The sad demise of the cricket programme, a passport to a simpler time

HUW TURBERVILL: Once a sought-after item at matches, now rarely bothered with at major events. The programme provided memories of great games and favourite outings

You’ll miss it when it’s gone. I didn’t notice it at Lord’s, but then news was brought to my attention that they were also missing from Edgbaston. The match programme, that mainstay of the British sporting occasion.

You know the ones, you buy them at inflated prices, read them once, then stick them in the loft.

That’s a bit harsh probably, there have been plenty of good reads in them over the years, but for me, their main purpose has been as a memento – a souvenir to show you were actually there.

With only 25 per cent crowds permitted at HQ, and uncertainty leading up to the Birmingham Test (in the end 17,000 attended each day out of a possible 25,000) you can see why the England and Wales Cricket Board did not want warehouses full of unsold programmes.

I have a small collection, and yes, they are kept in my loft.

The ones from 1986–1990 catch my eye. England v New Zealand, at The Oval, 1986; Pakistan at the same venue a year later; Sri Lanka at Lord’s, 1988; and India at HQ in 1990.

They are things of beauty. A pastel background, bold fonts, and the teams’ cloth badges as the main images. The New Zealand one is beige (what else?); the Pakistan one is in orange; the Sri Lanka cover is lemon, and India’s is in their traditional sky blue.

Good to talk? Naomi Osaka stance reminiscent of Mike Atherton and Duncan Fletcher

There are articles from the leading cricket journos of the day – it was always a nice couple of hundred quid extra to top up regular salaries or freelance earnings. David Lemmon was the editor. Pat Gibson was a regular. There is a disconcertedly young Scyld Berry, who has had his picture taken in a passport booth. Graham Otway explains his fear of flying.

The pen pics are probably the highlight – telling you who’s who. The New Zealand one reminds of the Graham Gooch gag about their bowling attack of course – Richard Hadlee at one end, Ilford 2nds at the other. Which was harsh on Ewen Chatfield and John Bracewell especially. In 1990 it says of Sachin Tendulkar: “He is still waiting for that first Test century but experts are sure that when it comes it will be the first of many.” They were not wrong. He’d played seven Tests before the series started. That first ton came in the second Test of the series, at Old Trafford. By the end, he had made 51 in 200 matches.

Also included inside are those subtle cigarette adverts, when the law restricted them from actually saying the name of the company. So the letters that make Benson & Hedges are flowing out of a tap, for instance. Clever design work, it has to be said. There are also ads for the Test sponsors of the time, Cornhill Insurance, and various Australian cooking lagers; and wonderful adverts for The Cricketer magazine. There are also basic stats. 

^{Alastair Cook's final Tests; the 94-95 Ashes}

There was an accompaniment to the main programme, called The Official Tour Guide. In 1986 it covered the India and New Zealand series together, and had Kapil Dev and Hadlee on the cover, with David Gower and Mike Gatting in the middle – that was prophetic of the Test and County Cricket Board, as the former handed the reins to the latter after the first Test of the summer, a defeat to India at Lord’s. There’s a feature about allrounders – this was their era of course, also including Ian Botham and Imran Khan – inside. It was an ignominious summer for England – Test series defeats to both touring slides, but glory would follow that winter...

Both sets of pen pix are reprinted here, so it’s not a terribly original package, but it was something else for the collection. I also have one from 1988, which focuses mainly on West Indies, here for five Tests, with only a passing nod to Sri Lanka (one). Clive Lloyd, the ex-captain by now, pens some words for it. 

The 1989 edition for Australia’s visit has articles by Ian Wooldridge and Richie Benaud, signalling an upsurge in quality.

Making up my collection is a trio of random ones. The 1994-95 Test program (note spelling) accompanied me on my travels in Australia that winter. The Australians didn't go in for individual match programmes as a rule. There are articles by Sir Donald Bradman, Ian Chappell, Benaud and Allan Border – good reads they are too, and although the pen pics are a bit skimpy and random, there’s plenty to enjoy in this one.

I’m also fond of the England v India v Sri Lanka NatWest Series brochure of 2002, as I was deputy editor. My boss was Duncan Steer, a bit of a blue-sky thinker when it came to these sorts of things. He was a bit left-field. The year before he sent me to interview Glenn McGrath at Lord’s, not to ask him about how he had a stranglehold over Mike Atherton, but about his hobby of shooting wild pigs. It was refreshing and original (if a bit gruesome). Steer was also a proponent of the entertaining sidebar.

There’s the usual corporate guff that has to be in there, but generally, it’s a good read.

^{Some overseas classics carrying logs of alcohol companies}

I wrote an article called 20/20 vision in it about a new format that was being tried out in county cricket the following year. It will never catch on…

Fulfilling an ambition after reading all those 1980s efforts, I see I got to write the England pin pics. 

There’s a 16-year gap in my collection before the next one. I went to the matches but maybe didn’t bother collecting the programmes, which is a source of regret now, with Sir Alastair Cook is on the cover for England v India at The Kia Oval, his last Test. He made 71 and 147 of course, and a quick search on eBay draws a blank. Could it be that these items are so precious, and changing hands for such vast sums, that buying my own cricket ground could finally become a reality? I doubt it: the 1980s ones seem to be going for about a fiver these days.

The paper is matt rather than glossy, which is a bit of a shame, but there's a nice mix of historical and contemporary material, under the strong stewardship of John Stern.

The press officer for Warwickshire informs us that the club hopes to bring the programme back once the pandemic is under control, and he says he’s a badger himself for such items, so fingers crossed. 

Although youngsters’ obsessions with their phones has perhaps diminished the appeal of such printed products sadly, the souvenir programme is still the best way of proving: “I was there!”