Cricket: Cricket Can Become Country's Number One Sport, Says Soper As Ecb Chairmanship Decision Looms
Mike Soper's sense of urgency is perfectly understandable. For as he watched England play India from the Grandstand here yesterday, the favourite to become the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board next month knew that he may not be alive for India's next visit in 2011. Nominations to succeed David Morgan in one of the leading jobs in world cricket close this afternoon and the heavily supported Soper is expected to beat Somerset's Giles Clarke in a two-horse race. Six-and-a-half years ago the 61-year-old Soper, who has bone and prostate cancer, was told he had only six months to live. He was chairman of Surrey then and John Major, the former prime minister who became the club's president, gave him some important contacts in America who extended his life. "I've been told I've got four years left," he said yesterday. "But I've been told that within that time a vaccine will come out. I'm trying out different drugs. Some work, some fail - they've put me on a steroid which means I have to go to the gym every day. But I will die of bone cancer, so you can see why I've become passionate. This is my final ambition but this would be only the start because there are so many things I want to do within the game." Soper, who has been nominated by Surrey and seconded by Sussex and Derbyshire, is expected to beat off the challenge of Clarke, a leading player in the TV deal which saw live Test cricket removed from terrestrial networks. Bill Morris, the former general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union who is a non-executive member of the ECB management board, has his backers. But Lord Morris, 68, confirmed last night that he would not be standing. "It has always been my position that I would not be a candidate," he said. "There has been speculation and encouragement from others but I've decided that I will not be a candidate." The result of the ballot will be confirmed on August 28. Morgan steps down at the end of September to take over as chairman of the International Cricket Council. Soper, opinionated and eloquent, will make his voice heard, just as he did in his eight years leading Surrey, where he was behind a number of initiatives as the club's membership doubled to almost 9,000. "I still feel cricket can become the number one sport in this country," he said, a touch optimistically. "A lot of people say I lost the last election against Lord McLaurin because I said then that cricket could take on soccer. But that came true, briefly, the other day, when the Liverpool-Aston Villa game was watched by fewer people than attended a Twenty20 game. Twenty20 is our way forward. "I still love the four and five day games but I believe you've got to get the youngsters to watch. I started watching when I was eight or nine with my Dad. I wasn't prepared to sit there for three days and kids today won't either. I want to get young people in - even free of charge if necessary - because everyone remembers his first game. Then they come back." When Surrey won the county championship in 1999 Soper had the idea of setting prices for their final match of the season at 1971 levels, the year they previously won the title. "We had the most wonderful atmosphere, we gained 170 new members and my postbag was full with letters from people thanking us," he said." On another occasion, on the last day of a Test match between England and the West Indies, he opened the executive boxes to the public, charging everyone £10. "We filled out the whole lot and not a bottle of beer was stolen," he said. Fascinated by naval history, he describes himself as a "Nelson lunatic" and once possessed a large collection of cutlasses and a small cannon. He plays the piano, though hot as well as his father. "I revere my father," he says. "I still wear his old gold watch and talk to him every day and he always puts me straight. He told me to always be honest because that way I wouldn't have any competition."
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