Cricket Has Changed

ricket has changed substantially over the last 35 years, explains former C Essex star and England international Derek Pringle. ‘When I played for Essex in the 1980s, we were a coach-free zone, Edgy but now players can’t move for coaches, which makes it a more prescriptive environment in which to develop,’ Derek says. Undoubtedly the 1980s was an era in which Derek came of age. A member of the successful Essex sides for 15 years in the 1980s and Stuff early 1990s alongside Graham Gooch, Mark Waugh, Nasser In his first published memoir, legendary Essex and Hussain, John Lever and Neil Foster, he helped Essex to victory England Test cricketer Derek Pringle asks why cricket in the County Championship five in the 1980s was very different to the game today times as well as playing in 30 Tests, 44 One Day Internationals and two World Cups for England. His first ever memoir,Pushing the Boundaries – Cricket in the Eighties recalls those glory days. ‘Playing for Essex was fun-filled and successful,’ Derek says, ‘but it was a freakish coming together of personalities and excellence that doesn’t happen that often, so I feel blessed that I played for the county when I did.’ It is this experience that fills the pages of Derek’s book. Seen through the lens of his 20-year post-cricket career as a journalist, he recalls life as a professional player in a decade when the game was dominated by larger-than-life characters, whose exploits were front-page news. In the England Test side, he lined up alongside David Gower, Allan Lamb and Phil Edmonds, and was quickly dubbed the new Ian Botham, although the original was still playing in the same team. England’s mixed fortunes in the 1980s – Ashes victories alternating with humiliation at the hands of the West Indies – and the vagaries of the selectors which gave the side a procession of four captains over the summer of 1988, brought insecurity to the profession and encouraged well-publicised wildness on and off the field. ‘Touring with England was always enlightening,’ he says wryly. ‘In those days cricket was about fun, joy and self-expression, not an endless and often futile quest for self-improvement.’ Retiring from the game in 1993, Derek embarked on a second 106 Essex Life: July 2019 EssEx pEople From the book ‘At Essex, a bunch of disparate characters combined their zany talents to produce entertaining cricket and win trophies. Ray East, John Lever, Graham Gooch and David Acfield all looked at life and cricket obliquely without ever jeopardising the team project. They were wild, they were woolly, or at career as cricket correspondent for least some of The Independent, then The Daily them were, but Telegraph, until turning freelance they knew when in 2014. to put their ‘Who doesn’t enjoy a self- game face on. indulgent trawl through one’s They were past?’ Derek asks. ‘What is also fortunate fascinating during the process to have a sage is how the mind constructs captain, in memories that don’t always Keith Fletcher, withstand closer scrutiny. I had to who allowed reassess several incidents I’d long them room for held as truths.’ self-expression. Although considered a member To this day I give of our county’s cricketing royalty, thanks to having Derek was born and raised in played county Nairobi, Kenya, where he learnt to cricket for play cricket on matting pitches. ‘Who doesn’t enjoy a self-indulgent Essex, with its ‘Mum moved my sister and me zest for fun and back from Kenya after my dad trawl through one’s past?’ winning ways.’ was killed in a car crash there,’ he Pushing the explains. up a place to read Geography and school’s Speech Day this summer. Boundaries: In 1974, at the age of 15, Derek Land Economy at Cambridge, In between commitments, Cricket in the was enrolled at Felsted School, where he captained the Derek doesn’t rule out a second Eighties by which has long held a reputation university’s first 11 and made a instalment of his memoir, Derek Pringle for producing some of the brief appearance in the Oscar- after excellent reviews from is published country’s finest cricketers. winning filmChariots of Fire publications as diverse as The by Hodder & ‘Once I got used to the cold, I as Cambridge's vice-captain of Times and Country Life for Stoughton enjoyed every moment,’ he says, athletics. Pushing the Boundaries — Cricket ‘especially the cricket, which ‘Playing for Cambridge was in the ‘80s. In fact, writing in was run by John Cockett and carefree and without pressure,’ The Times, Michael Atherton Gordon Barker. Their nous and he remembers. He was still a described it as, ‘both a love Top: John enthusiasm informed my game student there – complete with ear letter to the greatest player of Stevenson, Derek and stayed with me throughout stud – when he made his England his generation, Sir Ian Botham, Pringle and Nick my cricket career. Fellow Felsted debut and has since returned to and an engaging romp in which Knight School boys John Stephenson, live in Cambridge, although he is cricket only plays a walk-on part’. Above: Nick Nick Knight and I would all still an enthusiastic supporter of ‘I feel very gratified that so Knight, Gordon acknowledge the debt we owe Essex cricket. He also returns to many people have enjoyed the Barker, Derek Pringle and those coaches in being selected Felsted often, to inspire the next book,’ says Derek. ‘I enjoyed John Stephenson to play for Essex and England.’ generation of young cricketers, writing it and hope I did justice to at Essex in the On leaving Felsted, Derek took and will be guest of honour at the the players and to ‘80s cricket.’ u 1990s Essex Life: July 2019 107.

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