Farokh Engineer will ring the bell to signal five minutes before the start of play on the third day of the LV= Insurance Test Match between England and India at Lord’s.
The former India and Lancashire wicketkeeper played 46 Test matches for his country, scoring over 2,600 runs in the process, and claimed in excess of 80 victims behind the stumps.
He was one of the first Indian players to play professional county cricket in England and became synonymous with Lancashire, serving the Old Trafford outfit with distinction. He scored almost 6,000 first-class runs for the Red Rose county and claimed over 450 victims in an eight-year period.
Engineer played in six Gillette Cup Finals at Lord’s between 1970 and 1976, winning four of them. He was awarded Honorary Life Membership of MCC in 1981.
The ringing of the five-minute bell at a Lord’s Test by an international cricketer, administrator or well-known enthusiast of the sport is a recent tradition introduced in 2007.
The opening day of this match saw former England star Enid Bakewell have the honour of signalling five minutes before play commenced, and the second day at the Home of Cricket, Andrew Strauss led a ceremonial bell ring with children who had benefitted from the work of the Ruth Strauss Foundation on ‘Red for Ruth’ day.
Five-minute bell