A BROAD VIEW
Notts and England opener opens up to NCLS
“It was this place, really”, said former England and Nottinghamshire opener Chris Broad when asked what convinced him to move from his native Gloucestershire.
“Not just the bricks-and-mortar, but the people here and the fans. I knew that playing at a Test Match ground would help to bring my game on”; he was right – within months of moving to Notts, Broad was selected for his first England cap.
Chris Broad was talking to the October meeting of the Nottingham Cricket Lovers Society (NCLS) to launch the current programme of talks and events.
His affection for the Trent Bridge ground and the Club was evident when he was asked if the 1986/87 tour to Australia, in which he starred, was a career highlight. “Yes, of course”, he replied, “but I’d say the biggest highlight was coming here in 1984.
“Joining a dressing room with players like Clive Rice and Richard Hadlee meant so much – and it wasn’t just those two guys, there were some big characters and big players in that squad.”
One such was Tim Robinson, with whom Chris Broad formed a famous opening partnership for Notts. They shared twenty century-plus opening stands for Notts, putting them fourth on the County’s all-time lists, with the highest average partnership (52.50).
Robinson and Broad played a dozen tests together but only four as an opening partnership. They had one century opening stand – 119 v Pakistan at Edgbaston in 1987; the largest stand they shared was 168 for the second wicket (Robinson batted at 3) v New Zealand in Christchurch in 1988.
The zenith of Broad’s test career was being awarded International Cricketer of the Season after England's 2-1 Ashes win in that tour of Australia in 1986-87.
During this tour he emulated Hobbs, Hammond and Woolmer by scoring hundreds in three successive Tests against Australia. He finished the series with a batting average of 69.57, more than 10 runs ahead of any player on either side.
He remembered that tour with – naturally – great affection and his memories reflected on the accusations of ill-conceived preparations for the disappointing tour of 2025/26.
“We were away for four-and-a-half months”, he said, “And the first few weeks were spent in up country games where we did not play well.
“One Aussie journalist said about us that we ‘couldn’t bat, couldn’t bowl and couldn’t field’ and, to be fair, at that point he might have been right.
“But when it came to the first Test at Brisbane, a few choice words from Ian Botham got us up for the battle and from then on we took them on – and took the Ashes!”
Chris Broad’s success in that series was based on his confidence against the Aussie quick bowlers. He had, after all, made his Test debut against the fearsome West Indies attack of the 1980s.
“I came into the England side after Andy Lloyd had been hit on the head by Malcolm Marshall in the First Test.
“It was a baptism of fire but I wasn’t too concerned – I had faced most of these guys in county cricket. Mind you, it wasn’t four at a time in the county game!”
Despite doing well against the West Indies – he made a half-century (55) and shared an opening century stand with Graham ‘Foxy’ Fowler in his debut Test – Broad missed out on the tour to India.
“For some reason, the selectors seemed to think I wasn’t effective against the spinners”, he recalled, “so I had to wait to get back into the team; mind you, later on I got a ton in Pakistan”, he added.
“I was a bit of an unknown quantity to the team and England camp when I made my first appearance", he remarked wryly. “When chairman of selectors Peter May gave me my first cap he said, ‘Congratulations, Brian!” (He had been christened Brian Christopher Broad but had always played as ‘Chris’).
Pakistan figured large in his memories. Chris Broad was one of the England team in 1987 when the now infamous row between skipper Mike Gatting and local umpire Shakoor Rana erupted. “Gatt signalled to David Capel not to move too close and somehow Rana decided this was cheating; Gatting naturally was furious and things got quite heated”.
Eventually, the third day's play was lost and the row almost caused the abandonment of the tour.
It was also on that tour that Chris stood his ground after being given out caught behind. “I couldn’t believe it”, he said, "and just stood there, for something like 22 seconds – which doesn’t sound much but is a long time to stand silent.
“Eventually Goochie (Graham Gooch, his opening partner) said ‘You’d better go mate’”. Broad also was fined by the tour management in 1988 when he swiped at his stumps having been bowled in the Sydney Test.
There is some irony, then, in him becoming an international Match Referee in 2003!
Pakistan, inevitably perhaps, were also the opponents when Chris Broad, in his capacity as Match Referee, had to sanction and fine one of England’s premier fast bowlers – his son Suart!
“Stuart gave a verbal send off to Yasir Shah in the first Test”, Chris recalled, “Unfortunately for him, it was picked up by the stump mike; once he heard that recording, he had to accept his punishment.
“He’ll still have a go at me about it”!
More dramatic and traumatic was a terrorist attack in Lahore, Pakistan in 2009 that left nine people dead and six members of the touring Sri Lanka team injured.
“We were in a convoy heading for the stadium, the match officials in a car behind the Sri Lankan cricketers’ vehicle”, he told his audience.
“There was a bang and some popping noises and immediately my colleague Ahsan Raza shouted at me to get down. There were bullets hitting the car and, sadly, our driver was one of those killed.
“It was like something out of a movie – only for real. Ahsan was hit and I was trying to staunch the blood when a Pakistani policeman dived into the van for shelter then took command of the vehicle and drive us away”.
Chris Broad had become an international match referee in 2003 and served for twenty years. “I was doing bits of media when the ICC decided to beef up the role of Match Referee”, he said.
“I was invited to apply and got through the interview but initially on the reserve list. Then, just as we were about to leave for a family holiday in South Africa, I got the call to cover the New Zealand – Pakistan tour.
“So I flew to South Africa with the family, got them installed on their holiday and promptly flew on to New Zealand”.
In 2011, Chris and his two children, Stuart and Gemma, established the Broad Appeal charity to raise awareness and funds to combat Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in memory of his second wife, Miche.
“We were pleased to do something to raise the profile and campaign”, he said, “and got amazing support from friends, family and the cricket community.
“In recent times we have taken a step back as Kevin Sinfield has staged his extraordinary feats of endurance and commitment.
“We were pleased when he met Gemma at an event and made a point of talking to her and praising our efforts”.
Despite all the dramas and the ups-and-downs of his career, Chris Broad remains upbeat and positive, enjoying golf and retirement.
“My kids are always teasing me – they reckon that I’ve never done a proper day’s work in my life”, he said…” And do you know, what, I think they might be right”!
Chris Broad, cricketer, match official, charity campaigner and proud father, very much ‘at home’ at Trent Bridge.
Nottingham Cricket Lovers Society meets monthly in the close season, usually on the third Thursday of each month. Membership for the 2026/27 season is £20, joint membership £30 and visitors £10 per session.
Most meetings are held in the evening with three in the afternoon (2pm starts) during the winter months in the afternoon. The next – 12 November 2026 – will start at 7pm, meeting at Trent Bridge, hopefully in the Derek Randall Suite with ex-England spinner Ashley Giles the main guest.
The full programme of meetings and visiting speakers is available on the NCLS website - https://nottinghamcricketlovers.co.uk/
October 2026