David Graveney, one of the best-known names in Gloucestershire’s long cricket history, will mark 50 years in the first-class game this summer.

And while the 69-year-old says “it’s just a number”, it’s something that makes him very proud, justifiably so, because it’s been some career both on and off the pitch.

On the pitch he captained Gloucestershire for six-and-a-half years in the 1980s when they twice went close to winning the county championship, was part of two Lord’s cup-final winning teams in the 70s and played alongside four of the county’s all-time greats – Mike Procter, Zaheer Abbas, Courtney Walsh and Jack Russell – while also taking almost 1,000 first-class wickets himself in a 20-plus year playing career.

Off the pitch he stepped seamlessly onto the international stage in 1997 when he was appointed England’s chairman of selectors, a position he held for 11 years and a period which embraced that never-to-be-forgotten Ashes triumph in 2005.

He was deservedly awarded an OBE for services to cricket on the back of that success but there’s been controversy for Graveney along the way too, most notably when he was part of Mike Gatting’s rebel tour to South Africa in 1990 when he was very much in the line of fire as the tour’s player/manager.

That was obviously a tough time for Graveney but it’s fair to say that over the years there have been many more highs than lows for the former left-arm spinner and he’s done an awful lot for cricket at all levels, particularly his support for former cricketers in his past role as chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association and his current role as president of the Professional Cricketers’ Trust.

Talk to Graveney for just a few minutes and it’s easy to see why he’s held so many high-profile roles over the years.

He’s obviously intelligent – he’s a qualified accountant – and he’s a good, positive communicator, although even he admits that it was an awfully long time ago that he made his county championship debut for Gloucestershire at the tender age of 19.

That was on Saturday 5^th August 1972 – a time when Ted Heath was Prime Minister, Leeds United were the best football team in the country and Donny Osmond was top of the UK singles charts with Puppy Love.

And it was something of an inauspicious start for Graveney because he finished wicketless in that game at Cheltenham against Lancashire, a Lancashire side that included the great Clive Lloyd.

A few days later he was centre stage again, this time against Derbyshire. Again it was at Cheltenham but this time he was the hero of the hour as he took five second innings wickets to set up a winning run chase.

That got the 6ft 4in Graveney up and running. His tall, upright bowling action, extracting any spin and bounce that a wicket may offer, was already in evidence and he was offered a one-year contract at the end of the summer “for the princely sum of £900,” he laughed.

Almost half a century later, he continues to be a familiar face around the club because he was voted onto Gloucestershire’s Executive Board in 2020 and has played an important role not only in the recruitment of new head coach Dale Benkenstein, but also in attracting high-profile overseas players to the club such as Australian opening batsman Marcus Harris and Pakistan pace bowler Naseem Shah.

Graveney, of course, is the son of former Gloucestershire captain and seam bowler Ken, and the nephew of Tom, the majestic, yet graceful, batsman who also captained Gloucestershire and played 79 Tests for England.

But while young David, a pupil at Millfield School from the age of 12 – something he describes as “life-shaping” – played plenty of cricket when he was growing up, it was by no means his only sport.

He was a very good golfer – he was playing off five – but he also really liked his football and has very fond memories of playing for Sneyd Park on the Bristol Downs, not too far from where he grew up.

“I was a goalkeeper, it was very enjoyable,” said Graveney. “Sneyd Park were one of the prominent teams on the Downs, a club that Gloucestershire cricketers David Allen and Tony Brown both played for.”

Graveney’s interest in football extended further than the Downs however.

“During my father’s second spell with Gloucestershire, he used to go to Bristol Rovers for medical treatment in the winter,” Graveney explained.

“I’d often go with him and on the one occasion we met the manager Bert Tann and I asked him if they needed any mascots.

“He told me, ‘You’re bigger than some of the players!’ before adding, ‘but we do need ballboys’.”

The 10-year-old Graveney, a natural Rovers fan as he was from the north side of the city’s river, jumped at the chance and it was a role he enjoyed for two years.

