Desmond Tutu to give Cowdrey Lecture
Date released: 17 April 2008
The Most Reverend Dr Desmond Tutu The 2008 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture will be delivered by The Most Reverend Dr Desmond Tutu.
A recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, Dr Tutu will become the eighth Cowdrey Lecturer when he speaks at Lord’s on Tuesday 10th June.
Over 500 invited guests and Full Members of MCC, together with many eminent figures from the cricket world, will gather in the MCC Indoor School at Lord’s to hear Dr Tutu speak.
The Lecture will also be broadcast on the internet, and may be heard, live, via www.lords.org from 6.30pm. An archive copy will be available to download after the event.
He is the second South African to be invited to speak at the event and the first Lecturer to be drawn from outside the circle of international cricket.
The MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture was inaugurated in 2001 in memory of the late Lord Cowdrey of Tonbridge, a past President of MCC, who - together with another former Club President, Ted Dexter - was instrumental in the Spirit of Cricket being included as the Preamble to the 2000 Code of the Laws of Cricket.
Tireless work
The Most Reverend Dr Tutu rose to prominence in the 1980s with his vigorous anti-apartheid activism in South Africa.
As the chairman of the General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), Tutu led a formidable crusade for justice and racial conciliation in South Africa.
His tireless work was recognized in 1984, when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Following a short stint as the Bishop of Johannesburg, Tutu was elected the first black Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986, an office he held until his retirement in 1996 (he now serves as Archbishop Emeritus).
Cricketing enthusiast: Dr Tutu with a South Africa shirt In 1996, he was appointed by President Nelson Mandela to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the body set up to probe gross human rights violations during apartheid.
After the presentation of the Commission’s report in October 1998 Dr Tutu has served as a visiting professor at several overseas universities and has been awarded over 50 honorary degrees from academic institutions around the world.
He has published several books and collections of sermons and is widely known as a cricketing enthusiast.
MCC Secretary & Chief Executive, Keith Bradshaw, said: "We’re absolutely thrilled that The Most Reverend Dr Desmond Tutu has accepted the invitation to deliver the 2008 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture. We are also hugely honoured.
Bradshaw: Thrilled and honoured "Dr Tutu is revered around the world as a moral voice and someone who speaks with gravitas on a range of issues.
"He’s an inspirational man who has spent a lifetime speaking out for truth and justice and I am sure that his views on the game – and the Spirit of Cricket in particular - will be hugely interesting to cricket followers around the world."
Previously, lecturers have all been former international cricketers, including Richie Benaud, Sunil Gavaskar and Geoff Boycott.
Christopher Martin-Jenkins became the first career journalist and broadcaster to be invited to speak at this annual event in 2007.
