Edgbaston, Birmingham
When you visit the Warwickshire Cricket Museum at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground, it feels like a walk through a treasure trove. Rich in history, tales unknown to many are preserved over the years under one roof. Each item in the museum gives you a sense of heritage — worn out over time, some date back to 1882, when the club was formed. Some of them look older and yet, they shine bright with the pride of a storied past and cricketing royalty.
From the portraits of Charles Burgess or C.B. Fry’s team to the oldest school championship trophy, or Bob Willis’ last blazer for Warwickshire — there are precious exhibits. One can find the bat used by Brian Lara when he made 501 not out for the county and a lot more.
However, there’s something which might at first glance seem completely out of place — absolutely no royal look — but perhaps the most ‘royal’ of them all.
Phil Britt, the museum curator, in the middle of the museum tour, stopped beside a glass cabinet and pointed at an array of three ceramic mugs.
“That is the last one of the original batch. The Ashley Giles King of Spain mugs,” said Britt, pointing at the first one in line.
Ashley Giles, the former England spinner, spent 14 years of his first-class career at Warwickshire CCC. For those who don’t know much about Giles, he was a left-arm orthodox bowler and played 54 Tests and 62 ODIs for England.
“Ashley Giles, who is now the Chief Executive of Worcestershire County Cricket Club, played for Warwickshire for most of his professional career, and over a period of time people nicknamed him the King of Spin,” said Britt.
“Which was… a lot of people never believed he spun the ball in his life,” he added with a grin. Classic British humour.
But what’s the story behind His Majesty Giles?
“The guy who was running the club shop once thought of getting some mugs made and sent off an order with the artworks done as ‘Ashley Giles King of Spin’, and the mug makers thought it said ‘King of Spain’ and got the samples printed and sent it back,” explained Britt.
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“This is one of those originals. Though later the batch was printed correctly as ‘Spin’, people saw these and they were like ‘ha ha ha’,” he recalled of the time back in 2001.
But the humour didn’t stop there.
“Once this became famous, he deliberately got some of these made as ‘King of Spain’.”
Spin-offs?
“No, ‘Spain-offs’,” he laughed. Several other designs were made with pictures of Ashley and the then-actual King of Spain, Juan Carlos I., ‘King of Spain, Governor of Australia’ – said some of the designs.
Now, the museum has the one from the original batch that was printed mistakenly, and a few ‘Spain-offs’ — and the story gets better.
“Now, yesterday (July 2nd), Ashley came here,” said Britt.
“Yes, he came on the opening day of the Test and came to visit us and he was surprised to see the mug and asked, ‘Oh! Is that an original?’”
“Well, I said I was told it’s an original one, and I said that to him and asked whether it was worth much,” Britt continued.
“‘Oh! It’s worth a massive amount to me,’ — he said.”
“‘That’s yours, Ashley’ — we said to him.”
Now, the Edgbaston Museum will keep the mugs labelled as ‘Owned by Ashley Giles’.
Britt himself played his share of club cricket until he was 60 and represented Dorridge Cricket Club in the Birmingham League. He mentioned how Worcestershire and Warwickshire are real rivals on the pitch.
“Even though Ashley is in charge of Worcestershire — a real rival county — and Worcestershire and Warwickshire are at each other’s throats on the cricket field, we’ll give it to him because he’s an ex-Warwickshire player,” concluded Britt, a smile spreading across his face.
Well, just a note for the readers, Ashley Giles is the only bowler to get Sachin Tendulkar stumped in test cricket – way back in 2001, the same year he was ‘coronated’.
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