It was in the days of Harold Jarman, a regular goalscorer for Rovers who once turned down the opportunity to join Spurs.

Jarman also played cricket for Gloucestershire in the 1960s and early 1970s – in truth he was a better footballer than he was a cricketer – and he is someone that Graveney has got to know well over the years.

“He is a lovely man and someone who I have a great affection for,” said Graveney. “He played in that Gillette Cup semi-final against Lancashire in 1971, a game that David Hughes won for Lancashire in near darkness.”

It’s a match that is referred to by some as the ‘midnight game’, while for many around these parts it is a match that still grates.

As a Gloucestershire fan, the teenaged Graveney remembers that game well and as you’d expect with someone from his family background, cricket was always a big part of his life, although unlike his brother John he was never captain of cricket at Millfield.

Not that that was a problem.

“Obviously my father and uncle played cricket,” he said. “Looking back I think it was a good thing I went to Millfield, even with the Graveney name I was just a small fish in a big pool.

“My family was pretty relaxed about my cricket, they didn’t interfere. They were supportive in the right sort of way. I played for Bristol Schools and played age group cricket for Gloucestershire.”

At that stage there was nothing to really suggest he had the skills to make a living out of the great game that is cricket – certainly not for 50 years! – and after leaving school he duly started training as an accountant.

He was playing club cricket for Old Bristolians and it was while there that he got his big break with that call-up for Gloucestershire. He’d already made his List A debut in a John Player League game against Worcestershire at Lydney, but a championship game against Lancashire on a Cheltenham Festival wicket, which in those days was spin-friendly, was another big step up.

“There were two other bowlers who they could have picked but fortunately they chose me,” said Graveney. “I’m sure some people thought I got picked only because of my surname!

“My first ball was to Clive Lloyd and I couldn’t understand why all the fielders were scattering.”

He soon did. “He hit a ball straight back at me and it smashed me on the shin, then I knew why,” he laughed.

His first first-class wicket came in the next game against Derbyshire and Graveney can still remember it very clearly.

“It was Chris Wilkins, a South African guy who played in the same team as Proccie [Mike Procter] in South Africa,” Graveney said. “He always liked to hit the first ball over the sightscreen and he tried to hit me out of Cheltenham, but he only got it to Roger Knight at cover.”

That was the first of more than 800 first-class wickets that Graveney took for Gloucestershire – he also had a summer with Somerset and three years at Durham – and he went on to play several more games that season.

But while Graveney was feeling good about life at the end of the 1972 summer, he was feeling even better a year later because he was part of the team that won the first ever trophy in Gloucestershire’s then 103-year history.

Gloucestershire fans of a certain vintage will never forget that day on Saturday 1^st September 1973 when their team, led by Tony Brown, defeated Sussex by 40 runs to win the Gillette Cup at Lord’s.

It was a magical day for so many but not so for Graveney who admitted: “It was a frightening experience!”

That’s understandable because he was still only 20, was very much making his way in the game and certainly didn’t want to let anyone down.

Fortunately, Jim Foat, his pal and former Millfield School cricket captain, was also in the team which helped ease some of the nerves.

“We were sharing a room in a hotel near the ground,” recalled Graveney. “We couldn’t sleep and we decided to drive to the ground early the next morning. In those days we had some pretty interesting hairstyles and Jimmy was a big Aston Villa fan – he still is – and his car was full of Villa stuff.

“When we got to Lord’s the gateman wouldn’t let us in – he thought we were two long-haired yobs! It wasn’t until we opened the boot and showed him all our cricket kit that he let us through.”

That final at Lord’s was the first time that Graveney had ever played at the home of cricket and while Foat, a wonderful fielder, ran out Tony Greig for nought, Graveney’s contribution wasn’t so significant.

“I didn’t do a lot in the game,” he admitted. “Geoff Greenidge and Roger Prideaux both mowed me into the grandstand. Roger Prideaux apologised after the game but said he had to pick on someone!”

But while Graveney may not have had a big influence on the showpiece occasion, he certainly played his part on the road to the final.

