My through a

Celebrities share the stories behind their favourite snaps. This week it’s former England cricketer Andrew Strauss, 44

1998

My summers at Durham University were all about cricket – this is me (left) graduating with my friend Luke Sutton. Only in the last year did the penny drop that, to get a professional contract, I had to get fit and focus more on practice. Your side of the bargain is to treat it like a job. When I started in Middlesex Second XI, I was surrounded by kids from council estates and I realised what a bubble I’d been in – I was the only kid who’d been to private school. 2005

After we won the Ashes, we went through London in an open-topped bus and then on stage in Trafalgar Square (pictured). We also had a reception at Downing Street which is a bit of a blur. I don’t think we were on our best form. As a sports professional, a lot of time is spent isolating yourself from spectators as you need to focus. But that day was one of those occasions when you think, ‘Wow, what we do is important to a lot of people.’ 2003

Marrying Ruth in Ballarat in Australia, where she grew up, set my life in a different direction. We met in 1998 in a pub in Sydney. It wasn’t the greatest place but it did the job. Ruth was an actress and didn’t have a UK work visa, so she’d pop over for six weeks, then I’d go over there. Long-distance relationships require sacrifices, but life was harder for her, curtailing her acting career. Pictured with us are Ben Hutton (far right), my best man, and Ruth’s sister Beth (far left). 2013

This picture with Ruth and our sons Sam (top left) and Luca was taken after I retired from playing cricket for England and was the start of my new life where family came first. It was a chance to reconnect with my loved ones, reduce my stress and think about what lies beyond cricket. Ruth and I did some great things then including running the London Marathon together. I got dragged back to the sport in 2015 as England’s Director of Cricket but for three years the focus was much more on family than career. 1987 2004Michael

I was called up to play for England at Lord’s when

Vaughan was injured. There was little expectation of me, which gave me a freedom and helped me achieve what seemed impossible: scoring a hundred on debut. I sat with Ruth the next night in Pizza Express on Baker Street and said that our lives would completely change – they did. 2019Before

she died of lung cancer in December 2018, Ruth talked about supporting families who had lost a parent and funding research into non-smoking lung cancers. We launched the Ruth Strauss Foundation on the first day of an Ashes Test at Lord’s; this was Sam (right) and Luca ringing the bell five minutes before the start of play. Red was Ruth’s favourite colour and I saw so many people dressed in red at the game. I was blown away. It was a hard day but my boys did brilliantly.

As told to Susan Gray. For information and to give your support, visit ruthstraussfoundation.com/donate 1982

My parents David and Dawn were both South African and this is me with my dad in Kruger National Park, where we’d go a few times a year to see the wildlife. So much of my early childhood was spent outdoors. Dad was in insurance broking and we left South Africa in 1984, spent two years in Australia where he opened a new office, then arrived in the UK when I was nine.

My dad loved rugby, so it was very much part of my life. Here I am receiving a trophy after a prep school sevens tournament. I was a small kid, and coming up against people a lot bigger than me was daunting, but it taught me courage. That became useful playing a cricket team like Australia who get in your face and don’t make it easy on you.