David “Syd” Lawrence rises to his feet in a meeting room at Gloucestershire’s Nevil Road ground, right leg in a boot because of an achilles injury. His muscles ripple across his shoulders like Himalayan foothills, his hands colossal hams.
He is waiting to be unveiled as the club’s next president at that evening’s AGM, the first black president of Gloucestershire and thought to be the first black president at any county. He has big plans to open the game up to people of colour and to children from all backgrounds. “The game has gone through a watershed moment. It’s not looked pretty at all. Historically I suffered racism. And I think it’s important for me as a person of colour to be viewed in the community [to show] that anything is possible.”
In the 1980s Lawrence pounded in at terrifying speeds, arms and legs flying off in all directions, his partnership with Courtney Walsh and Kevin Curran meaning that, for a while, Gloucestershire had one of the most feared attacks in the country. England picked him in 1988 and he became the first British-born black man to pull on the dark blue cap. He played five Tests and a single ODI until, on the last day of the 1992 Test against New Zealand at Wellington, he shattered his left kneecap as he reached his delivery stride, finishing his career aged 28.
Last year, in Sky’s You Guys are History documentary, Lawrence remembered a teammate leaving a banana skin outside his door at his first away match – pushing him to the gym to toughen up – and racial abuse from crowds. The club issued an apology and Lawrence said he would like to be more involved: the presidency is the result.
He intends to do the job differently. Since retirement he has competed as a professional bodybuilder and owns a Bristol nightclub, Dojo. Not your average president’s CV.
“I’m not going to be a gin and tonic person with a blazer on – cricket needs a more modern president. I want them to be more in the community doing things as a cricket club,” says the 58-year-old.
“I don’t want to hear people’s moans and groans about their chair or that their coffee wasn’t hot. I want to be more of a policy influencer. On my president’s day I want to invite people of colour to the ground who may not have come to cricket before. In that room will be a cross- section of people ... There will be black poets up there, friends I have from Massive Attack. You want the camera to pan into that president’s room and see a different crowd.”
“I’m excited. I know what people will say, is it a ticking box exercise? I’m not really interested in what people think … If you keep saying no because it’s a tick in the box exercise, then where do you start?”
Recent events have meant cricket is having something of a reckoning. Speaking out about the racial abuse he received as a player was hard, but for Lawrence there are no regrets.
“It was very emotional, like therapy. But I’m glad I did it. There’s no doubt about it – people need to know that’s what went on.”
He talks about the structures that stop young inner-city kids continuing with cricket into their late teens and is aghast about the decline of Haringey Cricket College. “They were producing a lot of black cricketers and then suddenly – what happened? It got cut. If that was producing the same number of white cricketers, everybody would have hailed it as the best thing ever.
“I would like to see more inner-city kids involved, black, white I don’t care. I would love to see a local Gloucester boy walking out to play for Gloucestershire. For me there is nothing more proud, if you’re born and bred for your county, playing for your county. It means so much more.”
He is bewildered about the fact that his fellow black Briton and Gloucestershire player Mark Alleyne has not got a big coaching job. “What does that say about our game? Yorkshire is the one that got exposed. Is it the fact that other clubs have just been a lot more clever?
“Society has probably got worse [rather] than better with racism. With social media, people can hide behind these platforms. We’ve still got a long way to go.”
