Sportingwales 8

“You have got to be fair and stick to your “They monitor you for ﬁ ve years after your before moving into the Glamorgan ranks while
guns.” treatment is ﬁ nished. My last radiotherapy was still a schoolboy.
in May 2003 so I had the tick in the box last
The two biggest crises in his professional life, May - a decent bottle of wine was drunk that He admitted it was strange to see the
the Mumbai terror attack and Kevin Pietersen’s night.” SWALEC Stadium in the place where he was
public letter about coach Peter Moores, came more used to the rather more ramshackle
just a few months after the passing of a much Morris was Glamorgan’s youngest ever captain, surroundings of Sophia Gardens.
bigger crisis in Morris’s personal life. spent 17 years at the county including leading
them to the Sunday League title in Canterbury “They have done fantastically well, it is a real
He had been ﬁ ghting throat cancer, the scars in 1993 and then being part of the 1997 challenge to out on an event like this because
from the operations are clearly visible as a Championship winning side. it is a huge high proﬁ le event, one of the great
constant reminder, but just over a year ago he iconic events,” he said.
was given the all-clear. Despite a mountain of runs for the Welsh
county he only earned three England caps, two “When I left 12 years ago there was nothing
“The cancer informs my thinking a lot. That against the West Indies of Malcolm Marshall, further from my mind than thinking we could
was a really difﬁ cult time, because it was Curtley Ambrose and Courtney Walsh along host an Ashes Test here in 2009.
completely out of the blue as well – I just did with one against Sri Lanka in 1991.
not have a clue about it,” said 45-year-old “A lot of hard work by Glamorgan and the
Morris. He retired from ﬁ rst class cricket 12 years whole community in South Wales has made it
ago and moved into a management role in possible. It has been fantastic and people have
“I found lump on the side of my throat one developing players. Apart from running the really warmed to it, it has gone down very
day and the next day I was having major academy structure, he also had a spell as acting well.
operations, radiotherapy and the like – it was a chief executive of the EWCB.
really challenging time for me and my family. “It had attracted a lot of attention in the press
“I would like to think it is helpful to have and a lot of people were not in favour of the
“It puts another perspective on life and it was been there. It is a while now since I was in the Test being here but there is an open bidding
a very chastening experience. I learned a lot England dressing room, but I can understand process at the moment, Glamorgan bid and
about myself through that experience. the players’ perspective. Also after 12 years won it fairly and squarely.
at the EWCB you understand the business
“In a funny way as well my sport and the decisions which need to be made,” he said. “They have put an infrastructure in place here,
discipline I gained through sport helped. You a venue that is worthy of Test match status
set yourself targets in bite-size chunks and that “I am in a reasonable position to speak to the along with the human resources behind the
is how I approached the operations and the players about that and informing them about scenes which make everything work.
radiotherapy. why decisions have been made.”
“The club should feel very, very proud of
“Resilience is an important part of sport and The Ashes Test was a good reason for a rare everything they have achieved in a short space
that is something I had to dig deep about on a return to the ground where he started his of time.”
personal level. senior cricket as a young Cardiff club player
Those experiences as a young captain have also
helped in the regular dealings with the national
media now – even if only a little bit.
Among those now of the press side of the
fence is former opening partner Steve James,
someone who has been complimentary in print
of the crisis-management Morris has shown.
“It was a completely different scale then. I
grew up here and representing my county was
clearly an ambition of mine and you do work
closely with the media,” he laughed.
“If you stuffed up you would still be picked up
on things, but it is a very different scale now
and part of the job.
“Steve has done really well in his own right and
we are still good mates. We have got a very
professional relationship as well, so if I make
some decisions he does not agree with then he
has to write that in the paper. As long as it is
factually correct then I accept that.”
sportingwales
issue8twothousand&nine
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