Bradshaw book to haunt MCC blazers

FORMER MCC chief executive Keith Bradshaw is to publish the book he was warned would lead to him never working in cricket again.

Bradshaw was first going to write an account in 2011 about his frustrating time at Lord’s, where his visionary attempts to renovate the stadium and introduce a franchise T20 competition were blocked by the reactionary MCC blazers at every turn.

Since then Bradshaw, who has been fighting cancer for nine years, has moved back to Australia to become CEO of South Australian Cricket and play a major role in modernising the Adelaide Oval into a multi-sport global showcase mixing the old with the new as Lord’s could have done.

The Adelaide success story which has enhanced Bradshaw’s reputation has also emboldened him to finish his life story — to be published later this year — that could cause major embarrassment at Lord’s.

It will likely give more ammunition to those who believe Lord’s should take property developer options to have the funding to keep the ground on a par with the Australian cricket facilities at their Test match venues.

Bradshaw is also likely to reveal more about former MCC chairman Sir Michael Jenkins being keen around 2001 on examining the benefits of the club building a new super stadium away from Lord’s but not wanting to go public over such a revolutionary proposal. MCC grandees Peter Leaver, former Premier League chief executive, and His Honour Judge Nigel Peters will be rushed off their feet throughout the Lord’s Test against Australia in 2019 trying to reciprocate the lavish hospitality they have tucked into with so much gusto seemingly at every day of the cricket in Melbourne and Sydney.

boringly predictable has been the course of this Sydney Test that new grounds manager Justin Groves — responsible for his first Test pitch at the Sydney Cricket Ground — was confident in announcing that Australia would wrap up victory an hour after lunch on the final day when he spoke at an SCG Trust lunch the day before. He was just five minutes out in his forecast.

IS hard to believe that England’s unaccountable national selector James Whitaker (right), who does his best to keep away from the media to the extent he hasn’t done a single interview while he has been in Australia for the bulk of the Ashes, invented the team huddle as Leicestershire’s County Championship-winning captain in 1996.