Cricket: Peter Edwards - the last interview

The workaholic boss of Essex cricket was in typically combative mood as he contemplated a new cricket season just before leaving his beloved county ground at Chelmsford -- as we now sadly know, for the last time.

The working holiday to South Africa and Zimbabwe on which he tragically died was a rare break for Peter Edwards, who regularly put in a six-and-a-half-days week and rarely took a holiday. Indeed, he said he took only one day off in the whole of 1999.

But as he gazed out over the county ground at Chelmsford from his office high in the pavilion, Peter Edwards also looked back on the 21 years he has been secretary/general manager of the most successful contemporary cricket county.

When he arrived in 1979 honest, homely Essex had not won a title worth having in 103 years. Since then they have won more trophies than any other county, including six championships.

Not that he takes any credit for it, of course.

He acknowledges the debt to the great players who have graced the playing fields of Essex in that time. Too many to single out, maybe, but Graham Gooch runs like a silver thread through them all.

"I always thought we were the Liverpool of cricket because they were winning everything then.

''We were head and shoulders above every other team in the land. In a way we're like Liverpool now, the sleeping giants," he said.

But, as the club's professionals limber up for a series of friendlies at Chelmsford before the serious competition starts on April 15, Edwards, 63, admitted that his greatest task was balancing the books.

"Although we've had 29 consecutive years of profit, and this year we look like coming out on the right side, next year looks horrendous.

"Nearly 50 per cent of our income, about £1.2 million, comes from the England and Wales Cricket Board from test match receipts and sponsorship.

''That's not going to go up this year and could even go down; it's a very difficult commercial market."

The great imponderable is what effect Essex's 'demotion' to the new second division of the county championship will have on attendances at the 5,500 capacity county ground.

Edwards conceded that the club's membership (nearly 7,000 last year) would probably drift down, and he was concerned about a fall-off in commercial sponsorship of executive boxes and marquees at matches.

And if you run a business that loses money when the weather is bad, you tend to pay as close attention to Michael Fish as to Eddie George at the Bank of England. For Edwards, born in Ilford and a long-time resident of Southend, worrying about depressions from the Atlantic was just another of his jobs.

It was fortunate that his wife, Sue, who represented Essex at four different sports and who was with him when he died in Cape Town, also acknowledged that being Mr Essex Cricket was an important job.

Edwards was in charge of everything except the playing of the game, which is former captain Keith Fletcher's responsibility, but he also handled all the administration concerning the cricket and the players.

The man who operated a £50million budget, working for a large builder before taking the Essex job, said: "It runs just like a commercial company with me as chief executive.

''There are 26 full-time staff, excluding the players, and a management team of four or five, looking after finance, marketing, the ground, and so on.

"Our business is cricket. We have to market ourselves and we have the same problems as any business. You can be sure that we watch the exchange rate and the stock market closely. After all, we have an investment portfolio which is the best part of £2million."

Above the employed staff is the unpaid cricket committee, chaired by former off spinner, David Acfield.

Both he and Edwards were also big hitters at Lord's, taking a leading part in administering cricket throughout the land.

Peter Edwards was known as a combative committee man proud to represent what could be called the Old Traditionalists XI.

He resisted four-day championship cricket, detested the great pyjama pantomime which one day competitions have become and was as vitriolic about the split to two divisions. He used to hammer out opinions and statistics faster than Gooch hit cover drives on a good day.

"I don't like a lot of what is going on in the game," he said "and I keep saying so."

Edwards, father of two and grandfather of four, was fiercely protective of the cricket festivals Essex plays at Ilford, Southend and Colchester.

They were severely affected by four day cricket which reduced the number of matches played.

"People are now beginning to ask whether they make us enough money. But we need to go to those places and encourage school kids to watch.

''Colchester is important because it spreads our tentacles into Suffolk, and Ilford does the same for the London area.

''A lot of very good Essex cricketers have come from there."

So how did he see the future of his beloved Essex from his office overlooking the extra cover boundary?

The county ground, the freehold of which is owned by the club, is regularly stalked by predatory developers, and Edwards conceded that selling up and moving to an out-of-town site, with none of New Writtle Street's parking problems, was a possibility.

Playing staffs would probably have to be reduced, top cricketers contracted to Lord's and soccer-style transfers could come in.

He said: "Our future is tied up with the whole future of cricket. We can't survive on our own and have got to learn to fit in with the more instant entertainment.

''We've got to get a successful England team, because success trickles down to the lower levels.

"And we've got to find some charismatic characters to bring some life back to the game. People such as Compton, or in latter years, Viv Richards and Ian Botham. People like that would guarantee the future of cricket."

Not forgetting characters like Peter Edwards.

(Right) Cricket man: Peter Edwards.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.