Having listened to Andrew Strauss on the radio this morning, I wanted to share this with you and ask you to take a little look. Andrew Strauss ought to be enjoying retirement with his wife and 2 boys, Sam, 13 and Luca, 10. Sadly, Andrew’s wife, Ruth, died in December 2018 from a rare and incurable form of lung cancer. Andrew has just launched The Ruth Strauss Foundation.
Clearly, as a former and extremely successful England Cricket Captain, Strauss has an opportunity that not everyone has. He says himself that he has “…a platform to try to make a difference to other people.” Struss also says that “…it’s such a wonderful thing to be able to launch something in her honour to try to provide a legacy for her (Ruth), but more importantly to help other people who are going through a similar journey.” (See https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/48364893).
Given what Strauss achieved as a cricketer and a leader, he deserves every bit of support and I want to wish him all the best. I am quite certain that the England and Wales Cricket Board will support the Strauss family with this venture.
As it happens, I had been thinking for a little while that I might write a little bit about cricket. The combination of this foundation and the fact that 2019 is going to be such an amazing summer makes this a good time to start. While I have never been any good at all at playing, I have loved watching Lancashire and England from a young age. Andrew Strauss was a bit of an inspiration for me as player and captain.
In 2004 England were turning into a good team that would go on to win the Ashes in that great 2005 series but still needed young batsmen. England had gone from being utter rubbish in 1999 (and most of the 1990s) to being a determined and hard to beat side though one that did not win too many games. And then it started to change and in 2004 England won 7 out of 7 test matches in that summer of 2004.
In the first test match against New Zealand, Strauss arrived and he seemed to keep making hundreds. He would have made 2 centuries on debut but for Nasser Hussains’s intervention. In the 2005 Ashes he was the only batsman on either side to make 2 hundreds and the Old Trafford one still is memorable (even after having his helmet knocked off). Not to mention that catch at Trent Bridge. In the 1990s it felt like a batsman was in the team if he scored a fifty but with Vaughan, Trescothick and Strauss England had batsman that belonged in international cricket.
Post 2005, England did not quite manage to kick on and in 2009 it felt like we were heading towards farce once again when England were bowled out for 51. Strauss was appointed Captain, took England to number one in the world and won the Ashes home and away. People like me will never forget that scorecard at the end of Day 1 of the Melbourne Test Match. 157 for no lost and England were already well past Australia’s 98 all out.
All the best to Andrew, Sam and Luca.
Now I am off to get the 2005 DVD out. Again.
Cricketed 