“We played Surrey in the second round,” he said. “They had Geoff Arnold and Robin Jackman and they had us 24 for five. Shep [David Shepherd] and I broke the record for the seventh wicket – we put on 107 and we won by 19 runs.”

Graveney’s contribution on that day was a crucial 44 and when Gloucestershire reached their second Lord’s final four years later – this time in the Benson and Hedges Cup when Procter was captain – he again contributed, taking two for 26 from nine overs as Kent were beaten by 64 runs.

As well as Procter and the aforementioned Zaheer, that side included Pakistan opener Sadiq Mohammad and Graveney said: “I was very fortunate to play with several world class players.”

Graveney got on well with Zaheer, the prolific Pakistan batsman who performed with substance and style in equal measure.

“We used to play Oxford University at the start of the season and in those days it was a first-class game,” said Graveney. “When Proccie was captain he did something interesting because he pinned our averages on the dressing room door but didn’t include the game against the university.

“Zed used to bat and bat against them, he’d get his hundred by tea but no-one else got a chance. He couldn’t retire, that wouldn’t have been right, but he used to say to me, ‘It’s very difficult to get out when you’re trying to get out!’

“I used to stand by the sightscreen and do Harry Worth impressions to try to distract  him!”

Zaheer was loved by everyone in Gloucestershire but he was revered in Pakistan.

“Phil Bainbridge and I played in his benefit game over there,” Graveney recalled. “I remember going to his house and there must have been about 50 people in his front garden.

“I asked him who they were and he said they were just people who wanted to say ‘hello’! He was happy to talk to them and told us to go inside and watch some cassettes, which turned out to be all of him batting. When he got out, the cassette stopped!”

Zaheer spent 13 years with Gloucestershire, retiring in 1985 at the age of 38, by which time Procter and Sadiq had also left the club.

“The difficulty for us post-1977 was that Proccie was battling with injury and the side started to break up,” explained Graveney. “Our world class players were ageing but subconsciously we’d always relied on them. The problem was that we had a bit of an issue taking on that responsibility.”

When the injuries finally caught up with Procter midway through the 1981 season, Graveney followed in his father’s and uncle’s footsteps by taking on the captaincy.

“It wasn’t a clearcut decision,” he said. “Alastair Hignell or Stov [Andy Stovold] could have been given the job but it was a very proud moment when it was given to me.

“The fact that my father and uncle had done it meant I was keen to do it.”

Not that being a captain of a county cricket team is an easy job, far from it.

“Yes, it is tough,” admitted Graveney. “The hardest part is separating being a captain from a player. As a captain you had to make decisions about players even though you may not be playing any better yourself.

“There are highs and lows but it’s the ability to get the best out of the players you’ve got that makes the difference, although if you don’t have good enough players it is very difficult.”

Happily that was not the case for Gloucestershire as they moved into the mid-80s.

Even before their county championship title challenge in 1985 Gloucestershire were starting to show signs of a renaissance.

“We started the 1984 season really well,” recalled Graveney. “We reached the semi-final of the Benson and Hedges Cup where we were due to play Middlesex. But it rained for three days and in the end we had to toss a coin to find a winner.

“Gatt [Mike Gatting] called heads and we were out. It’s the last time a game was decided on a toss of a coin and we didn’t win another game that season.”

And worse was to come for Graveney because there was a concerted effort to have him removed from the captaincy at the end of the campaign.

“There was an Extraordinary General Meeting called and I managed to survive that,” recalled Graveney, “but what it did allow us to do was embark on a proper recruitment campaign.

“Syd [David Lawrence] and Jack (Russell) were developing and we brought in Courtney (Walsh) and Kevin Curran.

“We had some really good players. The biggest compliment I can pay Syd is that if you walked into a game halfway through and saw him bowling, you wouldn’t know if he had five for 20 or nought for 100, he’d still be pounding in.

“Courtney Walsh used to glide in. He was an unbelievable overseas player.

“I knew him because he’d been recommended by my uncle, but managing him was quite interesting. He’d bowl five or six overs of an opening spell and then I’d ask him if he wanted a rest and he’d say, ‘I’m just loosening up!’

