Cowdrey Lecture

IT IS NOT LONG TO GO UNTIL THE 2025 MCC COWDREY LECTURE, FEATURING MICHAEL VAUGHAN, JONATHAN AGNEW, PHIL TUFNELL, AND EBONY RAINFORD-BRENT.

Don’t miss out on the action by streaming the event, which starts at 6.45pm on Thursday 3 April, on the Lord’s YouTube channel via the link below.

Part of the Test Match Special (TMS) commentary team, the quartet will provide a peek into the commentary box during an evening of informal cricket chat and discussion in front of an audience of 600 guests – live from the Nursery Pavilion on Thursday 3 April.

• Michael Vaughan scored 7,728 international runs across all three formats and led England to its famous Ashes victory in 2005.

• A fast bowler who played for England in the 80s, Jonathan Agnew has been presenting TMS for over 30 years.

• Ebony Rainford-Brent’s was part of England’s World Cup and Ashes winning squads in 2009 and is the founder of the ACE programme.

• No stranger to Lord’s, Phil Tufnell spent his 16-year domestic career with Middlesex and played 62 international matches for England, claiming 140 wickets.

You can also view previous MCC Cowdrey Lectures delivered by cricketing enthusiasts and legends such as Sir Andrew Strauss (2023), Stephen Fry (2021) and Mike Brearley (2019) – see below for the full list.
 

History

The event is named after Lord Colin Cowdrey, the former England captain who is credited with initiating the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ – an outline for fair play that was later officially added as a preamble to the Laws of Cricket.

Lord Cowdrey passed away in December 2000 and in his memory, the Cowdrey Lecture was born. The first lecture took place in 2001 and was delivered by the former Australian captain Richie Benaud.

The speakers have customarily been distinguished former cricketers or cricketing personalities, other than when Desmond Tutu delivered the Lecture in 2008. Kumar Sangakkara, in 2011, is the only player who was still active in their playing career at the time of giving the Lecture.

The last lecture was delivered by the stars of the popular cricket podcast, Tailenders.
 

Previous Speakers

The full list of previous speakers are as follows:

2001	Richie Benaud	Australia
2002	Barry Richards	South Africa
2003	Sunil Gavaskar	India
2004	Clive Lloyd	West Indies
2005	Geoffrey Boycott	England
2006	Martin Crowe	New Zealand
2007	Christopher Martin-Jenkins	England
2008	Desmond Tutu	South Africa
2009	Adam Gilchrist	Australia
2010	Imran Khan	Pakistan
2011	Kumar Sangakkara	Sri Lanka
2012	Tony Greig	England
2013	Simon Taufel	Australia
2014	Sir Ian Botham	England
2015	Rod Marsh	Australia
2016	Brendon McCullum	New Zealand
2017	Brian Lara	West Indies
2018	Dave Richardson	South Africa
2019	Mike Brearley	England
2021	Stephen Fry	England
2023	Sir Andrew Strauss	England
2024	Stars of Tailenders podcast	England