We don't like cricket, we love it... But do you really?

What is it that attracts celebrities to the cricket? A deep love of the game or a passing fad, asks Derek Pringle.

- Derek Pringle

Worcestershire’s New Road has been graced by cricket’s greatest names, but they still talk of the stellar celebrity line-up which appeared on the dressing-room balcony there in 1987, a top trumps trio comprising George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Elton John.

All sports love the stardust bestowed by celebrity support, and cricket is no different. But is it a passing fad or even a love of something other than the game which piques the big boys’ interest as with the rock royalty above?

Elton is more closely associated with football and his beloved Watford, a tribal association borne of geography given his upbringing in nearby Pinner. His credentials for liking cricket are less clear, but he did tour New Zealand at the same time as England’s cricketers in 1983, forming a friendship with the likes of Ian ‘Beefy’ Botham, Bob Willis and Graeme Fowler.

Celebrities can be fickle, but Elton obviously enjoyed their company as the association endured for a few years. I wasn’t a part of that ’83 tour, but I do remember Beefy asking me the following summer what I was doing after play as we stood in the slips together at Lord’s against the West Indies. “Why?” I asked. “Coz Elton’s invited us all to a party at Old Windsor,” he replied, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. We went too, a splendid but curious affair that involved about eight of the England team, Elton and his band, and his then wife, Renate.

While George Harrison’s presence was a one-off, Eric Clapton became a regular at Worcestershire in the late 80s though I suspect, like Elton, it was the cult of Botham which attracted him more than the cricket. A bona fide English hero, Beefy’s derring-do, his incredible feats with bat, ball and beer vat, were the stuff of myth and legend by then, and nothing drives celebrity culture more than them.