For the first time in decades, I am no longer an SCG member for the Sydney Test.

As a 10-year-old, I was fascinated by cricket. I was a solidly ordinary YMCA player, and bought the ABC Cricket Book for every Test series. (Did you know David Colley played baseball as well as cricket, and Doug Walters hit a six out of the SCG No.2 into Kippax Lake?)

Dad brought me back a transistor radio – in a leather case – from Hong Kong, and I listened to the 1972 Ashes broadcast from the UK, tucked up in bed at night. I may have even slept one night with new batting pads on, such was my fascination with the game.

Neville Board (right) with his late father Martin James Board (aged 90) and wife Annie Malcolm at the Sydney Cricket........

© The Sydney Morning Herald