Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A distinguished cricketer who captained the England team.
On the island
Eight records
I was brought up on Veralin and Don Bradman and The B B C Overseas Service was my father. was sent out to South Africa, so that was our music.
Again, I think this goes back to the young days and my dad being a Scotsman. We used to obviously talk about the old folk up in Scotland a lot and we had a lot of pictures and I'd never really met them. So, I suppose my dad, being a true blue Scotsman and Rangers man, and had to get the message over to us somehow and uh so we had a lot of Scottish music in our home and I I still love Scottish music.
They were a very popular group out in South Africa and I used to listen to a lot of their music and I just enjoyed The Seekers very much.
I've always tried to be the happy guy and uh And I've always loved the song for that reason, that's why it's gotta be happiness.
My wife picked it up and I think she gets the message through to me now and again when I've been away for A long while uh playing cricket. We love the record and it also seems to get put on whenever I've been away for a week.
This is a little bit of South Africa really coming out in me. I I remember this guy, Jeremy Taylor, and we used to play this record a lot because it was very funny. It was about a lot of the things that were happening in South Africa at the time, and uh it was number one on the hit parade, would you believe, but uh we all loved it very much and as kids really.
Husbands and WivesFavourite
Well, my big star really, Neil Diamond, I've always thought he's been tremendous. I I love his music and one of the tracks which I really do enjoy is Husbands and Wives.
I think the big stars at the moment, the new stars if you like, are the ABBA. I certainly heard a lot of them in Australia. They're very popular out there and I do, I do, I do, I think is a tremendous record. And I'm not a great man for the big noisy bands and things like that. I like something like this.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:13Could you endure loneliness [on a desert island]?
I think my wife would say in no way in the world could I do without her, certainly. I think that perhaps I could for a short period in compensation
Presenter asks
2:03What was your plan in choosing these eight records?
Well, when I was asked, I thought, well, the best thing to do is really stick to what has happened and the music I've enjoyed over my 29 years.
Presenter asks
4:25When did you start cricket?
Oh, I think I started in the back lawn, in the garden, really, with Round about seven, eight, round about there we had a tremendously good garden boy. A little fellow who came to our door, never forget it. Uh all he had on was a pair of plimsoles. We call plimsoles tackies in South Africa and uh He got the nickname Tackies'cause that's about all he had on at the time and uh he used to vault him in the back yard and that's how it really started for me.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
My work is cricket, and so I'd have to write a very, very intricate and serious cricket book. And in order to do that, I'd have to have some sort of reference. So I would be going for a wisdom.
The luxury
I'd have to take a bed. I think that I would have a tremendous bed built with a perfect mattress and I'd take it and put it on that island and put a roof over the top and that'd be my start.
You were going on to Rhodes University to read history. What happened to that?
Well again, I suppose I was lucky. I seemed to be a very lucky man. I I was exempted from military training, which was compulsory because they didn't have enough room for all the school leavers that year. And so I had a year to kick my heels and as a result of that I was invited to come over and play a few games of cricket for the Sussex Second Leven and visit my family in Scotland, which was a great opportunity for me and a very lucky one.
Presenter asks
12:48How do you find the job [of captaining England]?
One of the things that has come out of being captain for me is that I perhaps pay less attention to the importance of my own game in that I don't really care if I do well or otherwise. When I say that, of course, I do really, I suppose everyone wants to do well in their own field, but to me, it's become more important for the team to do well because, at the end of the day, as captain, if your team does well, then you're captain in the next game. And I'm. Enjoying Captaining England so much that I want to hang on to it for as long as I possibly can and the only way I can do that is by making sure that we do well.
Presenter asks
14:13Now you're captain of England and you're a South African. Has this produced any friction?
Oh yes, I'm aware of the problems. Uh there must be quite a lot of people who believe that as a South African perhaps I shouldn't be Captain of England. Um On the other hand, all I say to that is that I didn't put my hand up and say, please pick me. I was asked to Captain England.
“I've had twenty summers in a row now. Yes. And so I love the cold.”
“I believe we play too much cricket. I think, you know, it must have been tremendous playing in the days where you could play four days or three days and have a day off on Sundays. And I think now we we're travelling around too much.”
“I think you've got to be able to switch that [hate] on and off. I I find myself in a position where, you know, even against the chaps who I tour with, when I'm playing against them in county matches, I I try harder, I really get that hate campaign going, the old adrenaline gets bubbling inside me and I it really I get stuck into them, but the first thing I think about when I get off that field, no matter what sort of situation we've been in and how nasty we've been to each other, I I try and get in there and have a beer with the”