Dan Whiting is a father of four children, who runs a company in legal recruitment. He lives in Hertfordshire and is the Chairman of Southgate Adelaide CC.
Liam Kenna is a twenty-four-year-old Welshman from Hertfordshire who moved to London from Wales at 16, after leaving Swansea City and signing for Barnet. Liam has always been a massive cricket fan and played to a decent level from a young age. He continued to play cricket when he didn’t have football commitments and Southgate Adelaide FC is where he met Dan.
How did the Middle Stump start out, what inspired you to set it up?
We set up the Middle Stump on 23 March 2012 so we are just over a year old. Liam had a football blog going at the time, so I asked him how it works etc. and it just took off from there. We’ve since had over 180,000 hits and a book deal, and met some great people along the way. Interestingly with me being forty-two and Liam twenty-four, he tends to write the more serious articles. Both of us are mind numbingly juvenile though. It’s why we got on. We decided that if were to do it then we would stray from the norm and put a comedy slant on things. (Dan came up with the name)
Where did your love of cricket come from?
DAN: I’ve played since I was six years old. Just always loved the game. I am entering my 29th season with Southgate Adelaide.
LIAM: Growing up there was nothing else to do in the summer months when football and rugby had finished! I was lucky enough to get selected for the County at an early age and it gave me the drive to carry on and keep playing.
How do you and Liam know each other?
DAN: Liam and I met a few years back. He came down from Wales to play for Barnet FC and played cricket for us in the summer. He was very young, and very Welsh at the time!
LIAM: I went to Southgate Adelaide to try to get a couple of games in towards the end of the ’04 season after moving from Wales. A knock of a 70-odd debut in a Sunday friendly saw me straight into the 2s the following Saturday and Dan happened to be skipper – it was the start of a beautiful friendship. I’m known as the Son of Whiting at the Adelaide!
Do you play cricket yourself?
DAN: Yes, I play for Southgate Adelaide 2nd XI in the Herts League. I’m also the chairman of the club.
LIAM: I also play for Southgate Adelaide CC and have done for the last nine years apart from a season at Datchworth CC in 2010. Back in Wales I turned out for Dafen CC.
What is the most memorable interview you have done for the Middle Stump and why?
DAN: Graeme Fowler, Adam and Jack Shantry, Steve Kirby, David Nash, Rikki Clarke, Jack Brooks. All of them have been good in their own way – we have only done one bad one!
LIAM: Dan deals with most of the interviews but my favourite was Graeme Fowler. Dan was a massive fan of Foxy’s batting back in the ’20s or whenever it was and he was like a twelve-year-old girl while interviewing him!
Who is the book aimed at? Do you need cricketing knowledge or is it for everyone?
DAN/LIAM: Ideally cricket fans, but there will be some stuff for everyone in there.
What is your favourite form of cricket? One day, Twenty20, Test?
DAN: Test without a doubt, followed by a four-day county game. T20 is great for bringing in the crowds and getting kids interested, but give me a good old-fashioned five-dayer anytime.
LIAM: I love Test cricket. There’s something about grinding down the opponents, having a plan on how to get batsmen out and bowling as a pair. Same with batting, I find it fascinating watching an opener see off the new ball and build an innings. T20 is fun but after the tenth six it starts to get a bit tedious. It’s become all about who is the biggest, strongest and quickest as opposed to the best.
Favourite team?
DAN: Middlesex. I’m a North London boy.We have forged links with quite a few counties via our writing and there are some good lads at Warwickshire, Somerset, Middlesex, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, and Yorkshire, it has to be said.
LIAM: Glamorgan.
What was the best part of writing your book?
DAN: Being able to have a chance to speak with childhood heroes. The likes of Graeme Fowler I watched as a thirteen year old in the 1983 World Cup for England, and thirty years on I’m interviewing him for this! Writing was also quite therapeutic for me. It stopped me from going down the pub so often!
You are well-known within the cricket community, but have you ever come up against opposition from people you have interviewed ?
DAN: Not really opposition. We have had a few who have said they will do one and then when you try and pin them down to do it, they prove somewhat elusive! I was discussing this with someone the other day actually and cricketers are far more accessible than footballers, and tend to be better blokes in general. Everyone we have interviewed has been brilliant.
Best and worst matches?
DAN: The worst – quite possibly last Saturday. I dropped two catches and nicked one behind second ball whilst Liam got panned all around the park and troubled the scorers as much as I did. Thebest –Edgabston in 2005 Ashes takes some beating as does the 1999 World Cup semi final between Australia and South Africa.
Can you tell us about your favourite cricket experience(s)?
DAN: Scoring a hundred, getting promoted three times or winning. Any visit to Lord’s is up there too whilst watching. Any game from the 2005 Ashes would have to be mentioned too, except the first one that Australia won!
Most banterful moment of writing the blog and book?
DAN: Probably when we appeared on a commentary called Test Match Sofa and nearly got kicked off in the first half, an hour for getting close to the knuckle legally! As for the blog and book, well they are all banterful in their different ways. You’ll have to read them to find out!
Cricket Banter is now available to buy on The History Press website and on Amazon.
Further reading:
* A Cricket Banter interview with Adam Whiting at The BizzNizz