England's best off spinner in a generation and a born raconteur
CricketGraeme Swann was the off spinner who made England believe they could win anywhere.
Born in Northampton in 1979, Swann took the long road to the top. Picked for his first England tour as a 20 year old in 1999, he then spent nearly a decade in the county wilderness at Northamptonshire and later Nottinghamshire before finally breaking through in the Test side in late 2008, aged 29. Almost immediately he looked like a man who had been waiting his whole life for the chance.
Over the next five years he became the first English spinner since Jim Laker to take 250 Test wickets, a central figure in the Ashes wins of 2009, 2010 to 2011 and 2013, and the number one ranked Test bowler in the world in 2011. He was as likely to turn a match with a first over wicket as to finish it off with a flurry.
Off the field he was the dressing room's editor in chief, the man behind the infamous Sprinkler dance videos that captured England's 2010 to 2011 tour of Australia. That mixture of sharp cricket brain and mischief translated seamlessly into broadcasting, and he is now a fixture on Test Match Special, BBC cricket coverage and, briefly and famously, Strictly Come Dancing.
On stage he is possibly the funniest cricketer Britain has produced, a drummer as well as a bowler, and a man who never lets the truth get in the way of a good changing room story.
Two decades of world class speakers in the basement at EC3. Want to book Graeme Swann or someone like them? Tell us what you need and we will come back with a plan.
Start an enquiry