1. Alec Swann Profile Feature
While former England cricketers such as Geoffrey Boycott, Sir Ian Botham and David Gower
have forged themselves a career as media pundits, former county cricketers find it more
difficult to get jobs in the sport they love.
While those three went straight from the Test arena into high profile jobs for Sky Sports and
Test Match Special, many others have had to find alternative ways to climb their way to the
top of the journalism ladder.
Take Alec Swann, brother of recently-retired England spinner Graeme. He was a solid top
order batsman who played for Northamptonshire and Lancashire for nine years before
being released by the Old Trafford outfit in 2004.
No offers were forthcoming from rival clubs, and at the age of 28, Swann was forced to
leave the professional game and pursue another career.
He said: “At the time I wanted to carry on playing as I thought I could do something for
somebody but there no interest from anywhere so I had to do something else.
“If I was 25 or 26 I may have pushed harder to stay in it, but I wasn’t, so I didn’t.”
Journalism was always something which interested him, and he did well at school, achieving
primarily As and Bs despite his cricketing commitments.
By 2005, Ron as he is affectionately known, was writing a weekly column for the Northants
Chronicle and Echo and is now taking guard as the editor of planning and production at The
Cricketer magazine, arguably the biggest cricket magazine in the world.
“When I was playing I did some writing for columns and some websites so it was always
something I thought about.
“I was out of work for a while then I started writing a column for the Northants Chronicle
and Echo the following April.
“I got some work at Northants Telegraph off the back of that and got into journalism that
way.”
Despite being given his break, things weren’t always quite as rosy once his cricket career
came to an abrupt end.
Swann admitted: “I didn’t fall into a job straight after cricket by any means.
“There was a while when I was thinking what am I going to do with myself.
“People always say when you’re playing that you’ve got to do look at what you’re going to
do later and they’re dead right.

2. “Unless you’re one of the top players who earns a lot of money and can afford to rest on
your laurels a bit once you’ve finished the game.”
However the 38-year-old hasn’t looked back and is now second in command at The
Cricketer magazine.
He’s also spent two years at the Luton News covering Luton Town and Bedford Blues
followed by five years as the Northants Telegraph’s cricket correspondent.
“I can happily sit down and watch cricket all day and write about it no problem at all, I
enjoyed doing that.
“But it’s one of those jobs unless you can get to one of the nationals covering England
you’re not really going anywhere with your life and the industry is sinking a bit.
“I got an email out the blue from The Cricketer, from people I know there saying this job’s
available.
“It specialises in cricket which is my area of expertise if you like, it’s a popular magazine and
a step up the journalism ladder.”
While he’s now enjoying his life working in London, his professional career had plenty of ups
and downs.
After being taken along as an eight-year-old to local club Horton House CC in
Northamptonshire by his father Ray with Graeme, he was instantly hooked by the sport.
He spent much of his childhood watching Ray play cricket, tennis and football as the
brothers tried them all out.
Alec always had first refusal of who would bat first, leaving Graeme to develop his off-spin
which would take 410 wickets for England and over a thousand in all forms of the game.
Graeme shocked the cricketing world when he decided to retire midway through the
2013/14 Ashes tour with England three-nil down due to an ongoing elbow injury.
Many fans were left furious with the timing of the decision, but Alec who is married to Anna
with two young children believes that Graeme had the right to quit whenever he wanted.
“I had an inkling that he was coming to the end, he was struggling badly with his right
elbow.
“But some of the comments once he retired were ludicrous, he’s the one doing the bowling
and he knows what his form is.

