Stephen Fry: "I know that there will always be people who regret change"

HUW TURBERVILL speaks to the acclaimed actor and comedian ahead of the start of his tenure as MCC president on October 1

Stephen Fry, one of Britain's most-loved actors and comedians, becomes MCC's new president on October 1. He tells Huw Turbervill what he thinks the job entails; what he thinks about 'Bazball'; how he believes the game will evolve – and how uncovered pitches could receive an unlikely reprieve

Thank you for speaking to The Cricketer, Stephen. Congratulations on becoming MCC president. What will the job entail?

I've been lucky enough to know a few MCC presidents – Mike Gatting, Oliver Popplewell, Bob Alexander and lately I've become admiring of the current one, Clare Connor… I've got a sense of what it is… I'm not an expert on the committee side of things, but it's not an executive role… I've described it before as a cross between a regimental goat and the Queen Mother. There are three elements to it. 

1) To be the custodian of Lord's, which is important… it's a remarkable place. I don’t know an international player or anyone who doesn't get goosebumps when they walk out onto the ground. For somebody like Daryl Mitchell to get his name on the board... I know Stuart Broad quite well, and for all his achievements, he's thrilled to be on them twice, for a five-for and a century. I love this place. I love going to the Long Room. I don’t want to see it turned to plastic and neon. I don't want to see cricket cheapened.

2) To preside over the governance of the laws, which is a strange thing. I’m not going to change it to 'one hand, one bounce'; or 'tip and run in the last 10 overs'. The laws are universal: they apply to Mumbai, coconut matting in the West Indies, and to villages here. They need to be clear. We saw a great example recently – Henry Nicholls getting out at Headingley. For instance, I know people say bouncing off the bat is OK, off a helmet is OK, but bouncing off an umpire – maybe that shouldn't be permitted… small little things, but important. Not that I'll rule on them, although I'm happy to make contributions where necessary. Possibly I can help with the wording rather than the substance. 

3) Where cricket is going, and the influence and reputation of MCC around the world. I've been patron of the MCC Foundation for a while. That's important to me, to help people who don’t have access to equipment and coaching: to show a child what happens when a ball hits the bat. They get it so quickly and they're thrilled because it's such a magnificent bat and ball game.

OK you can play on the beach but they don't have the equipment or get taught – to be told: "Why do you bowl off that foot?" And the elasticity of children’s minds, and their enthusiasm is so great… it’s not as if 'they miss it and that's too late', but if they get it when they're young it can make such a difference – all these people who could go on to be wonderful cricketers and really benefit from the game, and they’re not getting a chance.

^{Fry takes over at Lord's from October 1 (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)}

Recently the final annual match between Eton and Harrow was played at Lord's. Some people are upset that it will no longer automatically be played at HQ. What are your thoughts on it?

I don’t have any objection to the Eton v Harrow match. It's a terrific tradition. I'm sure if I were an Etonian, I’d be shouting "Floreat Etona!". But what's that wonderful phrase that we all adore –'levelling up'… It's about changing people's view of what cricket is. A lot of that is helped when the cricketers whom people see and support come from communities all over Britain, all backgrounds.

In the way that football doesn’t belong to a class… Most of the great football clubs are urban and named after cities, usually industrial ones. Bolton, Bury. RIP Bury. Cricket is Hampshire, Worcestershire, the shires. But it wasn't an upper-class game. It was a shepherd's game. The names come from it – cricket from the shepherd's crook, and the wicket the gate where he put his straw bales. That's how the game developed, as a pastime for the working man. It needs to recover some of that.

If you're a confident institution, as Lord's was 100 or so years ago and is now, and MCC is now, then you make traditions, as well as maintaining others and letting others go: to have regular university finals, village finals here at Lord's. Schools could also do more. They have fantastic grounds. The average public school has three.

At my old school Uppingham, you could have 20 games going on in the middle. I'm not saying schools have been backward, they have been excellent, but more encouragement is needed to open them up – maybe outside term time, that huge stretch of the summer, or just before the summer, with training.

A lot of schools have ex-professionals who coach, ex-county players. No wonder these boys and girls come through. At Epsom College: Nat Sciver and Alice Davidson-Richards. I'm not saying these schools should be banned, but if everyone had the chances they had... It’s not a woke question, it's about making cricket better.

It's a bit like Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: 'Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert'... There are a lot of youngsters wasting their cricket fragrance in the desert air, and they have amazing eyes and brilliant cricket brains but have not been encouraged.

^{Lord's is dropping the annual Eton v Harrow fixture (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)}

Where do you stand on cricket's language being modernised?

