If a picture paints a thousand words, then Gareth Copley-Jones has produced a truly epic story of the England cricket team over the past two decades.

His newly-released magnum opus is “A Picture of England: Twenty Years Photographing the England Cricket Team Home and Away” (Pitch Publishing).

A sports photographer for 30 years, working for Press Association and now Getty Images, Gareth brought the Norfolk Cricket Society 2025-26 programme to a close as guest speaker at Manor Park on Thursday, April 23.

As official England men’s team photographer, his role has given him privileged and unrivalled access to the national team, the players and personalities involved in a period of dramatic highs and lows, covering more than 180 Test matches and 38 overseas tours, most memorably the 2010-11 Ashes series in Australia, plus limited overs tournaments and series, including the 2019 World Cup triumph.

He is one of a very select group to have won both the Sports Journalists’ Association Photographer of the Year and first prize in the World Press Awards.

Gareth started work in the age of film cameras, mostly at football and rugby grounds, where one of his jobs was to develop film on the spot.

He told an appreciative audience he had not been a cricket fan, partly because he feared the red ball as a youngster. But he covered his first Test match at Old Trafford in 2001, and he fell in love with the game after agreeing to cover England’s tour of Pakistan at the end of 2005, on condition he would also be assigned to the 2006-07 Ashes series in Australia.

He had a baptism of fire in Pakistan when the team were greeted by armed security in Karachi on their arrival, providing one of the first images in the book.

Among his outstanding work featured are an award-winning shot of Jonathan Trott being run out on his Test debut at The Oval in 2009, a favourite photo of Mark Wood and Ben Stokes in the dressing room after England’s 2015 Ashes triumph – their last series win over Australia – and his famous picture of Stokes celebrating his winning boundary at Headingley in 2019. The main cover picture shows James Anderson and eight teammates celebrating the match-winning dismissal of Brad Haddin at Trent Bridge in 2013.

The foreword for the book is provided by Joe Root, Gareth’s favourite player. He described Root as totally unchanged by the fame and success he has enjoyed since his Test debut in 2012, but he generally finds bowlers better company than batsmen, whose moods are affected by their form. Gareth rates Chris Woakes, pictured walking out to bat with his arm in a sling against India at The Oval last year, as the most genuine person in the game.

Gareth discussed topics including the importance of watching every single ball, the instant transmission of pictures to media outlets, the difficulties of covering cricket during the Covid restrictions and the infamous Stanford Super Series in the West Indies in 2008.

Rory Dollard, cricket correspondent at PA Media, wrote the supporting text for the book, interviewing England players about the images in which they feature. Gareth and Rory’s royalties from the sale of the book are being donated to the MND Association to support research into a cure and to improve access to care for those affected by Motor Neurone Disease.

Words by David Cuffley

Photos by Nick Morton, Pete Golland & Rob Kelly