Cassette recording of the 2005 Cowdrey Lecture delivered by Geoffrey Boycott. The recording took place at Lord's Cricket Ground, and consists of two sides of a cassette.
Side 1: [0:00-4:30] MCC President T W Graveney introduces Boycott, and talks about the MCC Spirit of Cricket campaign, [4:30-36:40] Boycott delivers the Cowdrey Lecture. Boycott talks about Graveney, his first memories of watching cricket, M C Cowdrey and helping Cowdrey score a century for England against Australia at Edgbaston in 1968, the success of the Australian team from 1990-2005, playing in the first One-Day International for England against Australia in 1971 and his thoughts on the success of One-Day Internationals and the use of powerplays, the decline of Test match attendances around the world, changes Boycott would make to Test cricket including four-day Tests, changes to over rates, the use of white balls in floodlit cricket, improvements to red cricket balls, the balance between the number of Tests and One-Day Internationals, criticism of the International Cricket Council (ICC)'s rankings and the performances of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe at Test level, and his desire to see a Twenty20 World Cup tournament.
Side 2: [0:00-12:45] Boycott continues with the Cowdrey Lecture. Subjects include the use of television umpires and use of a challenge system for appeals, sledging, the front foot no ball law, bowling actions, the bowling action of Muttiah Muralitharan, and ends the lecture by talking about M C Cowdrey playing for England against Pakistan at Headingley in 1962 and Cowdrey going for a haircut during the Test match, [12:45-47:52] M C J Nicholas introduces Sunil Gavaskar and the Cowdrey family, and then hosts a panel discussion with Boycott, R M Hogg and A W Greig. Subjects discussed by the panel include Greig's relationship with E W Swanton, the Spirit of Cricket, whether to walk or not after being given out, honesty in cricket, the panel joking about Greig not walking during a Test match, the use of technology in cricket and how it affects fast bowlers and bad language used in cricket, the ICC rankings and Australia's domination of Test cricket, the Super Series in October 2005 between Australia and an ICC World XI, the balance between bat and ball, floodlight cricket, the decline of Test match cricket around the world, and the Test series between England and Australia in 2005. The end of the recording is cut off.
