“You don’t even know you’re on air sometimes. You forget that you’re on the radio. It’s like two mates down the pub. We’ve got a slice of cake… and we’re having a cup of tea… oh, that’s a fantastic shot… oh, England are 125 for 6.”
Phil Tufnell has seen it all, and more. It’s been 32 years since he first took to the field for his England Test debut and his love for the game is undiminished.
Tufnell is a regular on a beloved BBC institution, Test Match Special, and spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com as he gears up to take a brand new Test Match Special Live show across the country alongside cult hero commentator Jonathan Agnew.
We caught up with Tufnell as he regaled us with his earliest memories of the show, what makes it so special and how cricket itself has evolved throughout his experiences – from “20-hour train rides to Calcutta” to the TMS box.
“Test Match Special is probably one of the first things I can remember actually,” he explained. He’s a warm, jovial character, as you’d expect, a notable glint is present in his eye at all times.
“I remember sitting in a car going down to Brighton with my mum and dad, stuck in a traffic jam on the A23, sun shining, going: “Are we there yet?” with these lovely wafts of Arlott and Johnners: “England have won the Ashes!” and everything. That’s one of my first memories. Now to be part of that for almost 20 years, it’s absolutely wonderful. Very, very lucky boy.
“Perhaps I was misunderstood as a cricketer – a little bit of a rebel – but I mean, at the end of the day, it’s bloody war out there. You’ve got to fight, you’re in a bloody fight, I’ll tell you, to survive. Otherwise there’s some great big bloke bowling 90 miles an hour at your head or some great big bloke trying to smash you and destroy you with the bat. It’s a completely different atmosphere, being on the field to being in the box.”
Tufnell continues: “It’s war on the pitch but when you’re in the media box it’s all forgotten… most of the time. I think that that is a great aspect. We have wonderful emails, we had some amazing emails over the pandemic which were heartbreaking as well. People saying their dad or mum’s in hospital or they’re going through this or that, and they’ve got TMS on and it’s bringing a smile to their face. ‘I’m listening in Scotland, they’re in London, we feel like we’re together whenever we listen’. It’s amazing.
“It was really something special how people were contacting us and just saying: “you’ve made me smile again”, “you’ve brought my heart rate down a bit” because things were getting a little bit funky.”
The 55-year-old former bowler claimed 121 wickets in 42 outings for his country but there is still one thing he might have changed during his career, if he’d had his own way.
!["Phil]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/03/phil-tufnell-04b9a6c.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Phil")
“One big regret for me is that I never scored a Test match 100 – 78 away was my nearest!” He laughs. “It was never particularly on the cards but yeah I would have loved a couple of more occasions to get my own back and smash a few around in a big arena and nick myself a Test match 50 or something.
“Having done all the bloody bowling, I would have loved just an hour and a half in the sun at Lord’s. It’s funny, all the batsmen want to take a wicket and all the bowlers want to get some runs.”
He adds” “I can remember the first time I represented my country. The mixed emotions of it all are incredible really. You get nervous, you’re a little bit worried, you’re excited, you want to go out there, you’re playing for yourself, you’re playing for your mum and dad and you’re playing for your country and the fans. When you lose, you feel you have let everyone down. There are those those feelings and those dark times that you have to cope with.
“Looking back on it now, which I’m very privileged to do now through the likes of TMS, it was a wonderful, wonderful time. You see your mates in the media box and chat and laugh and reminisce, you have the memories of going around the world, games you’ve played, catches you’ve dropped. All this kind of stuff, I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.”
Cricket has evolved since those early days. The radical rise to prominence of limited overs formats – ODIs, T20s and most recently, The Hundred – has dramatically changed the face of the game.
However, Tufnell believes the key differences from his playing days to now are seen most visibly behind the scenes with ever-expanding infrastructure designed to efficiently extract every ounce of ability from players, while keeping them mentally healthy.
He says: “In regards to Test match cricket, [the biggest change has been] the support and the backroom staff. My first tour, we just sort of went out with 15 or 16 blokes, a coach and a physio. We all just sort of turned up, got on the plane and off we went for four months. Nowadays, they have all the tools at their disposal to make them into better players. That comes from analysts, strength and conditioning, diet, psychology, all these guys. There are one-to-one batting coaches, one-to-one bowling coaches, everything is there for them to make themselves better all-round cricketers and better all-round people, I suppose.
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“There’s a lot of things talked about at the moment about mental health and these guys being in COVID bubbles and what have you. In my day, it was really like, ‘off you go lads, see what you get up to’. That was great, great fun with some fantastic stories that the guys nowadays would not believe it. They would be open mouthed.”
And it’s those tales of myth and legend that Tufnell will be sharing to inevitably captivated audiences across the land in April and May 2022.
“The last tour to India in 1993 – it was absolute chaos. People eating beans at lunchtime off the floor. I think we went on a 20-hour train drive to Calcutta the day before the first Test. We peeled ourselves out of the train, 6’5” fast bowlers and everything, and couldn’t move. That’s probably one of the main differences.
“And there’s always been pressure, but that sort of microscopic pressure, I can understand that comes with the big TV deals, the big rights deals, the fantastic camera angles, stump mics and stump cams, everything has evolved and it’s all part and parcel of it now.
“Just as well there wasn’t social media or camera phones in my day when we were touring because I don’t think we would have bloody got 11 of us on the pitch!”
Test Match Special Live runs from 9th April until 8th May across the UK. Tickets for the tour are on sale now and are available from fane.co.uk.
If you’re looking for something else to watch, check out our TV Guide or visit our Sport hub for all the latest news.
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