Barry Hearn: Sports promoter eyes England cricket veterans call-up
- Published
Barry Hearn (back row, second from right) with his East Hanningfield team-mates
During his 50-year career as a sports promoter Barry Hearn was used to hyping up boxing, snooker and darts events to sell out arenas across the world.
He may now be in "semi-retirement" but the 73-year-old has turned to talking up his own sporting potential as he hopes to be called up by the England veterans cricket team.
Hearn plays for Essex over-70s as well as his village club East Hanningfield, whose ground is in the 'back garden' of his estate.
"I love the camaraderie of a team of old geezers still playing so hard for the right reasons - they love the game and it's played in the right spirit," he told BBC Essex's Around the Wicket show.
"I've had a few decent knocks and taken a few wickets although I'm injured currently, which is to be expected."
In April Hearn stepped down as chairman of World Snooker and the Professional Darts Corporation, as well as handing over the reigns of his sports promotion company to boxing-promoter son Eddie.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
"I'm already thinking I'm going to play for England - I'm going to really concentrate on it, I'm going to get myself back to where I was - hopefully if my body stays fit I can make a contribution," he said.
"In a way we're the Peter Pan of sport, and my son takes the mick a little, but they don't realise the effort we're putting in pound for pound is as much, if not more, than any county cricket."
Hearn became an OBE in the Queen's 2021 New Year Honours list and has an interesting plan of how to show off his medal on the cricket field.
"The moment I get it I promise the first game after that I'll bat with my OBE pinned to my sweater," he said.