The Twelfth Man 2013

26 4 October 2012 – Steve James Opening our 61st winter programme and getting it off to a great start was former England and Glamorgan opening batsman Steve James. Steve who also captained Glamorgan is now a respected cricket and rugby union journalist for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph . He hopes to become as good a journalist as his former Cambridge teammate and England captain Mike Atherton. He went to Cambridge as a post-graduate student and after leaving Cambridge he became Hugh Morris’ opening partner at Glamorgan. “Hugh Morris should have played more times for England.” Steve had three years as Glamorgan captain from 2001 to 2003. “I hated every second of it. I went from being one of the lads to being in charge of everything: it wasn’t an easy job. I didn’t like the responsibility that went with the job, dealing with players’ contracts and who should play or should get dropped. I had a difficult time in dealing with Robert Croft who was very ambitious and wanted to be captain.” He made his England debut in 1998 against South Africa at Lord’s. He got 10 and 0 and admitted that facing Allan Donald in a Test Match was a lot different to facing him in county cricket. “I was dropped after that Test and was replaced by Nick Knight for the Test at Old Trafford. I came back for the Test match at The Oval against Sri Lanka when Mike Atherton was injured.” Steve has now written a book, The Plan , which traces England’s history from 1999 when they were ranked bottom of the Test playing countries to when they became number one. To write the book, Steve spent a lot of time interviewing Duncan Fletcher and Andy Flower. “I knew Fletcher very well from his time as coach of Glamorgan. He is a very shy man and doesn’t like talking in front of people and I also knew Flower well before we started work on the book.” “I believe that Micky Stewart was a man ahead of his time, he wanted to get the England players on central contracts during his time. Peter Moores inherited an aging team and the Wombwell’s Winter Season 2012/13 Reviewed by Tom Hudson and Neil Whitaker Photos by Beryl Ambler players didn’t respond to him. After they had tied a day/night match in New Zealand he ordered all the players back out on the field to do some training. That was the start of the slippery slope. But Moores started a lot of the things that Flower does now. Flower is now very much in charge of English cricket.” He also spoke about Glamorgan teammate Matthew Maynard. “He has an excellent cricket brain and is one of the most talented players I have played with or against. Maynard and Fletcher used to love debating cricket, and they would fight like cat and dog.” Neil Whitaker 9 October – Micky Stewart and Stephen Chalke Before the meeting with former England manager Micky Stewart, the Chairman called for a minute’s silence to remember Patron, Don Wilson, and former committee member, Keith Goodall, who both passed away in the summer. Stephen Chalke who has just written a book with Micky entitled The Changing Face of English Cricket accompanied Micky. Stephen said: “I first met Micky at The Oval while I was working on another book. I thought what a great subject he would be, the first manager of Surrey and then England and why nobody had written a book about him before. After explaining to Micky the idea of the book he said he would let me know, 18 months later he finally got in touch with me.” Stephen then introduced Micky who has just turned 80 and said: “As England manager, Micky had been rubbish at dealing with the Press.” Micky said: “The last time I was here I presented a sword to Jack Sokell. I first learned to play cricket in the street and park in the summer and in the winter we learned to play football. As a youngster it was my ambition to play for Surrey, I knew all about the Roses matches and the Ashes. I always wanted to play cricket as a professional. I used to think that England was the worst country for developing its players, now it’s completely changed.”