“He’d bowl up to 12 overs, then I’d bowl a bit before lunch and then he’d be back on after lunch. In the first three hours he’d bowl almost half our overs!”

Walsh took 203 wickets in 1985 and 1986 at 19 apiece and along with Lawrence and Curran formed a fearsome pace attack. That Gloucestershire were unable to clinch the title in either of those two seasons – they finished third behind Middlesex and Hampshire in 1985 and second behind Essex in 1986 – is a source of regret for Graveney who admitted: “We failed to take our chances.”

Within two years he’d lost the captaincy and while Graveney accepts “you don’t do a job like that forever”, he was disappointed with the way it was handled.

It was at the end of the 1988 season and he was informed of the decision during the game against Worcestershire at Bristol.

“I was told that they wanted me to resign and I said they’d have to sack me,” he said. “It was incredible because I took 14 wickets in that match and I was walking off to crowd acclaim and then going inside and being told they wanted me to resign.”

Graveney accepts that it was probably time for a change – “I’d lost the support of some of the dressing room,” he said – but coming 28 years after the sacking of his uncle as captain it was still tough to take.

What made it all the more difficult was that his Uncle Tom and his aunt, Jackie, were at the ground that day.

“It was the first time my aunt had been back to Bristol since my uncle was sacked,” Graveney said. “She was walking through the Hammond Room when she learned what had happened and she turned round and said she was never coming back.”

Graveney was always pretty close to his uncle and aunt and when his father moved to the US they became almost surrogate grandparents to his children.

The Graveney family – including Tom – were out in force to support the young David, of course, when he made his List A debut in the aforementioned John Player League match against Worcestershire in July 1972.

“I was a bag of nerves,” admitted Graveney. “The first ball I bowled to Glenn Turner was a shin-high full toss. He was one of the best one-day players in the country but fortunately he miscued it.

“Then I bowled to Basil D’Oliveira who was like a brother to Uncle Tom. They were attached at the hip, I think Tom was the only person who knew Dolly’s real age.

“Anyway, Dolly came down the wicket to me, missed, and I bowled him. But when he came down the wicket he had a funny expression on his face, almost half a smile.

“I’m a bit of a cricketing romantic and I was convinced he’d given me his wicket because of my connection to Tom.

“I did challenge him about it quite a few times when we played against each other in later years but he didn’t say anything either way.

“It’s one of those romantic tales, although he did say that I got him out a lot, including in the 1973 Gillette Cup semi-final.”

Tom Graveney, meanwhile, had retired from county cricket a couple of years before David started playing for Gloucestershire, but although they never played against each other at first-class level, David does remember bowling to his uncle in one particular game.

“It was in 1986, my benefit year,” said Graveney. “We were playing a game at Sheepscombe. It’s a lovely ground with the wicket perched on top of a hill.

“Tom was nearly 60 and hadn’t played for years and years. I was bowling at him from the pavilion end, he blocked my first ball and then the next one he hit high over the sightscreen, much to the amusement of all my team-mates. He did it so easily too.”

David Graveney carried on playing for Gloucestershire for another couple of years after losing the captaincy, firstly under Bill Athey and then Tony Wright, before joining Somerset in 1991.

“In hindsight I should have gone sooner,” he admitted. “I didn’t really enjoy my last two seasons at the club. Jack Birkenshaw had wanted me to go to Somerset earlier and I should have gone, I should have cut my ties.

“It’s always a dilemma when you are no longer captain. If you intervene too much you’re making it difficult for the new captain but if you don’t say anything it looks like you’re sulking.”

When he did make the move to Somerset – Glamorgan were also interested in him but he didn’t want to block Robert Croft’s progress – Graveney had a season of watching Jimmy Cook score runs for fun. “Fantastic player, lovely bloke,” he said.

But while he enjoyed his time at Somerset, he couldn’t resist the move to Durham when he got asked to lead them in their first ever county championship campaign.

“There was a symmetry to it,” he said. “The Graveney family were originally from the north-east and Geoff Cook, my best friend in cricket, was charged with putting the team together.

