A View From the Boundary England v South Africa, Trent Bridge, 16 August 2003

It is only eight stops on the Underground from the heart of the City of London to Lord's.

Cricket must recognise what its audience is and tailor the game to that Mervyn King

But for Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of the England, his love affair with cricket is focused on New Road at Worcester, rather than the game's traditional home.

Unsurprisingly, for someone whose professional life is so closely bound together with Chancellor Gordon Brown, the former spin bowler favoured prudence when he had the ball in his hand.

The benefits of a consistent line and length were drummed into King during his primary school days in Yorkshire.

"The headmaster had a wonderful idea which was that in the break between lessons, he would take us out into the playground with a chalk wicket, and he'd draw a small chalk circle on a length between off and middle [stumps].

"If you could get it into that circle three or four times during the break, he'd give you a farthing," explained King.

"You really learnt that the essence of bowling was to get the ball right on the spot."

The Worcestershire team that won the '64-65 Championship are my heroes but I particularly remember watching Tom Graveney and Basil D'Oliveira batting together

King's interest in the fortunes of Worcestershire was kindled following the family's move to Wolverhampton and he watched their defeat to Sussex in the 1963 Gillette Cup final.

The club will be returning to Lord's for this season's C&G Trophy final and King recently did his bit to aid their cause with a timely invitation to prolific batsman Graeme Hick to attend the Bank's sports day at Roehampton.

Hick and Worcestershire's Director of Cricket Tom Moody were both in action for the Governor's XI against the Bank's team.

"It was an important fixture for Graeme because he had been injured for about six weeks, having broken a hand against Glamorgan.

"The match gave him a chance to get his eye in again and he made an excellent 100, and I'm glad to say he went on to make 97 against Lancashire in the C&G semi-final."

Graeme Hick played himself into form for the Governor's XI

In a season which saw the debut of the highly successful Twenty20 Cup, concerns about the financial outlook for the English game continue.

So what is the Governor's advice for the England and Wales Cricket Board?

"Cricket has very many strengths. The Twenty20 competition brought in many families to play together on the field in a way we haven't seen for a long time.

"In terms of the four-day game, cricket does have an expanding market, namely retired people, and we shouldn't dismiss that.

"Those people who are retired with have time to spare on their hands - that group is growing, both in terms of income and numbers," said King.

"I met someone recently who was not born in Britain, has not lived in Britain for very long, who said they could see, having watched only a few cricket matches in their life, that cricket had a soul in a way that other sports perhaps didn't.

"They were impressed and they thought that, living in Britain, they too might become passionate about cricket."