Freddie Flintoff

Cricket Player

Andrew made his first class debut for Lancashire in 1995, and international honours came when he made his Test Match debut in 1998 vs South Africa. His One Day International debut followed in 1999 vs Pakistan. Andrew made his biggest impact for England in the summer of 2005, when he played a major role in regaining the Ashes from Australia.

Shane Warne

Cricket Player

Shane is an Australian cricket legend and is regarded as the greatest leg-spin bowler in cricket history. In 2000, Shane was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century. In his career, Shane took over 1000 international wickets (combined total from tests and One-Day Internationals) and retired from first class cricket in March 2008. Shane is a very likeable person, full of energy and his after dinner speeches are packed with wonderfully entertaining stories of his time and experiences in the world of cricket.

Sir Gary Sobers

Cricket Player

Garry Sobers is a leading after dinner speaker, famed for his sense of humour and wealth of cricketing anecdotes. A man of integrity and passion for his sport, Sobers is a real hit on the sporting speaker circuit.

Nasser Hassain

Cricket Player

Brought up by his Indian-born, Essex-based coach of a father with the ambition to represent England, Nasser Hussain's desire was such that he was prepared to forgo his natural style - opening the face of the bat, running the ball to third man - to succeed at Test level. His success was a triumph of willpower over several technical deficiencies including a dominant bottom hand and unorthodox leg and head positions which led him to lean back in the drive.

Robert Croft

Cricket Player

Robert Croft has played over 400 games for Glamorgan taking more than 1100 wickets. A Robert captained the county from 2003 to 2006, and under his leadership, Glamorgan won the one-day league in 2004 and in the same year they returned to Division One of the Championship. He led by example on and off the pitch and  his consistent form with both bat and ball, taking 122 wickets and scoring 1451 runs in two championship campaigns.

Paul Allott

Cricket Player

Paul Allott who played county cricket for Lancashire, Minor Counties cricket for Staffordshire and first-class cricket in New Zealand for Wellington, as well as thirteen Test match appearances and thirteen One Day International appearances for England. He was a powerfully built, skilful right-arm medium-fast swing bowler,[1] who could also bat adequately at number 9.

Henry Blofeld

Cricket Player

Henry Blofeld began his broadcasting career at the start of the seventies and in 1972 he joined BBC´s Test Match Special for two of the one-day matches against Australia. He has been a regular member of this famous commentary team ever since. His rich, plummy tones are known and loved worldwide for he has done much commentary on both television and radio while covering cricket overseas.

Chris Broad

Cricket Player

Chris Broad played professional cricket and was an opening batsman for Gloucestershire, Nottinghamshire and England. He played 26 test matches scoring six centuries, and also 34 One Day matches. He is also remembered for his feats in the 1986/87 Ashes series where he hit three centuries in consectutive tests.

Shaun Udal

Cricket Player

Shaun Udal played for Hampshire for 18 years until 2007. He than came out of retirement in 2008 to play for Middlesex for two years. He played over 300 first class matches taking more than 800 wickets, and in over 400 limited over games taking more than 450 wickets. He was also selected to play for England in 4 Test matches and 11 One Day Internationals.

Gladstone small

Cricket Player

Gladstone Small, the former Warwickshire and England fast bowler is available to personalise your evening’s entertainment. Gladstone is vastly experienced as a master of ceremonies, performs special guest appearances and is an after dinner speaker. Gladstone is also an accomplished cricket commentator.

Mike Gatting

Cricket Player

Former England Cricket Captain turned Managing Director of Cricket Partnerships at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Mike Gatting OBE has played first-class cricket 23 years, representing England for 18 of them. Holding the Captaincy for twenty-three test matches between 1986 and 1988, Gatting is still enjoying a career within Cricket after retirement; currently on the board with the ECB, Gatting is continually involved within the top level of the sport he has spent his life competing at. A prolonged period within the set-up makes Gatting the ideal candidate to fulfill after dinner speaking roles, providing an exceptional cricket speaker role and keynote speaking.

Graham Lloyd

Cricket Player

Graham Lloyd was born in Accrington on 1 July 1969 and is the son of former England star David Lloyd. Graham Lloyd was pigeonholed fairly on early on in his career as a one-day specialist, largely because of his no nonsense batting style and outstanding fielding.

Graeme Fowler

Cricket Player

British cricket speaker and former England player Graeme Fowler was born in Accrington, Lancashire and is most well known for his time playing for his county team. Also known as “Foxy” Fowler Graeme is known for his batting talent and on the pitch personality, causing expert cricket speaker and writer Colin Batemen to comment that he “rarely bored anyone with his batting”.

Chris Adams

Cricket Player

Chris Adams played for Derbyshire CCC, Sussex CCC, and England. After retiring in 2008, he took on the tough job of restoring the fortunes of Surrey CCC and is currently absorbed in progressing the club back to the previous high standards it has enjoyed. He is also a well considered pundit and commentator for Sky TV and also contributes to BBC Radio in similar mode.

