The inside track: Deserved blow for legend Mikey

Mikey Holding (everyone knows him as Mikey) is a legend, not just once over but thrice. He was a stellar cricketer of course, and then became a brilliant and treasured broadcaster until last month, when with no official announcement or fanfare, in keeping with his nature, he just gave it up.

And then, one rainy day in Southampton, he produced such brilliant unscripted rhetoric on the subject of race, and then subsequently his landmark book that has literally changed lives (mine for starters) by forcing even hitherto open-minded people, by their own estimation, to recalibrate their thinking when it came to race and the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, they say. It was a young aspiring county cricketer, accompanying us round the golf course a couple of years ago, who suddenly, unprompted, asked the question. “Michael Holding,” he wondered, “what do you reckon? Upper 80s?”  “Well,” I replied, “probably around Chris Woakes’ pace, yes.” Then added: “But he is 65 years old. And he’d probably have to take his coat off.” I told Mikey this story a couple of days before he flew back to his home in the Cayman Islands and he laughed uproariously. 

He was blisteringly fast, so rapid at times that although he was so pure of action that you never lost sight of the ball, it was impossible for some to react beyond simple instinct. My first real encounter with him was from 60 yards away, he with a ball in his hand, me at the crease. I had never experienced anything like it. The first ball hit the middle of my bat before I’d hardly moved it and ricocheted past him so we ran a reluctant two.

Some weeks later I was one of his 14 victims on the Oval featherbed on which, through sheer pace and a hint of (unknowing, he told me) reverse swing he produced one of the greatest fast-bowling performances of them all. Ask Geoffrey Boycott whether Woakes could have delivered that most famous of opening overs in Bridgetown that ended with the master batsman’s off stump uprooted. Upper 80s? LOL.

"He was so pure of action that you never lost sight of the ball, but it was impossible for some to react beyond simple instinct"

It is hard to believe that when he started out on his broadcasting career, Mikey had doubts about his potential, and whether his Jamaican accent would not be a hindrance. LOL again. Along with Richie Benaud and John Arlott alone he has the most recognisable voice in cricket broadcasting history and is revered for it. He had things to say too. Few have been more trenchant or honest in their comments or opinions on the game. His despisal of T20 cricket is well known, and he fears for the future of cricket as he knew. “It is not the game I grew to love,” he told me. 

Then the day before the first Test against West Indies last year, in the wake of the death of George Floyd and the burgeoning BLM movement, Sky aired a powerful short documentary in which Mikey and Ebony Rainford-Brent gave moving accounts of their experiences of racism.

It was during a general follow-up discussion on Sky’s Test coverage, a day at the Ageas Bowl when play in the Test was not possible because of bad weather, that Mikey delivered his monologue, on racism, discrimination and black history, of such power, clarity and articulacy that it might come to be regarded as one of the great speeches on any subject. It led to his seminal book, published a year later, Why We Kneel, How We Rise, and helped send it into the bestseller charts. 

This, in my opinion I have told him, may be his biggest achievement of all. But has it had the effect he wanted? The book he says is for education, and there is a case for saying it should be included in the school syllabus. Certainly it has made me reassess what I always regarded as my own very liberal thinking.

He is disappointed that the England men’s team no longer take a knee, as if it was just a gesture rather than a permanent commitment. It won’t change the world just like that either, he knows, but it’s a start. For now he is exhausted, by the talk, the chatter, the arguments and counter-arguments. He is taking a long break.

This article was published in the October edition of The Cricketer - the home of the best cricket analysis and commentary, covering the international, county, women's and amateur game