I'm A Celeb winner Phil Tufnell on one of the weirdest nicknames in sport
Some of his antics would be more at home in the pages of a rock ’n’ roll star’s confessional than a cricketer’s tour diary.
The time he nearly missed a match because of spending the night in bed with four strawberry blondes, or the time he pushed a grand piano down the stairs of a swanky hotel.
Phil Tufnell was known as the Cat for his ability to find a quiet spot in dressing rooms around the world where he could sleep off the previous night’s excesses. But now, aged 57, this is one Cat whose wild days are behind him.
“I still enjoy a drink,” he says. “I’ve never had a problem with drinking that I had to give up completely. I’ve always just enjoyed the social aspects of it. I still have a couple of pints with friends, enjoy Sunday lunch with a bottle of wine. I’ll have a drink to relax, not to get drunk because I can’t deal with the hangovers any more.”
These days Phil, who is married to third wife Dawn Brown, finds the challenge of getting the conundrum on TV’s Countdown enough of a thrill. He has two daughters – Ellie, 33, with ex-girlfriend Jane McEvoy, and Poppy, 26, with his second wife Lisa Bar.
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Since retiring in 2003, he has become a star of reality TV – winning I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! in 2003 and appearing on Strictly Come Dancing in 2009. He has also been a team captain on They Think It’s All Over and A Question of Sport, and joins BBC Test Match Special as a pundit every summer.
Tufnell with wife Dawn Brown (Getty Images Europe)Even at the high points of a career in which he played 42 Tests for England as a left-arm spin bowler, Phil was better known for his cheeky chappy exterior than for his match-winning ability. Sometimes, it all fell apart. During the 1994-95 Ashes tour of Australia, he trashed his hotel room and ended up in a psychiatric unit in Perth.
Describing that night, he says: “It felt like a few bad things all at once. My life at home was not where it should be. I wasn’t playing well on the field. The pressure of it after a while got to me.”
Cricket has among the highest suicide rates in sport and Phil is happy the mental health of players is being taken more seriously now.
He says: “People are under pressure and you’re playing at the top of your tree and there’s microscopic attention on what you do, every minute of every day. Sometimes things aren’t going particularly well for you, or you’re not playing great. I had a little wobble but managed to get over it.
“Those were the days when people would just say, come on young man, just get on with it. Thankfully, the landscape has changed. Those times have changed, and people are more understanding. The issue of mental health in sport had to be addressed. I think it happens a lot in sport – one moment you’re at the top of your tree and then that leaves – and you have to adjust yourself back into life. A lot of people have suffered; it was happening a bit too often and I’m glad it’s now being talked about.”
Playing against India in 1993 (Popperfoto via Getty Images)
Tufnell's new bookPhil released himself from the ward shortly afterwards and rejoined the team. He credits his cricketing friends for helping him get back on track. “I managed to get myself back together with the help of team-mates,” he says. “I was very quickly pulled back into the group at England. And I told myself ‘sod it, I’m not going to worry. I’m going to enjoy what I’m doing’. That helped me get into a positive frame of mind.
“It’s very difficult sometimes. It does weigh you down. I consider myself very lucky to have got through it. I’ve managed to muddle through and have got my own little coping mechanisms.
“And there are lots more tools in place to sort of help you through those times.”
Phil – known to many as Tuffers – has written a new book, The Tourist, detailing his life and travels around the globe during a first-class career which began with Middlesex in 1986.
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He describes years of sleeping on floors and people’s sofas – crashing out during numerous nights out. His sleeping earned him his nickname, but Middlesex and England team-mate Angus Fraser remarked he couldn’t be a cat because: “Phil has more than nine lives.”
Phil laughs: “I’ve definitely used a few up!” He won’t go into detail about how, but adds: “My mum used to say keep a smile on your face for as long as you can. Because there will always be a time when you’re not smiling. So I just try to enjoy myself, enjoy people and have fun.”
That’s a mantra he’s embraced since leaving his professional sporting career behind, becoming King of the Jungle in 2003. Phil recalls being worried about meeting his campmates for the first time.
“Each time, I was always a bit nervous but I am quite lucky that as a cricketer, I’m used to being with lots of people, and having that dressing room camaraderie,” he says. “So I just treated it as the dressing room.”
With Matt Dawson and Sue Barker (BBC/Vishal Sharma)Tuffers charmed a nation, not to mention campmate Linda Barker. The Changing Room presenter declared she would “defy any woman not to fall for the twinkle in his eye”. More sport followed the jungle, this time in the form of A Question of Sport, which he joined in 2007. But in 2020, it was a sad surprise for Phil, along with fellow captain Matt Dawson and host Sue Barker, to be axed when the BBC said they were looking to take the programme in a new direction.
He still sees Matt and Sue regularly. “We go for lunch or dinner,” he says. “We’ve got a good friendship. The three of us did a tour around the theatres that went down very well. Who knows, we might do something like that again.”
In the meantime, he also strapped on his dancing shoes to take part in Strictly, and while he coped well in the jungle, it was a very different experience on the ballroom floor.
Phil recalls how he and fellow contestant, actress Zoe Lucker, would be giddy with excitement one moment and crying the next due to the nerves of dancing in front of millions. “I remember the terror – Zoe and I both felt it – but I don’t know how you could not be scared,” says Phil. “It’s a nerve-racking experience. On my series, these stage and TV actors and actresses were fainting backstage. To go out there with a rhinestone encrusted pink shirt and tight trousers and do the Paso Doble... I had to tell myself you just go out there and do your bloody best.”
They are words he had to put into practice earlier this year when Dawn, whom he married in 2005, had to have a hip replacement, leaving the Cat to fend for himself. “I had to learn what a dark wash is,” Phil laughs as he recalls. “She was out of action for quite some time, so I had to learn all sorts of things like cleaning and shopping, which isn’t as easy as it seems!”
It turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks... or an old Cat, at least.
- The Tourist: What happens on tour stays on tour … until now! is out now priced £10.99.
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