Devon Malcolm

Cricket Player

Malcolm was one of England's few genuinely fast bowlers of the 1990s. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, he settled in England, making his first-class debut for Derbyshire in 1984, and qualifying to play for England in 1987. He played in 40 Test matches for his adopted country, but took part in just ten One Day Internationals. On his day he was one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket, but his playing style was also notable for his short-sightedness and poor catching, his powerful throwing arm, his perceived profligacy with the ball and his undoubted ineptitude with the bat.

Graham Thorpe

Cricket Player

Graham's first game for England was in 1983 against Australia and his last in 2005 against Bangladesh. In his time he played in 100 test games, scoring an impressive 6700 runs, as well as being a regular for England in the One-Day games, playing 82 times and scoring over 2300 runs.

Mike Watkinson

Cricket Player

A former cricketer Watkinson was a key member of the Lancashire side whilst they enjoyed numerous successes in the 1990's and also captained the Lancashire side from 1992-1997. Mike also played for England, with an impressive near 400 first class games, 11000 runs and 500 wickets under his belt- there is not much he doesn't know about cricket.

Matthew Hoggard MBE

Cricket Player

One of the most successful international cricketers to have played for England. After making his debut for Yorkshire in 1996, Matthew was finally called to play for England 4 years later and has represented his country 93 times in total. 2006 was an impressive year for Matthew, he was awarded an MBE as well as being voted Wisden's Cricketers of the Year. He was also officially ranked the 4th best Test Match bowler in the world and became the 10th England bowler to take 200 Test wickets.

Jeremy Coney MBE

Cricket Player

A former New Zealand cricketer, being one of their most successful batsmen and is an outstanding sportsman. He has played in 52 Test matches and 88 One Day Internationals for New Zealand, captaining them in 15 Tests and 25 One Day Internationals.

Rodney Marsh

Cricket Player

One of the greatest of all entertainers on the pitch, Rodney has continued to amuse and take the attention since switching to media work after hanging up his boots. He made his name as a ball-juggling forward with Fulham, Queen’s Park Rangers and Manchester City before crossing the Pond to become a key player and then coach on the North American circuit.

Steve Harmison

Cricket Player

Born in the Charlton brother’s territory of Ashington, he has been a leading member of the Durham attack since 1996 and has taken more than 700 first class wickets. He was one of the world’s greatest pace bowlers at his peak, as he proved when taking seven West Indies wickets for twelve runs in 2003-04. He took 23 Test wickets on the tour and was voted Man of the Series.

Sir Ian Botham

Cricket Player

Born in Cheshire, Ian played his County cricket with Somerset, Worcestershire and Durham. A larger than life character, ‘Beefy’ is now a leading voice of cricket with the Sky team. He was one of the greatest all-rounder’s ever to step foot on a cricket pitch, and he later turned his enormous energy and stamina to marathon charity walks, raising millions of pounds and earning a knighthood from the Queen. He scored 14 centuries and took 383 wickets in an England Test career in which he was extremely competitive, particularly if Australia were the opponents.

Ronnie Irani

Cricket Player

He moved from Lancashire to Essex in 1994 and had a great rapport with the Chelmsford supporters over the following thirteen years. Ronnie captained Essex from 2000 and became a cult figure because of his enthusiastic approach to every game and his encouragement of promising young players such as Alistair Cook and Ravi Bopara. Born in Greater Manchester with an Irani-descended dad and Lancashire mum but it is with Essex that he will always be associated. He was an outstanding all-rounder until injury forced him to give up his right-arm medium fast bowling. This allowed him to concentrate on his batting, and he became a one-day specialist, playing 31 ODIs for England and three Tests.

Richard Hadlee

Cricket Player

Hadlee tormented English batting for well over a decade and here we see him dismissing Gooch LBW for a ‘golden duck’ at Trent Bridge during the First Test in 1990. As a hard-hitting batsman, Richard Hadlee was more than capable, but as a bowler he truly excelled. With a fearsome reputation for controlling pace and cut, Hadlee fully justified his epithet as the ‘Master of Rhythm and Swing’. His hostility to opposing batsmen became legendary and, in only 86 Test Matches during his career, Hadlee claimed an incredible 431 wickets. In an age where cricketers played far less Test Match cricket than they do now, this achievement is all the more remarkable.

Phil Tufnell

Cricket Player

During recent times, Phil has been able to combine his cricketing expertise with his ‘mischievous’ and ‘laddish’ reputation as a much-loved television and radio Presenter. Before this we must not forget that Phil was a top level international cricketer who played for England 42 times and was responsible on several occasions for winning matches for England with his cunning spin bowling.

Michael Vaughan

Cricket Player

Manchester-born Michael skippered Yorkshire and won a record 26 games as captain of England in 51 Tests. His golden year was 2002-03 when he established himself as the world’s number one batsman, accumulating 663 runs in the Ashes series. It got even better in 2005 with a never-to-be-forgotten 2-1 Ashes victory over Australia.

