A new exhibition at Lords: cricket and the Jewish community

Telling the story of the Jewish community’s relationship with cricket, an exhibition has opened at the MCC Museum at Lord’s, Europe’s oldest sporting museum. It’s the first event in a new Community Gallery, formerly the Brian Johnston Film Theatre, which will become a permanent area for rotating displays about different communities’ bonds with cricket. The exhibition was curated by two Jewish MCC Members Zaki Cooper and Daniel Lightman KC, the authors of the acclaimed book Cricket Grounds from the Air, together with the MCC Heritage & Collections Department. Among the players featured is Norman Gordon (1911-2014, South Africa), the first openly Jewish Test cricketer and the first Test cricketer to live beyond 100, and Fred Trueman (1931-2006), the great Yorkshire and England fast bowler, who claimed to have discovered towards the end of his life that he was Jewish. The exhibition includes the ball “Fiery Fred” used when he became the first man to take 300 Test wickets. Cooper and Lightman said: “We are delighted to have worked with MCC on this landmark exhibition. We believe it to be the first one ever on the subject. As two cricket fans from a young age, we have always been fascinated by our community’s links to the great game. Short of opening the batting for England at Lord’s, this is surely the next best thing!”