An evening for Sussex Cricket Foundation
Despite my great reservations about Zoom expressed this week I attended an evening on it last night to raise money for the Sussex Cricket Foundation.
A specialist company on Zoom events organised the logistics and you could see the immediate difference in professionalism. The event started bang on time with the anthem of Brighton HAFC and Sussex CCC – Good Old Sussex by the Sea.
John Altman played a medley on the saxophone showcasing a musical career in which he was part of Hot Chocolate and arranged for Rod Stewart and Van Morrison.
Paul Craven did some card tricks.
Magic has always left me cold as you know it’s not magic but props, hand dexterity and auto-suggestion, but there is always the inevitable “How on earth did he do that?!” after a trick.
Then we came to the highlight of the evening: the Q & A with Matt Prior, Peter Moores and Tony Pigott.
Matt Prior, with a Test average of 41, was one of the great English Test wicketkeeper-batsmen in an era when that position was strong with the likes of Jack Russell, Alec Stewart, Geraint Jones, Chris Read and Jamie Foster, but his career was prematurely terminated by a terrible Achilles injury.
Peter Moores coached Sussex to their first championship in 2003 and after that Lancashire to another and was twice England coach.
Tony Pigott was one of three – along with Jim Marler and Jim May – who led the revolution when the entire Committee was voted out at the Grand Hotel AGM.
Due respect was paid to Moores, captain Chris Adams, Mushtaq “The Magician “Ahmed and Murray Goodwin, but nothing would have been achieved without the legacy of £16m by Spen Cama.
Matt Prior, though around, was not the wicketkeeper of the 2003 side – Tim Ambrose was – but Prior’s explosive batting soon caught the eye not just of Sussex but England.
I was there at Lords against the West Indies when he scored a century on his debut.
When asked to nominate his greatest cricketer of all-time he chose Jaques Kallis.
Peter Moores went for Malcolm Marshall.
The evening raised in the auction just under £6000 for the Foundation and was a thoroughly enjoyable occasion.
