Association of Cricket Officials Issue 27 | Page 10

Retired Out At the last ECB ACO Board meeting of 2016, three key figures decided to call time on their personal involvement. Constitutionally, the Chairman is required to confirm his retirement to the membership at the annual AGM and, on Saturday 29th October, Roger did just that. These three tributes, written by Nick Cousins, highlight the valuable contribution Roger Knight, Peter Mitchell and Tony Hemmings have brought to the Association. Roger Knight OBE – Chairman It was in the summer of 1971 when I first met Roger Knight. I was 17 years of age and newly arrived as a summer recruit to the old ‘Club and Ground’ group that comprised mainly young lads like myself doing all the odd jobs at Gloucestershire’s County Ground in Bristol. Roger had recently come down from Cambridge, and was playing for the First XI in a vintage side that contained such masters as Sadiq Mohammed, Zahir Abbas and Michael Proctor. Heady days. In truth, most of the pros kept to themselves and we did not have much to do with them aside from admire them from the boundary – but that was not true of Roger. He made it his business to come across, chat, advise and generally be the ‘good bloke’ that has marked him out to all who have come across him before – or since. Nine years later I had finished university and fetched up as a teacher at Dulwich College, among other things, appointed to run the cricket. This was an interesting assignment for a young man, not least because Roger was on the staff teaching French, as well as switching roles to be the Captain of Surrey CCC throughout the summer. 10 The point is that the advice from Roger was always sound, full of common sense and compassionate – qualities that everyone who knows him will recognise. It is interesting that in some ways our careers have paralleled (well, very generally speaking). Roger went off to be a Housemaster at Cranleigh: I was a Housemaster at Dulwich. Roger was a Headmaster at Worksop College: I was a Deputy Headmaster at RGS High Wycombe (well I did say generally) and Roger finished his professional career in cricket as Secretary and Chief Executive of MCC, whilst I expect to finish my professional career as Head of ECB ACO. The fact that I am in this post is entirely down to Roger, so if you do not like it, blame him! When Roger retired from MCC he was almost immediately tapped up by ECB to accept the chairmanship of the newly formed ECB ACO Board in December 2007. Having accepted this position, he invited me to be the first independent member of the Board. Shortly after that I was invited by Mike Gatting to join the ECB full time, in the first instance as the Education Manager and subsequently Head of ECB ACO as I am today. During the last eight years, Roger and I have worked very closely together and he has been instrumental in providing leadership to the governance structure which is the backbone of everything we do. Essentially, the Board or Management Committee is responsible for the strategic planning and the email us at [email protected] contact us on 0121 446 2710