Zimbabwe tour is wrong, says new MCC chief

Not many old sweats have filled the post and the invitation from his predecessor Charles Fry (grandson of CB Fry) was hardly expected.

"I had a whisper about it back in February," Graveney said. "My son rang me up and said there was talk about me going to be president of MCC. I told him, 'Don't take the Mickey out of your father'. When the invitation actually arrived I was very surprised, tremendously surprised.

"For every person in the game it is the best thing that could happen. It's a great honour to be president of the greatest club in the world."

In his playing days, Graveney was a batsman of poise and elegance. His distinguished career spanned from the post-war ration book years to beyond the Swinging Sixties and the arrival of knockout games and the Sunday League, taking in England's dominance of the 1950s and a few skirmishes with the authorities a long the way. "I started playing in 1948 and, apart from when I ended up running a squash club in Southend for about 12 months, I've been involved or on the fringes of cricket ever since," he said. "I suppose this honour could be the final recognition of my years in the game."

However, for all his 122 first-class centuries, 79 Test appearances and a later career in television, Graveney was more often seen by the authorities as a figure of controversy.

He left his first county, Gloucestershire, under a cloud after discovering they had sacked him as captain. The county then reneged on an agreement to let him play for Worcestershire straight away and, following a ruling by the MCC no less, he spent most of 1961 playing for his new county's 2nd XI and in the Birmingham League.

Eight years later, he was up before the beak again after fulfilling a longstanding arrangement, worth £1,000, by playing in a benefit match at Luton on the Sunday rest day of the First Test against the West Indies.

Graveney was less than a week away from his 42nd birthday at the time and had not expected to be chosen. Despite scoring 75 in his last Test innings, the resultant reprimand and three-match ban by the Test and County Cricket Board ended his international career.

"I've never been the sort of person who argues with people very much, only when I think its fair," Graveney said. "The Test match thing was unfortunate. I actually told the chairman of selectors (former England team-mate Alec Bedser) that if I couldn't play in the benefit match he should leave me out of the Test side. I was listening to the radio on the Sunday before the Test and heard I was in the team.

"So I thought that's okay then, but it wasn't until the Test got under way that I was told I wasn't allowed to play at Luton. But it was too late. I had already committed myself. I was quite old by then, and I wasn't going to be playing Test cricket for much longer anyhow, but it was a sour way to end. It should never have happened."

Graveney was talking as he surveyedthe scene at Lord's, where work has begun on an £8.2million renovation of the pavilion.

"Grassroots cricket is the major objective of MCC now," he said. "Bringing the game to youngsters and to the schools. Promoting the game by sending teams all over the world. One of my predecessors, Tim Rice, even took a team to Estonia.

"When I first began, MCC ran everything and the picture from outside was that the game was in the hands of fuddy-duddies. But everything is done properly now. The finger is on the button."

If Graveney, whose nephew David is chairman of selectors, has one big wish for his year in office it is for England to give Australia a drubbing in next summer's Ashes series.

"It's a good England side," he said. "We've got heroes now. We've suddenly produced Harmison, Flintoff, Trescothick and Vaughan. We've got people the kids can identify with."