Sherlock Holmes is a government official. Mycroft has a unique civil service position as a kind of human database for all aspects of government policy. He lacks Sherlock's interest in physical investigation, however, preferring to spend his time at the Diogenes Club. Holmes says that he first developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate; his earliest cases, which he pursued as an amateur, came from fellow university students. A meeting with a classmate's father led him to adopt detection as a profession, and he spent several years after university as a consultant before financial difficulties led him to accept John H.
Thomas Mycroft and played two games for MCC. In 1885 he played a single MCC V Derbyshire match in which he had a small bowling spell for Derbyshire. In 1887 he played for South against North and his final match was for MCC against Oxford University. Mycroft was wicket keeper in all but two first-class games when he bowled in all 44 balls without a wicket. He was a left-handed batsman and played 46 innings in 24 first-class matches with a top score of 24 not out and an average of 7.78. Mycroft returned to the game as an umpire, from 1897