Dinner with a difference

Tue July 21

After securing a late invitation to the MCC Members’ Tours farewell dinner at Lord’s (an invitation too good to pass up) I arrived in search of a drink and a quiet night at my table with some casual chit-chat and good food.

How wrong I was…

Not long after arriving, Peter French asked me if I could do him a favour.

“Sure Pete, what’s up?” I asked with some justified trepidation.

“I need you to interview Mike Gatting on stage after main course for me,” he replied.

So it was that, after a long day and a headspace that was a trifle cloudy, I found myself in front of 150-plus people chatting with the former England captain. I was told to ask him about “anything you think the audience wants to hear”, which is certainly a flexible brief!

I muddled my way through, touching on the previous day’s Lord’s Test result, injuries to Freddie Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen, Mitchell Johnson’s woes, umpiring, the future of Test cricket and, of course, the Warnie ball! It all seemed to go ok.

To cap off the night, I was seated next to former Australian fast bowler Rodney Hogg, which – for those who know him – never has a dull moment. It was fascinating to tap into a former player’s views on anything cricket-related.

He also correctly recalled that he and I captained against each other in Third XI Premier Cricket a few years back when he filled in to help out his son’s team at Fitzroy-Doncaster.

So there you have it. What promised to be a cruisy evening after a long day proved to be an audition for my own chat show – you never know what is around the corner do you?