Health Not Helped By Staying In Hotel

Graeme Fowler tells Richard Edwards that players should be allowed a drink, but that the culture has changed

- Graeme Fowler

 Graeme Fowler was fortunate enough to grow up in a halcyon period of touring with the national team. The results may have been somewhat patchy but, my God, was it fun to spend five months with the likes of Ian Botham, David Gower and Allan Lamb.

He even managed to forge a friendship with Sir Elton John during England’s Ashes series Down Under in 1982/83.

But while he was lucky in one sense he was exceptionally unfortunate in another.

“I think I flew back from that series having banked £1100,” he tells The Cricket Paper. “Over the course of the tour that worked out at £22 a week."

So, while Fowler might have enjoyed himself Down Under, it hardly did much to boost his financial security, with players back then having to pay for their wives or girlfriends to fly to Australia to join them on tour and also having to shell out for their accommodation for the duration of their stay

The length of the tours also did precious little to keep those marriages together on the player’s return.

“I remember my wife opening the door when I got back and me thinking, I was going to have to get to know her all over again,” he says.