I know that there will always be people, especially in a crusty old club, who regret change – like 'batter', not 'batsman'. They might see MCC as a still point in a whirling, swirling pond. They hate the idea of what they might see as 'Wokery'. But I think most people will understand it’s really not about that. It’s about making the game better.

I hope I can use the voice of the president to win over those who are finding the evolution of language difficulties. We don’t call them bowlsmen, do we? Or bowlsladies. No, we just call them bowlers.

Do you really want to go back to a left-armer's wrong 'un being called what it used to be? The CH-word. Or indeed the cut that goes back and misses the stumps and scores runs… Do you want that to be called the Ch***** cut? No. Why would you? What do we do about third man? Nightwatchman? I’m old enough to remember in the 70s, people going around and writing letters to the Telegraph along the lines of: "So, I suppose we now have to call a manhole a personhole, do we?" It's only our generation who are upset by it… it will very quickly pass.

The last few weeks have proved what an astonishing kaleidoscope of emotion and glory can be achieved in this game and we want to carry on. It won’t if you are not including the whole population and as many people as possible. So I know buzzwords like equity, diversity and inclusion annoy some people – as soon as they hear them their minds close. I know the rhetoric can sometimes be better, and it does put people off, but I'm just saying, just be a bit more open-minded. And I have taken the need for it too.

I see The Hundred and things like that and I think, "Really?" I wonder about it… but it's not my job to say it’s good or bad… and I know it’s made a lot of money. And people shrieking at matches and throwing things and I'm thinking is it becoming a bit 'yahoo'. What am I saying to that?

If you imagine how Fred Trueman and others, without trying to single out the great Fred, how would respond to Ben Stokes' wayward cavalier innings… or 'Bazball'. Lots of people are saying it’s just going too far. But his batting set the tone for Jamie Overton and Jonny Bairstow at Leeds. The style is so alien to what Test cricket was 10 years ago: it's thrilling to audiences. No one who loves cricket wants to see audiences diminish… but it's not easy to carry people with you.

^{Nat Sciver (Harry Trump/Getty Images)}

I was thinking about things that have changed for the good and I thought of covered wickets. But actually, I was thinking the day may come, because of the way people are batting now, that we might bring uncovered wickets back, to give the ball another chance. Not all changes are permanent. So it’s all about balance – not just between bat and ball…

You only need to read the letters in the Telegraph in 1961: the gents v players issue, where you had Mr for an amateur – Mr MJK Smith – and Trueman, FS, if you were a professional. Astonishing. People said: "That's the final nail in cricket's coffin, here’s my tie, I'm leaving." But come on we all know that was the right step… and similar changes happen.

It's not about taking cricket back. It's a river that is constantly flowing. Sometimes with, and sometimes against society. And sometimes as an oxbow lake that is marooned, and it needs to be rejoined to the river. But essentially it's all good and positive. It’s about loving the game, which is possibly the best pastime humankind has ever devised…

What are your winter plans?

I hope to follow the flag in South Africa and New Zealand this winter and hobnob with my oppos. Pakistan possibly as well, although whether they’d like some big, tall gay Englishman there is unlikely, I’ll keep my head down… I'm not being disrespectful, but you know what I mean.

Pakistan possibly as well, although whether they’d like some big, tall gay Englishman there is unlikely, I’ll keep my head down… I’m not being disrespectful, but you know what I mean.

One of the unsung miracles has been the development of Afghan cricket. We saw the 2019 World Cup – and they have the best legspinner in the world. The speed with which they took to the game. And America developing MLC Major League Cricket, how wonderful that's going to be.

The South Asian population are already captives of cricket so it could easily grow. Sarah Fane runs the MCC Foundation, she went to Lebanon recently. How many countries play around the world? It’s a vast number. So that’s something I can do.

^{Cricket has persevered in Afghanistan (Javed Tanveer/Getty Images)}

What fuelled your love of the game?

When I was at an age when I really could have learned to play cricket better I didn't enjoy playing it. I enjoyed watching it, I would go to the Sunday League games in Gloucestershire where my prep school was and really loved that and worshipped Mike Proctor who I had the honour of meeting recently.

I used to get called 'Unco' – short for uncoordinated – but I did enjoy the idea of cricket; I did enjoy the feeling of watching it and then when I was 14 or 15 it really got me and I just started to watch it all the time on TV.  I became addicted.

Now it dictates the rhythm of the year. There was that switch by Eric Morecambe: "Ernie, it’s April, cricket is coming, and the sound of leather on Brian Close." Now thanks to Sky and others you can watch almost anything crickety at any time and indeed when I am in America which I am a lot there is Willow. My best friend Hugh Laurie is quite good at it, and when we are apart we text about it and share our thoughts. That is a common bond among cricket lovers.

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