To call Lord’s home for six months: Taylor, Nicholls and coach Stead remember MCC Scholarship days

New Zealand trio of experienced middle-order batter Ross Taylor, young Henry Nicholls and coach Gary Stead remembered their days as Marlybone Cricket Club’s Young Cricket at Lord’s Scholarship days ahead of their team’s Test at the iconic stadium starting Jun 2. 

Taylor, who is now one of the most accomplished Kiwi batters in all formats of the game remembered coming to London in 2002. “I used to watch Test matches growing up. And there was always talk about the slope [Lord’s]. I was fortunate enough in 2002 to be New Zealand’s recipient for Young cricketer Lord’s," he said in a video uploaded by Blackcaps’ official Twitter account.  

The 37-year-old then went ahead to narrate how it turned out to be an unforgettable six months in London. “I was a young boy who hadn’t really travelled much and London was a bit of an eye-opener. I realised very early on that this is the avenue that I wanted to pursue and become a full-time cricketer. To call Lord’s home for six months is something I will never forget,” said Taylor, who has now played more than 100 Tests and has scored more than 17,000 international runs. 

Henry Nicholls, who made his Test debut for New Zealand in 2016 against Australia back home, remembered the 2019 World Cup Final and how it seemed like coming full circle for the MCC Young Cricketer fellow of 2010. 

“When I returned to play the World Cup in 2019, security people remembered me, which was pretty cool. It was also like going full circle and meeting people who were there, where I was once,” said Nicholls, who just recently tied the knot with his girlfriend Lucy. 

Talking about his time at the Mecca of cricket, the 29-year-old said, “It was a great opportunity and I was following in the footsteps of some of the great guys, obviously, now I am even sharing the dressing room with a few of them.” 

“It was playing a lot of cricket, playing back to back to back, three-four days a week. When there were international games, 20 of us the young cricketers would do different jobs,” added Nicholls who has so far played 37 Tests for the Blackcaps. 

Reminiscing about one such job, the left-hander said, “I was standing near the batting team’s dressing room during an England-Australia one day game. I would tell the radio people about the scores and who was coming to bat next. It was a pretty surreal experience.”

Gary Stead, currently the Kiwi coach was also an MCC fellow back in 1990. Revisiting his time in London and Lord’s, he said that it was always great to come back to a place that has had so much influence on you as a person. 

“To me, Lord’s is a special place. I was lucky enough to go there on a scholarship when I was 18 and to live there, to breathe there and work there for almost six months was great,” said the former Kiwi player who represented the national team in five Tests. 

“When you have memories like that and you have been there for a long time, you want to go back and reconnect with that place,” he added. 

The New Zealand team is in England for a three-Test sojourn which also involves the all-important inaugural World Test Championship Final against India in Southampton, starting from June 18.