Two nights before the Lord’s Ashes Test start, join former opening batsmen for Australia and South Africa, and the England cricket team’s Head of Communications, in conversation with Daniel Lightman for an evening celebrating the Jewish contribution to cricket.
Julien Wiener, the only Jewish man to have played Test cricket for Australia, will be in conversation with Mandy Yachad, who played in South Africa’s first one-day international post-apartheid, Danny Reuben, Head of Elite Communications for the England Cricket Team, and Daniel Lightman, who co-curated the Jews and Cricket Exhibition at the MCC Museum.
This event will mark the opening at the MCC Museum, Lord’s, of the first-ever exhibition on Jews and Cricket.
Julien Wiener
The son of Holocaust survivors who arrived in Australia in 1947 on one of the many boats from Europe after the Second World War, Julien Wiener made a century on his debut for Victoria and went on to play six Test matches, two against England, and seven One Day Internationals in 1979 and 1980. He scored 93 in his final Test, against Pakistan. He spent one summer in Dublin as a professional with the Jewish cricket club, Carlisle, and subsequently built a career as a senior sales and marketing executive with a number of global organisations. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, and remains closely involved in cricket as a high performance coach, mentor and educator.
Mandy Yachad
Born in Johannesburg, Mandy Yachad represented South Africa at both cricket and hockey. At cricket he captained both Transvaal and Northern Transvaal. He scored 123 not out for South Africa against the touring “rebel” West Indies team and opened the batting in South Africa’s first ODI on its post-apartheid return to the international arena against India in 1992. In 1985 and 1991 he was one of the South African Cricket Annual’s five Players of the Year. At hockey he played 21 Test matches for the Springboks. He also represented South Africa at Indoor hockey. A practicing attorney for many years, he was subsequently an in-house legal advisor for Peregrine Holdings Limited, for which he is currently a consultant.
Danny Reuben
Born in Leeds, Danny Reuben played cricket to a good standard at club level in Yorkshire as a wicketkeeper batsman and represented Great Britain at cricket at the 1997 Maccabiah. After working in media management in football, Rugby League and the 2012 London Olympics, Danny spent 3½ years as Yorkshire’s media and marketing manager. Since 2016, he has been working with the England Men’s Cricket Team, looking after media management of team affairs. As Head of Elite Communications for the England Cricket Team, he works daily with broadcasters, sports writers and media outlets.
Daniel Lightman
Daniel Lightman is a King’s Counsel at Serle Court Chambers. With Zaki Cooper he co-authored Cricket Grounds from the Air and has co-curated the current (and first ever) exhibition at the MCC Museum on Jews and Cricket. He has also written on cricket for (amongst others) The Cricketer, The Nightwatchman, The Cricket Statistician, The Jewish Chronicle - and Majesty Magazine.
The Jews and Cricket exhibition
Jews and Cricket, the first exhibition in a new Community Gallery at the MCC Museum, features the stories of international and first-class Jewish cricketers from Australia, England, Ireland, South Africa and the West Indies, as well as addressing Jewish cricket at grassroots level, in Israel and the Maccabiah. It uses cricket clothing and equipment, artwork, books, video and other material to tell the story of how the Jewish community has contributed to the game of cricket, as well as considering the prevalence of anti-Semitism in cricket and its impact on Jewish cricketers.
