Why I love cricket: Mick Harford

I’ve become great friends with Thommo. It happened when a mutual friend asked me to play golf with him when he was over in England – it must have been for the 2001 Ashes. It just so happened that we were playing golf in the morning and the afternoon. I was playing with Brian Stein, Andy King (God rest his soul), John Hartson and a few others. So we played some rounds at Millbrook and Woburn, had a great game of golf, and then as you can imagine we ended up having a few drinks and a game of cards. And it’s gone from there.

Funnily enough Thommo was the childhood hero of my elder brother John, who lives up in Durham. We’d sit at home watching the Test matches on BBC, and we’d have watched when Thommo broke into the Australia side in the mid-1970s. Thommo was doing the after-dinner circuit and he did a chat in an old mining village, so my brother came along and met him for a brief encounter, which was lovely.

Thommo stays with me in Harpenden whenever he comes over to England, which isn’t as often as it used to be. He’s just had a hip replacement, so he’s on the mend. People in Harpenden started recognising him from the way he limps around town! Like most sportsmen his joints are knackered, and with that famous whiplash action I doubt it did him too many favours!

He’s introduced me to all the cricketing legends over the years. I went up into the Lord’s Media Centre with him, which was great, and to a West Indies Legends dinner, where he regaled them about all that stuff he dished out in the 1975/76 series in Australia!

Thommo likes to think he was a decent footballer in his youth, or soccer player as they call it in Australia. But he certainly has a passion for it, and he follows Luton Town from afar as a result of being mates with me.

^{Celebrating Luton's promotion from League One}

I grew up in Sunderland in the 1960s and we played football and cricket in the streets. It was just what you did. I didn’t play for a club, but I did play at school – at lunchtimes and in PE lessons. We had a plastic matting wicket which we laid out on the field in summertime. I really got into it from there. I was up at 4am watching all of England’s Test matches over the winter, which were interesting games!

I went to my first Test match when I was 18 or 19. I started going more regularly when I was playing for Lincoln City [1977–80]. I recall going along to Trent Bridge to watch the first day of the 1980 Test against West Indies. All I can remember is Boycott and Tavaré batting for a while, and it did test my patience a bit!

I played at Lincoln alongside Phil Neale, who batted No.3 for Worcestershire in summer and was the last of the professional footballer/cricketers. Phil used to get a fair bit of stick when he turned up at training in September with his cricketer’s V-neck tan! In fairness he was a very good footballer, very proficient at full-back and he must have been close to an England call-up at cricket. Obviously he went on to play a crucial backroom role with England.

I went over to Australia for the last Ashes there and was at the Gabba for the opening Test. That’s Thommo’s turf so I stayed with him, which was great. The bizarre thing was that he didn’t want to go, so I ended up going on my own! But then the first person I saw there was Paul Jewell with a pool of all his mates. So I didn’t end up short of company!

I’m chief recruitment officer at Luton now, and when we do have a rare Saturday off I go down to Harpenden Common to watch Harpenden 1st XI. It’s a good standard of cricket, a lovely ground and a short walk from the town centre. I’m not an expert in the way the ex-pros are, but the tactics of the bowling and the field placings are what really intrigue me.

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When I go to a Test match I like to get in early so I can watch the teams training. That’s the manager and ex-pro in me – I’m keen to see how the pros prepare. It’s vastly improved: they are real athletes now. They tell me football has been banned in England warm-ups – it’s funny how all the cricketers think they can play football, and all the footballers think they can play cricket!

I’ve played a lot of charity games, but not so many since I’ve had a knee replacement. It was Thommo who introduced me to David English, one of the funniest men I know. We surprised him once by turning up at his house in north London. “No one comes to visit me here!” he said. Well, we did! I got my one five-for for his Bunbury XI, when Dave kept me on longer than he might have, which was good of him. I bowl steady medium-pace, pretty gentle if I’m honest. On the button.

It is sad that with the sports becoming so professional there’s no time for footballers to play cricket in the summer. The players are advised now by the sport scientists to rest up, and to be fair after a long season I’m not sure they’d want to go out and play cricket. Our Luton manager Nathan Jones is a decent cricketer. I was playing a charity game with him and he turned his arm over nicely.

Football was a tough game when I played, and I’ve spoken before about what all the heading of the ball might have done to us footballers. I can’t imagine what it’s like facing a hard ball at 90mph whizzing past your head. Thommo says they’ve got it the wrong way round: “They should’ve had helmets on when we were allowed to bowl as many bouncers as we wanted; now they’ve got them on when they can only bowl one or two an over!”

Interview by James Coyne

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