3. “People look past the fact that he couldn’t do his job properly, and if you can’t do it properly
at that level then you shouldn’t be doing it, in the end it’s just somebody packing up their
job.”
As children, both Alec and Graeme made it into the Northamptonshire youth set up with
Alec hitting his first century at the age of 11 against London Schools.
His diminutive frame enabled him to be prolific on the cut and pull shot and plunder plenty
of runs against all opposition.
This form gave him the chance to compete at the world famous Bunbury Festival, on the
back of that he was selected for England’s under-15s.
“I’ve got very fond memories of playing against some touring South African sides who’d just
come back into international sport which was quite a big thing for them as well I think.”
At the age of 17 he was playing second team cricket and in 1994 made a handful of Minor
Counties Championship appearances for Bedfordshire.
But it wasn’t until the penultimate game of the 1996 season he made his County
Championship debut, against Gloucestershire and West Indian fast bowler Courtney Walsh.
However it was Walsh’s opening partner, left-arm swing bowler Mike Smith who caused him
more problems, a trend that’d eventually cost him his career.
“I’d obviously faced some quite quick bowling but nothing like Walsh. But I had more
trouble with his opening partner Mike Smith, a little guy who bowled skiddy left-arm
swingers.
“I struggled with left-arm bowlers throughout my career and I found him more awkward
than Walsh who was just trying to rattle a young lad I think.”
In those two games he scored just 24 runs, and it wasn’t until August of the following
season he was given another go in the first-team, but this time he took his chance.
In the last game of the season against a strong Warwickshire attack, Swann batting at
number three made 136, his highest score in County Cricket.
Swann remembers the day well: “It was a pretty good surface to bat on, I went in at three I
think and just batted for a long time. Nothing flash, just the way I batted.
“I was 70 or 80 not out overnight and at that time they were the best bowling attack I
played against.”
Many were expecting him to kick on and become a fixture at the top of the Northants order
in 1998, especially after a prolific pre-season trip to Zimbabwe.

4. But a poor start to the season led to his doubts resurfacing and he averaged just 14.70 with
one half-century to his name in 17 first-class innings.
While many seem to be able to separate cricket and their personal lives, Swann admits his
mind-set probably cost him at the top level.
“I always wished I could just say forget my bad innings and move onto the next one, but not
everyone could do that and I couldn’t.
“I do think that held me back a bit. I had a problem in my career that once I got on a bad trot
I stayed in a bad trot.
“I might have been better off getting away from it for a week here and there and coming
back to it but that’s easy to say now that I don’t do it anymore.”
His time at Northants was a stop-start affair. While he admits his mental state held him
back, Swann believes that he should have left Wantage Road at the end of 1999 season.
“I made a hundred against Notts at the County Ground which was as well as I’d ever played
in any form of cricket and then I got dropped the next week for Mal Loye who was returning
from injury.
“I thought to myself if you haven’t got any faith in me after playing like that you are not
really convinced in me as a player.
“I just wished that at the end of that season someone had taken me to one side and said
you’re wasting your time here.”
Another two years of mediocrity followed and he was released at the end of the 2001
season despite a stellar limited overs season, leaving a bitter taste in the right-hander's
mouth.
“I was effectively sacked from my job and if anyone tells you you’re pleased about that then
you’re a liar really, it was a proper kick in the teeth.
“All I wish is that I had gone to them and said I’m not going to be playing here next year. It’s
an easy thing to say now, but when you’re told you’re not wanted it’s hard to swallow.”
However he wasn’t left downhearted for long as he was soon snapped up by Lancashire for
the 2002 season.
The quicker Old Trafford wicket suited his back foot game, and in his first season at the club
he scored over 1,000 first-class runs including centuries in both Roses clashes.
Swann said: “I was put in the side at the start of the season and just left there.

5. “It made a world of difference and I started off well which proved that I could play and gave
me a boost as well.
“I stayed in the side all year and I benefited from that. I could have done the same at
Northampton but I think the old adage of a change is as good as a rest worked in that case.’’
Unfortunately his long troughs in form coupled with his struggles against the swinging ball
meant he was released at the end of the 2004 season, leaving him with a first-class average
of just over 27 with eight centuries.
Since then he’s continued his career with Northampton Saints in the Northants Premier
League before an eye condition forced him to stop playing on a regular basis in 2013.
His struggle with depth perception meant he found it difficult to pick up the length of the
ball towards the end of his career and he was dismissed leg-before 136 times from 568
completed innings.
However since he swapped cricket pads for note-pads and willow for writing, Swann’s
journey has been a serene one, a far cry from a somewhat unfulfilled county career.
Ends