A cricket charity lunch

Yesterday as a guest I attended a cricketing lunch at a seafront hotel to raise money for a community charity run by Sussex CCC.

The guest of honour was Glenn Hoddle.

I have been attending such lunches for over 30 years and the format has little changed.

For me the main drawback is the length of the proceedings which means you cannot get away much before 4-30pm.

However the cause is worthy and if the net result is the generation of funds for the charity then this can only be beneficial.

In the morning, the sport section of The Times carried an article about Glenn Hoddle by Matt Dickinson.

He had the story based on an interview of Hoddle’s unfortunate comment whilst England manager that the disabled are paying for their disability for acts committed in another life.

The comment, allied to player concern lover his association with faith healer Eileen Drewsry, cost him his job.

Hoddle has now written an autobiography called Playmaker in which he justifies his conduct.

Dickinson questioned his defence.

It’s all a shame as Glenn Hoddle was the finest player of his generation.

Two-footed, he could hit a sublime long pass when others were hoofing the ball upfront “to whom it may concern”.

As a player/manager he had success at Swindon and then Chelsea and now is one of the better TV analysts.

He came across as grounded, even humble, but that may have been due to the near-fatal heart attack he suffered 3 years ago.

Whether as a player or as a manager he was misunderstood.