Apologies for sounding like an old man shouting at clouds/Ron Manager/a grandad/a dinosaur (delete as appropriate) but pass me those rose-tinted specs.
A strange place to start and something that possibly does not paint me in a favourable light, but it is a hill I am prepared to die on. I really miss the use of initials on scorecards as seen on BBC television during my early cricket years.
We all have our favourites - no, just me then - but mention IT, DI, IVA, SK, AJ, DI, and AR to a certain generation and hopefully you will not knowing looks (Botham, Gower, Richards, Warne, Lamb, Gower and Border, since you didn't ask).
First Ashes Test, 1985 (Source: YouTube)
This is before we even get on to the players who used to cause me confusion like RC Russell, BC Broad and RT Robinson. And how about the joy of seeing WPUJC Vaas on a scorecard and finding out the full name of Nick Verity Knight. Yes, I needed to get out more in the 80s and 90s.
One day cup finals
Just like the FA Cup has been swallowed up in the modern football world, the classic one day finals that we once witnessed have vanished from the domestic cricket calendar. The Benson and Hedges final in the early part of the season was enjoyable enough, a Milk Cup equivalent if you like, but it was the September NatWest Trophy finals that stick in the memory.
The classic nail-biting finals in 1981, 1984, 1985 and 1989. A Richard Hadlee masterclass in 1987. A glimpse of a young batting talent in Mark Ramprakash during the 1988 final. The high-scoring tussle between Sussex and Warwickshire in 1993. All played out in front of a packed Lord's, in the September gloaming, with millions of us watching on the BBC.
Minor counties
If the Gillette/NatWest Trophy was the FA Cup of cricket, then the first round was a chance for the minor counties to bloody the noses of a few of the big boys. There were a few notable upsets: Shropshire beating Yorkshire in 1984; Durham (then a minor county) toppling Derbyshire in 1985; Buckinghamshire defeating a declining Somerset in 1987; Cheshire beating 1987 runners-up Northamptonshire in 1988.
It wasn't just the upsets. Tales like goalkeeper Steve Ogrizovic dismissing Chris Broad, Martyn Moxon and Alvin Kallicharran whilst playing for Shropshire and the Minor Counties. Dominic Cork, man of the match on his Test debut at Lord's, travelling to March for a match on the following day to play for Derbyshire against Cambridgeshire in 1995.
That's why I'm starting the campaign here: replace the Hundred with an FA Cup style T20 competition involving the 18 first class counties plus the minor counties. We move.
Long tours
During my research for a recent piece on Pakistan's win at Lord's in 1996, I was reminded of the fact that countries used to take part in overseas tours that would span months. Pakistan's tour in 1996 stretched from June to September, with the tourists playing eight matches against first class counties.
No longer possible in the overcrowded schedule, I do miss checking England's early warm-up matches to see who might be working their way into the Test team, or wincing as they have lost to a very competitive Outback Farmers XI in Australia.
I recognise that this is definitely a thing of the past, but the nadir was truly reached prior to the last Ashes series in Australia when England warmed up in a laughable knockabout with their mates.
Affordable tickets
Join the ballot now. As the email arrived in my inbox for the Edgbaston Ashes Test in 2027 I eagerly filled in my details. When the ticket application window opened my keenness subsided. Looking to purchase some tickets for the Eric Hollies Stand, when I saw the £165 price - plus £2.50 booking fee, you cheeky monkeys - this was the moment for me to admit that my days of going to Test matches may be behind me.
It is a far cry from my first Test at the same ground in 1997. A ticket for the fourth day of the Ashes Test was £14, and seeing as England went 1-0 up in the series that day, it was worth every penny. I know prices go up, I know if people will pay these figures then the ECB/counties do not care. But there is a certain sadness for me that I am now priced out of watching a format of cricket that I dearly love.
Floodlit cricket
Watching cricket played in Australia during the 1986/87 tour was an experience that overloaded my senses. The coverage from the other side of the world appeared to me to be from a different planet. The coloured clothing, the white ball against the night sky, stump cams, great commentators, stump mics, cricket played under floodlights. CRICKET UNDER FLOODLIGHTS!
Now I just take it for granted. Another day, another slogfest, the coloured clothing and floodlights have faded for me as I've got older. Even when floodlit cricket started in England during the late 90s it was not quite the same, like a holiday romance that disappointed when returning home. But you never forget your first time.
Fame
Sky have done a lot of good for the sport, but in my opinion Test matches disappearing from free-to-view television was a worrying move, especially after the popularity of the 2005 Ashes series. Admittedly, there are so many distractions for younger people nowadays and viewing habits have changed. Yet do we risk losing future fans of the sport due to this?
Maybe that is why the Hundred was introduced - don't get me started on this - but cricket players in the 80s and 90s were famous and instantly recognisable. You had Ian Botham in an advert for Shredded Wheat and on posters for Hamlet; David Gower on Call My Bluff and They Think It's All Over; Spitting Image puppets; Tuffers on Blankety Blank. Maybe not the high end of television quality but at least cricket was on the map.
It saddens me to ponder how many people would not notice Joe Root if he walked down Oxford Street, although recently there are a few England cricketers who possibly wished they were not so recognisable after all.
West Indies
My younger self would have laughed at what I am about to say: I miss the days of the mighty West Indies Test team. Yes, there were the humiliations and pain suffered at the hands of their teams, and finally beating the West Indies at home in 2000 and away in 2004 provided some of my happiest memories of following the England Test team. But in hindsight it was a privilege to live through the era of West Indian domination.
The players in those teams, the crowds in the Caribbean and England creating an atmosphere to match the style of their team, a story of how players from various islands could be united to propel their team to the top of the sport. Nothing lasts forever, but the decline of the team in the 21st century has been alarming at times. Their win in Brisbane in 2024 was heart warming, demonstrating how glorious Test cricket can be, and highlighting the need for stronger teams to bloody the noses of the so-called big three.
Richie Benaud
This is not a dig at the current crop of television and radio commentators. There are some excellent presenters and commentators involved in the sport. But when you have grown up with someone as revered as Richie Benaud it is inevitable that everyone suffers in comparison. Knowledgeable, witty, and most importantly aware of when he needed to add words to the pictures, Richie was a joy to listen to.
That sideways glance at camera; his array of suits; that reaction to the Trevor Chappell underarm delivery in 1981; the confectionery stall commentary; his love of spin bowling. The list goes on. It was a sad moment when Richie disappeared from our television coverage, but fitting that he ended on the high of the 2005 Ashes.
Overseas icons
And finally. Those halcyon days of the county championship, where international heroes could be seen up and down the country. Greenidge and Marshall at Hampshire; Imran Khan at Sussex; Richards and Garner at Somerset; Sir Clive Lloyd at Lancashire; Hadlee and Rice at Nottinghamshire.
I appreciate I'm just listing world class players at counties here, but I might as well just carry on. Javed Miandad, Courtney Walsh, Andy Roberts, Wayne Daniel, Sylvester Clarke, Garth Le Roux, Wasim and Waqar, Allan Donald. Not possible now of course - like many things in my list - but what a time to be alive.
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