This week’s podcast guest is Ed Smith, the former test cricketer turned writer and TMS commentator who is now the National Selector for England cricket and co-founder of the Institute for Sports Humanities. I first met Ed when I hosted an ICC business of cricket conference in London a few years ago, after which I got him to do a turn at the HSBC Golf Business Forum in Abu Dhabi. At this point in his post playing career Ed was preoccupied by an idea that would ultimately become the Institute for Sport Humanities, which he has co-founded with Andrew White, formerly of WSM and Sir Anthony Seldon, the vice chancellor of the University of Buckingham, The Institute offers an MA Leadership in Sport, which might just be the missing piece in that bit of the higher education market currently targeting the sports business and associated industries. Just after the podcast was recorded - at the Mortimer Club in London - England went off and won the ICC Cricket World Cup, after a final against New Zealand that was such a special and peculiar moment that you have to occasionally pause to check that it actually happened. Many of the themes we talked about are directly relevant to the game, the tournament and the development of the England team generally: what leadership and teamship mean in the context of high performance sport, what Ed learnt from his time working in the IPL, and the role played by business and entrepreneurship throughout sport’s history. As ever, he’s thoughtful, surprising and very good company. You can get the podcast direct from Unofficial Partner or go to iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. While you're there you can check out our back catalogue including interviews with Facebook's Peter Hutton, legendary sports news columnist Charlie Sale, ex-Loaded and now 442 editor James Brown, Alison Kervin of the Mail on Sunday, TalkSport's Paul Hawksbee, cricketer and writer Derek Pringle and many more. Spread the word and rate us on iTunes, it really helps us get found. Get in touch. Richard and Sean Richard Gillis, Editor richard@unofficialpartner.co.uk Sean Singleton, Publisher sean@unofficialpartner.co.uk