Marcus Trescothick

Cricket Player

Marcus scored 5825 runs in 76 Tests for England before a stress-related illness forced his retirement from the international arena. Marcus was an aggressive left-handed opening batsman who continues to plunder runs for Somerset. In his riveting autobiography, Coming Back to Me, he openly discusses the mental strain he has been under, and gathered wide acclaim for his brutal honesty. He won the prestigious 2009 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. Keynsham-born Marcus is an inspiring captain of Somerset, but refuses to give in to pressure to resume his Test career because he fears anxiety attacks.

Graham Gooch

Cricket Player

Graham Gooch was awarded the OBE for his services to cricket in 1991. He was raised in East London and it was here that his potential was developed at the Ilford Cricket School. Gooch made the Essex 2nd XI in 1969, in 1973 he made his first-class debut. He was soon in the runs, and he made his maiden ton a year later. 1975 was the breakthrough year. He played for the MCC against the touring Australians. He made 75 and was soon picked for the Edgbaston test. Whether it was too early for him, or the pressure was too much, Gooch failed and made a pair. He was subsequently dropped and it was only in 1978 that he made his comeback. A year later Gooch was instrumental in Essex capturing their first trophy in 103 years of the club.

Geoff Miller

Cricket Player

He travelled to all the major Test-playing countries and played with or against some of the greatest players in the game. To which he freely admits: “I wasn’t one of them!” In his own words: “I was a comparatively boring bread and butter cricketer who was only selected in the team to allow all the brilliant flair players to perform with freedom”.

Geoff Boycott

Cricket Player

An outstanding school boy cricketer in the Yorkshire mining village of Fitzwilliam he graduated quickly through club cricket for Ackworth, Barnsley and Leeds, to join the Yorkshire team at the age of twenty-one.

Dickie Bird

Cricket Player

Born in Barnsley in 1933, Dickie was a promising footballer until injury cut short his fledgling career so the youngster began to play club cricket alongside teammates that included Geoffrey Boycott and Michael Parkinson.

Dermot Reeve

Cricket Player

Born in Hong Kong, he played 25 One Day Internationals – appearing in two World Cups – and he won three Test caps as a competitive all-rounder. Dermot Reeve captained Warwickshire to six trophies in three years, including three in 1995 after which he was awarded an OBE for his services to cricket.

David Gower

Cricket Player

Born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in April 1957, Gower spent much of his upbringing in Tanzania. He made his debut for Leicestershire County Cricket Club in 1975. He stayed with the club for 14 years until he joined Hampshire.

Christopher Martin-Jenkins

Cricket Player

Christopher’s sports career began as Captain of cricket at Marlborough followed by Captain of Cambridge University Crusaders for two years. Known as ‘the voice of cricket’, In 1970 Christopher became a Sports Broadcaster for the BBC and eventually in 1974 became their Cricket Correspondent. Since 1981 he has been the editor of The Cricketer magazine and a freelance BBC Radio and television Cricket commentator. In 1984 he resumed his appointment as BBC Cricket correspondent whilst continuing as Editor of the Cricketer.

Chris Cowdrey

Cricket Player

Farnborough-born Chris scored 101 runs in his six Tests and has a career haul of 12252 runs at an average 31.90. Chris Cowdrey and his father Lord Colin Cowdrey were only the second father and son to captain England. Chris followed his father into the Kent and England teams, and was Kent skipper for four seasons from 1986. In 1992 he played one wind-down season with Glamorgan before announcing his retirement.

Angus Fraser

Cricket Player

Lancashire born Angus spent his entire career with Middlesex. His outstanding performance was eight for 75 in the first innings of the 1993-94 Barbados Test to pave the way for a shock victory over the all-conquering West Indies. He became a distinguished cricket correspondent for The Independent before taking up the challenge of Managing Director of Cricket with Middlesex in 2009.

Andrew Strauss

Cricket Player

Andrew captained England to their first Ashes series win in Australia for 24 years, becoming one of only 3 Captains EVER to successfully lead England to Ashes victories home and away. He stepped down as England Cricket Captain in August 2012 having played 100 Tests matches for England. He captained the side on 50 occasions and retires from the game as one of England’s most successful captains of all time.

Allan Lamb

Cricket Player

South African born Allan first played first-class cricket for Western Province, before being signed as an overseas player by Northamptonshire. There he made his fame, and was persuaded by Ken Turner, their secretary, that with South Africa banned from test match cricket because of the apartheid régime, he was best taking advantage of his parents’ English heritage to play for England.

Alec Stewart

Cricket Player

Born in Merton Park Alec is the most capped English cricketer of all time and one of the greatest ever wicket keeping-batsmen. In 133 Tests, he scored 8463 runs at an average 39.54 and added another 4677 runs in 170 One Day Internationals. In 2000 he became only the fourth player to score a century in his 100th Test, and he is one of only a few batsmen to have scored a century in both innings of a Test match.

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