“Once I’d spoken to my wife and kids it seemed the right thing to do. I carried on living in Bristol and used to fly to a lot of games. Birmingham was like a home game!”

Graveney spent three seasons there and was captain for the first two. His team-mates included Ian Botham, Dean Jones and ex-Gloucestershire batsman Phil Bainbridge, and while the wins weren’t plentiful in those early days, it’s a time Graveney looks back on with fondness.

“The people in the north east have a passion for sport,” he said. “All they want to see is 11 guys giving their all to win a game of cricket, it was a really, really enjoyable experience.

“Dean Jones was immense, he made people feel a million dollars whether they were batting or fielding.”

And while Graveney has absolutely no regrets helping Durham try to establish themselves in first-class cricket, he admits he does have some regrets about going on the rebel tour to South Africa in 1990.

“In hindsight, would I have gone? Probably not,” he said. “But at my age I was unlikely to play for England and the money I earned enabled me to do things with my kids’ education.”

Graveney’s role as player/manager saw him take on a lot of the media duties and with it a lot of the flak that was inevitably flying around.

“One of the misconceptions is that I was in charge of recruitment, that was not the case,” he said. “When we all met up for the first time we were all saying to each other, ‘I didn’t know you were going’.”

The tour was eventually cut short following the release from prison of Nelson Mandela.

“One of the great mistakes I made – and we all make mistakes in life – is that I didn’t talk to Courtney and Syd beforehand,” said Graveney. “It might have been a very brief conversation but not speaking to them was a very hurtful thing for me to do.”

Happily, there are no issues between them today, but the remarkable Walsh was, of course, still one of the mainstays of the West Indies attack when Graveney became England’s chairman of selectors in 1997.

They locked horns, albeit from a distance, for the first time at international level in the Caribbean in 1997/98, a series the home side won 3-1, with a resurgent England gaining revenge in the summer of 2000.

Graveney had taken over as chairman of selectors from Ray Illingworth and he said: “My first games were against Australia in the Texaco Trophy.

“We introduced Ben Hollioake and he made an unbelievable entry into international cricket.

“We won the series 3-0 and then on the first day of the first Test we had Australia 50 for eight at lunch and I thought, ‘What’s all the fuss about this job!’

“We won the first Test but then Glenn McGrath took a load of wickets in the second Test at Lord’s – that wicket was perfect for him, how many wickets would he have taken if he’d only bowled at Lord’s?”

Australia then won three Tests in a row and won the series 3-2, and although England beat South Africa the following summer, a predictable defeat Down Under left Graveney under no illusions as to the size of the task he faced.

And it was to get even worse before things started to turn around.

“The World Cup in England in ‘99 wasn’t a success, that’s an under-statement,” said Graveney. “Then we lost the Test series to New Zealand and we were the lowest ranked team in the world, the only way was up.”

And they did start moving up, firstly under the captaincy of Nasser Hussain and then Michael Vaughan, culminating in that series for the ages victory over Australia in 2005.

“Michael Vaughan was the best captain I worked with,” said Graveney. “He was very impressive and very good at integrating young players into the team, I got on really well with him.”

Coach Duncan Fletcher is regarded by many as the mastermind behind that win over Australia, while in contrast Graveney’s role as chairman of selectors is often somewhat marginalised.

But that is not something that concerns Graveney, even though he and Fletcher were never close.

“He always referred to me as the convener of selectors and I said to him, ‘What’s that, someone who rings the bell to start the committee meeting!’”

Graveney’s time as chairman saw England give debuts to some of their greatest names in Test cricket such as Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Sir Alastair Cook and Jimmy Anderson.

“It’s always easier to be consistent with your selections when you’re winning, when you’re losing there’s a lot more pressure to make changes,” he said. “I was very lucky, it was a job that allowed me to go to countries and grounds that I didn’t go to as a player.”

Graveney’s time as chairman of selectors came to an end in 2008 – “I was never going to have the job forever,” he said – when he was asked to re-apply for his job.

