day out and never get bored with it.
Again, this harks back to my time at university when I just started playing first class cricket. I came along with the total colonial arrogance. Although I hadn't played much at school, I rated myself a pretty good player. And it was just quite fascinating to see people who were playing the game professionally, earning their living at it. And when I saw them playing, I thought, well, slightly in the Mac and Row mold, you cannot be serious. It really did seem easy then.
I Just Called to Say I Love You
As a professional cricketer, obviously, we're away from home a tremendous amount of time. Frances also in her job as a professional interpreter, spends a bit of time in Europe. So we spend quite a bit of time on the phone talking to each other, and this is for Frances.
Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068: II. Air on the G StringFavourite
Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
Really, the only reason I've picked this is I find it so soothing and very, very relaxing. Just that, I just find it fabulous.
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn
Again I like this because it builds up to a pretty stirring piece but really in essence it's the repetitiveness, the total simplicity of the piece which I do like and it's a theme that I've tried to pursue through life. Being reasonably straightforward and simple minded or singular minded hasn't got me too far on many occasions but simplicity I think is the essence.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:05Does music play any part of your plans when you're going on a tour like that [to Australia]?
Well, obviously there's a lot of tedium involved in touring, ones in coaches or on airlines. … Much of that obviously cooped up, very cramped, and I think it is quite important to get away from the childish behavior of some of my colleagues on occasions. So yes, I do tend to spend quite a lot of time listening to the likes of Beethoven or some of the pop classics of Stevie Wonder or Simon and Garfunko.
Presenter asks
3:33What was the environment like [growing up in Zambia]?
Lusaka in that time in the early fifties was very much a one-horse town to say the least. So we lived out in the sticks, which is very important from the point of view of well, just having a large family was obviously important in that context. So we're quite a close family. In addition, my father got heavily involved into black politics. It was a fascinating time, this the early fifties through right till 1966 when we left
Presenter asks
9:51When you mentioned earlier on that you were ostracized by the rest of the white settlers out there, what form did this take?
Well, my father was quite a successful developer, property man, builder at one stage. He was, I wouldn't say, forced out of work, but he found it very, very difficult to get contracts from the government, for instance. … And really, he didn't have a job for at least a good two years during the period, I suppose, in the very early sixties when the independence movement was reaching its height. And we survive on my mother's salary, which was a very meagre one, as a teacher.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Humidor full of Royal Jamaica cigars
They produce the most magnificent handmade cigars in the world. And I'd probably take a big humidor full of Royal Jamaica cigars.
Presenter asks
13:30When you left Africa to come to England to go to public school here, did you find that an easy transition?
In some ways, yes, in some ways, no, very difficult. … What I found more difficult, I think, was the integration. Coming from a situation in Zambia where we had been ostracized for some time, we were a very contained family. I did find it reasonably difficult to get into the school as a whole. I don't think we're natural joiners per se.
Presenter asks
20:44Do you find [professional cricket] fulfilling?
Candidly, I now play, because of the buzz I get playing Test cricket. and also because of the frustration of having a very staccatoed career, never quite having fulfilled what I regard as my potential, and that frustration really does drive me on. Do I find it fulfilling? Well, obviously it's been a tremendous ambition to play for England. However, having achieved that ambition, one has to go a little bit further, and I think it is now the frustration of not having achieved what I believe to be my potential [that] keeps me going.
Presenter asks
21:33Who would these people be [that you fell out with]? Would they include Mike Brearley, who was your captain at Middlesex?
Mike Breley, very fine captain of Middlesex. I think what happened was that once he had got rid of the old guard … I think he then started to see me as a little bit of a threat, and I'm afraid I was a bit outspoken on many occasions. I didn't tug the forelock when I had one, that type of thing. And well, that didn't stand me in good stead.
“We were deemed to be the Kaffa Booties, the black lovers, really because my father was simply expounding good Christian ideals, in that perhaps all men should be given equal opportunity. I hasten to say that he's an atheist, but that didn't stop the church deeming him to be an untrustworthy fellow because he was expounding these good Christian ideals.”
“I believe basically, sort of digressing from that or expanding from that, that really all societies are the same. All establishments are the same, be they the Soviets or we here in the West. Establishments simply exist to perpetuate themselves by and large. They want the status quo. There are very few revolutionaries in this world. It doesn't matter if you're East or West. You're part of the establishment system. If you bang your head against that wall, you're in for trouble.”
“I must say, I do find doing business and participating at a reasonably high level produces the adrenaline in just the same way that PH Edmonds bowling to Alan Border produces a buzz. Involvement is everything.”