Why I love cricket: Robert Bathurst on his cricketing heroes and the psychology of the game

Bathurst's numerous stage and screen roles have included Cold Feet, Downton Abbey, Toast of London and Dad’s Army: The Lost Episodes

I was born on the Gold Coast of Ghana in 1957, but moved to Ireland when I was two. The BBC was beamed out of Belfast but we lived near a hill, so we couldn’t get it. I do recall watching Test matches at a friend’s house in black and white though, and that is when I became pretty attached to cricket.

I went to a boys’ prep school called Headfort in County Meath aged eight – far too early of course – where cricket was played. At first I was intrigued by the kit; I was obsessed with whether the pads were attached to the boots, and wondered how these things strapped on.

One of my first school games saw me send down an off-break that went through the gate, and clipped the top of off. It was just perfect – like Michael Vaughan’s ball to Sachin Tendulkar. I have to say that my game never really improved from that point – that was the golden moment.

The school had a big lawn in front of a Georgian house, and County Meath used to play on it. One day they turned up with 10 men. The school only went up to 13 years of age, but our star bowler, in his last year, turned out for them. I was eight and as I watched I remember thinking it seemed a perfectly natural thing to be happening.

I continued to play at secondary school. I was always pretty steady, but I wish I’d worked on my footwork a bit more. I used to plant my front foot far too early, and I was never nimble enough to readjust. I was always good on the offside, but rubbish on the leg. My balance was never good enough. Nowadays to see a good on-drive really excites me, far more than a ramp, or the ball flying over vacant third man.

My heroes growing up were John Gleeson, the Australian leg-spinner, and ‘Flat’ Jack Simmons, the Lancashire off-spinner. They were a nice contrast to all those really quick bowlers pulverising batsmen, like the West Indies quicks Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith – wave after wave of pacemen mashing people up.

It was really exciting when Shane Warne came on to the scene. Seeing a spinner of his sort bamboozling batsmen really enlivened Test cricket. He controlled the game. The ball to Mike Gatting probably hit a foothole, but was perfectly pitched. Warne was the most exciting player ever without a doubt. I have tried to bowl leggies myself but gully has to watch out.

^{"Warne was the most exciting player ever without a doubt"}

I played for a beautiful village in Essex called Nazeing Common Cricket Club. I started when I was about 13, and that was the most enjoyable time of my cricketing career. We never played in a league. Whenever we did play a league team it was always gnarly and unpleasant. It was the best fun normally though, and I adored it. I was the youngest in the 2nd XI, playing with people who were at the margins of their playing careers.

I won the village single-wicket competition when I was 15, the only sporting prize I have ever won. I was picked against the club captain in a knockout competition. He awarded me the pewter mug through gritted teeth at the end-of-season dinner.

I have never had an acting role that involves cricket. There was a project a while ago about Wally Hammond and I thought I would be a shoo-in, but it never happened. Cricket films are usually terrible, so often filmed and acted by people who don’t get it. I am thinking, “No, don’t do that.”

It is not a very crickety set on Cold Feet. Jimmy (James Nesbitt) talks about it a bit. John Thomson hates all sport. [I tell him that Thomson played a local cricket captain in Norfolk in the Stephen Fry series Kingdom]. Ha, I bet he was terrible. You can always tell when people haven’t picked up a bat. I love talking cricket with Stephen though; he is like a modern-day C Aubrey Smith.

I went to last summer’s Ashes Test at Old Trafford on the Sunday, the day before we started filming the new series of Cold Feet; I sat at the top of the ‘party stand’, as that was the only seat available. England were trying to save the match and it was a day of blocking. It was magnificent, really confirming why Test cricket surpasses all other forms. All day there were cheers for every forward defence. It was one of the most thrilling days I have seen actually, even though England lost. I never remember what happens in one-day internationals.

I love looking at pitches. It is a shame stewards are so zealous at keeping people off them now. I just love to look at how tightly knit the grass is, or how dusty they are, and nod sagely. I am always intrigued to see how they compare to the school or park wickets I have played on. I would love to put my car keys into them. It was always lovely to see people playing on the outfield in the John Player days. It made it all feel so inclusive.

I adore the psychology of cricket – how matches can swing. How you can retrieve an impossible situation.

Being a professional must be so knackering: how can they survive a whole season, carrying injuries and so on? The schedule is just so crazy. Every year they say they are going to make it work, but every summer they cram more into it, adjusting formats every other day. It’s like the goose that laid the golden egg. Maybe Test cricket will be phased out. How sad will that be?

I did a radio show a few years ago, produced by Garry Richardson. I played the head of the ECB. I was proposing a new format. This was before The Hundred. It was called the one/one
– one ball per innings. It allowed people to go the pub and finish a pint in the time it took to watch the game. Then of course last summer we had the Super Over. When you can have that excitement in one over, some people will no doubt ask, why bother with the 19 before?

Interview by Huw Turbervill

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

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