He did re-apply and he didn’t get the job but instead was appointed national performance manager for the ECB, monitoring young players in cricket.

That was a role he greatly enjoyed and he certainly had plenty of experience to pass on to any youngsters willing to listen.

Although he didn’t play international cricket, he still played against many of the greats of the game in the 70s, 80s and early 90s because that was a time when the best players nearly all plied their trade in county cricket.

“I’ve got a pretty good 1^st XI of players I’ve got out,” he said, “I wasn’t so bad.”

But ask him which wicket gave him most satisfaction and it’s somewhat surprising.

“John Steele,” he said. “He was the biggest blocker. I pitched it on middle and leg and it clipped the top off. It took some doing to get past his defensive stroke!

“There’s also a scorebook which shows IVA Richards c Hignell b Graveney 0 followed by IT Botham c Hignell b Graveney 0.

“Higgy was a fantastic close to the wicket fielder but what the scorebook doesn’t tell you is that he took the catches at long-on with his backside against the fence as Somerset went for quick runs!”

Graveney can tell a very good story and he’s got another about England in 1988.

“It was the year when England had four captains against the West Indies,” he said. “John Emburey was captain for the Test at Old Trafford and they wanted the wicket to turn, they were looking for a left-armer.

“Nick Cook, who is a really good friend of mine, and I were selected for the MCC to play against Holland at Lord’s and it seemed to be between us two.

“While I was there I took the opportunity to go and see Micky Stewart, who was England coach, to talk up the attributes of Jack Russell and David Lawrence.

“As I left he asked me how I was bowling and I said, ‘Not so bad, I’ve got a few wickets but I’ve got a few issues with my knee’.

“Nick Cook got selected but when the team was announced it said that Martin Bicknell and David Graveney weren’t selected ‘due to injury’.

“I’ve always wondered what might have happened if I hadn’t mentioned my knee. As it happened Nick Cook got injured before the game and John Childs played.

“Justice was served because he was a much better player than me!”

Childs, a former Gloucestershire player, took more than 1,000 first-class wickets and, like all top class spinners, when he was on song he was a difficult man to keep out.

Graveney was very similar, most notably when he took the first eight wickets in an innings in a match against Nottinghamshire at Cheltenham in 1974, a match that saw popular wicketkeeper Andy Brassington make his debut.

“My father had taken all 10 wickets playing for Gloucestershire against Derbyshire in 1949,” said Graveney, who was very keen to join that select club. “He played in a team that was dominated by spinners – Tom Goddard, Sam Cook and Bomber Wells. He and George Lambert were the only seamers and he took his 10 wickets in eight spells.

“When he had two wickets to get, the fielders looked the other way when the other bowler was bowling so that they didn’t have to make a catch, I wasn’t afforded that privilege!  

“I had my chance when I bowled to Bill Taylor but he closed his eyes and hit me out of the ground and Morts [John Mortimore] then got the final two wickets.”

But while Graveney was a very fine first-class cricketer – his 981 wickets came at just a shade over 30 – it shouldn’t be forgotten that he also took more than 280 List A wickets.

That was in the days well before T20 became such a big part of cricket, of course, so does Graveney think he’d have been any good at the shorter form of the game?

“I was talking to Andy Brassington about this the other day,” he said.

“He said that because I used to get a bit of extra bounce, batsmen would be able to get underneath my deliveries and launch me out of the ground.

“He also said that I was the biggest blocker as a batsman so that would have been no good and he said that in the field he’d seen milk turn quicker. He said I’d have been rubbish!”

Graveney was obviously laughing when he told that story and he’s certainly had his fair share of special moments over many, many years, but ask him what gives him most satisfaction as he looks back over his long and varied career and he says its his work for the Professional Cricketers’ Association and the Professional Cricketers’ Trust.

That work has included introducing medical care for all players and making life-changing improvements to pension funds, and Graveney said: “So much good work has been done over the years and sadly we are seeing more and more former players who need our help.

“But being able to help them is certainly the most satisfying thing I have been able to do in cricket.”