My sporting hero calls it a day

Every sport fan has their heroes, often it’s the entire team they support. But usually there is one player that stands out from the crowd, the one who we feel is worth the admission price on their own.

Often, they are either the most gifted player in the side or have that something different that makes them stand out from the crowd. They play to the gallery and they entertain. Are you thinking of yours? Bobby Moore, Georgie Best, David Beckham, perhaps?! We had former Man United and Wales player Mickey Thomas in the studio recently, he is Ryan Giggs’ hero.

We all have them, it’s not just us mortals – even Wayne Rooney must have one, we all do. If football isn’t your first love, maybe you’re thinking of a JPR Williams, a Martin Johnson or even a Freddie Flintoff? For me, cricket is the ultimate and when I was growing up there was an abundance of English heroes to support: the enigmatic David Gower, the run machine that was Graham Gooch or the most obvious: Ian Terrence Botham.

For my Dad it was the Beckham of his day, the original ‘Brylcreem Boy’, Dennis Compton. For me though it was always Graeme Hick. When he came onto the scene for my team, Worcestershire, in a whirlwind of record breaking innings and expectation in the mid to late 80s I was at the perfect age to be inspired.

I was in my early teens and a cricket nut and in the glorious summer of 1988, I watched in awe as Hick set the cricketing world alight. Born in Zimbabwe, Hick had toured England with his country’s youth team before signing for Worcestershire in 1984. It was where he was to ply his destructive trade for the next quarter of a century. He was a prodigious talent, scoring his first schoolboy century in his homeland aged just six and in 1987, aged 22, was voted Wisden’s Cricketer of the Year.