GUS CHAMPIONS CLUB AND COUNTY CRICKET
Former Middlesex and England fast bowler Angus ‘Gus’ Fraser made a passionate defence of club cricket and of the inter-connectedness of the layers of cricket when he spoke to the January meeting of the Nottingham Cricket Lovers Society (NCLS) at Trent Bridge.
Gus Fraser is particularly well placed to speak on this – as a teenager he started his cricket with local Middlesex club Stanmore and is still involved there today.
“I didn’t go to a posh private school or come up through a pathway”, he said, “I was playing for Stanmore, and doing quite well, and the Middlesex talent spotters must have thought I had something to offer.”
Having been director of cricket at Middlesex after his playing career ended, he understands the financial pressures that have made white-ball and franchise cricket such a big part of the modern cricket calendar but is wary that their impact could damage the roots of the game.
“If Test cricket withers, or the county game gets even weaker, it is bound to have a knock-on effect on the club game.
“In the end, if all you’re doing is turning up on a Saturday or Sunday for a twenty over thrash, you will lose interest. The red ball game – at every level – is essential to the well being of county and Test cricket in this country”.
Inevitably, as a former England selector and with more than forty years in the game, he was asked about the disappointing Ashes series that had just finished.
“It was more than disappointing”, he replied. “It was shocking. The preparations have been criticised – rightly – but the players just weren’t mentally or physically ready for a tour like Australia.
“We took a risk with the fitness of Archer and Wood and it didn’t work. The other bowlers just did not have the overs in their legs or the muscle memory to deliver on the day”. Asked if the bowlers should have played more county cricket, his reply was a simple ‘Yes’.
He spoke about the need for who ever selects the England squads to get around the county circuit and see players in the long form of the game. Fraser served four years as an England selector, alongside Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket Mick Newell, and said he was surprised to see selectors at a Test Match. “Don’t sit there and watch the players you’ve already picked”, he argued, “get out and find the players that will challenge for those places”.
In his present role with Middlesex, Gus Fraser is leading their development and community work and has regular contact with the recreational clubs in their area. “We are fortunate at Middlesex to have a thriving club scene”, he said, “that is under-pinned with real diversity with the British Asian communities of North London and, these days, with more and more women and girls coming into the game.”
During his England county careers, Gus Fraser played for some of the best known and well-regarded captains of the times and he spoke of the differences between, for instance, Gower, Gooch and Gatting.
“Gatt was great”, he said, “he could get the dressing room really fired up – and we had some pretty tough characters in that room.”
Gower, he revealed, was more laconic but his highest praise was reserved for Graham Gooch. “Goochie was the best skipper I played for”, he recalled. “His approach to the game – his own game that of his teams – was so focused and clear.”
Of the players that he faced, Gus picked Brian Lara as the best. Fraser was one of the England bowlers to toil when Lara got his then Test record of 375 and again when he regained the record with 400. “He toyed with me”, said Fraser ruefully, “in that mood he played whatever shot he wanted to wherever he wanted to place it.”
Fraser also talked about the anomaly of Middlesex having no home ground of their own. “Lord’s is not our ground and with the pressures of the busy seasons now, we get fewer games there than we had when I was playing. But it is still a great place to play and even if Middlesex could find a regular alternative ground, I would never want them to stop playing at Lord’s”.
In his playing days, he had an affectionate reputation as a grumpy cricketer and several times referred to himself as ‘a grumpy old so-and-so’ but Gus Fraser’s experience and commitment to the game – as player, selector, administrator, journalist and even (at Stanmore) an occasional umpire – shone through at Trent Bridge.
Nottingham Cricket Lovers Society meets monthly in the close season, usually on the third Thursday of each month. Membership for the 2025/26 season is £20, joint membership £30 and visitors £10 per session.
Most meetings are held in the evening but the next – 5 February 2026 – will start at 2pm.
The full programme of meetings and visiting speakers is available on the NCLS website - https://nottinghamcricketlovers.co.uk/
January 2026