Secret Cricketer

Anonymous

Description

The Secret Cricketer first picked up a cricket bat as a toddler and became a county junior. He secured a professional contract and has been at the coalface of the English county game ever since. This fast-paced, insider's account lifts the lid on modern cricket to reveal what life is really like for an English professional in the 21st century. How do players cope when they can't take a wicket or score a run and their livelihood is on the line? What makes a good coach and how many are there (hint - not many)? Is there still an old-school hierarchy in dressing rooms or a bullying culture? What's the secret to a winning dressing room, and what's it like to be in one when morale hits rock bottom? How much do county players earn? And what's it like to walk out at Lord's to play in a major final? With unique first-hand insight into the fast-evolving modern game, the book answers all these questions and more. It's brimming with untold stories - some that will make you laugh and others that will shock you.

Sujets

• Críquet
• Cricket

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 19 avril 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781801500029
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2021
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Anonymous, 2021
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785319860
eBook ISBN 9781801500029
---
eBook Conversion by www.eBookPartnership.com
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgements
1. Starting Out
2. Making It
3. Treadmill
4. Feeling Like A Rock Star
5. Country File
6. Pressure
7. Coaching and Coaches
8. Leadership
9. Hiring, Firing, Earning, Recruiting and Moving
10. How Lucky Am I?
11. Around The Grounds
12. When the Treadmill Stops
Foreword
NOT ONLY have I spent the past 20 years pissing about on a cricket field, going from Travelodge to Holiday Inn and Nando s to Wagamama s, I have now written a book about it.
Being asked to become The Secret Cricketer has meant spending several months reliving some of the most sublime, but mainly the most ridiculous moments in a career I probably never thought possible.
When you see Cristiano Ronaldo enter the football pitch with his immaculate six-pack and hairdo, spare a thought for the unshaven, slightly tubby county cricketer who just put the wrong petrol in his club-issue Mazda and has to go and field for six hours. We re both professional athletes, but that s where the similarity ends.
But what a privilege it is to play such a unique sport, get paid for it and be surrounded by some of the best human beings you could imagine. Cricketers are a fascinating bunch, from the young lad who steals the changing-room beers to drink in his hotel room to the 6ft 5in quick bowler who emerges after 20 minutes in the ice bath to gasps of admiration from his team-mates.
When the two teams you are watching on an English cricket ground are absorbed in an intensely competitive struggle, regardless of the format we re playing, with a high level of skill on show, it is an example of elite performers at the top of their game. But behind the scenes you might find me keeping watch as my hungover team-mate is being sick in the toilets before going out and whacking a 70-ball hundred.
County cricket has its problems, and there are things in the game in England which most of the 400 pros making a living out of it would agree need to improve. Some have been issues throughout my near two decades as a pro. So, in these pages I ve tried to offer some solutions on how we can do things better as well as taking you on the journey from junior player all the way to the top, well nearly the top. If the ECB want me to expand on some of my ideas, I am available for the usual consultancy fee.
At times it can be a pretty miserable existence, like every job really. You re out of form, the team spirit is crumbling, and there s no chance of winning a trophy. You re worn out, there s still six weeks of the season to go, and next up is a long trip to Durham. All you ve got to look forward to is which service station to stop at.
But the good days far outweigh the bad. I have seen it all and met so many wonderful people; from the guy on the gate, to the umpires, supporters and dressing-room attendants who are part of the fabric of English professional cricket. When I sit back in 20 years, long since retired, and pick up this book, I m sure I know I will still be grateful that I got to live this life for as long as I did. The county pro experiences far more good days than bad. I hope you enjoy reading about them for yourself.
Acknowledgements
IF YOU think you have worked out who I am by the end of this book, then well done. By staying anonymous, I ve tried to highlight some of the issues in the game without worrying too much about upsetting anyone while bringing you the realities of life as a county cricketer.
But the trouble with a project like this is that you can t thank all the people who have helped you in your cricket career without giving your identity away. When the cricket writer who had the idea for this book came to me, I didn t need much persuading. He s helped me through the process and made sense of my thoughts through many Zoom calls. Thanks mate.
Thanks to Jane and Paul Camillin at Pitch Publishing for their support and belief in the project, to Duncan Olner for the cover design (we got there in the end), Richard Whitehead for his proofreading and generous feedback and to Alison Cooper, who professionally transcribed my ramblings.
The only three people who know I have written this book are my wife and parents, who have offered unstinting love and support from the day I first picked up a cricket bat and right through my career. And they ve been sworn to secrecy.
This is for them, and everyone who loves county cricket.
The Secret Cricketer,
March 2021
1
Starting Out
I M NOT sure how long cricket has been my life. I can t even remember the first time I held a bat in my hands or threw a ball at someone or something, it was that long ago.
Every young sportsman or woman has a support system as they make their way: parents, coaches or siblings. But if you are going to make it, that s all they are, support - not someone or something to blame if it doesn t happen for you.
You could be the most talented player in every junior team in your county, and even one of the best at your age in the country. You could be fast-tracked into the county second-team at 17, have the best equipment and access to great facilities and coaching. Everything could be there for you to help you make the transition, but only you can make yourself good enough technically, physically and, most importantly, mentally so that when that opportunity comes you grab it.
All those things I ve mentioned happened to me in my formative years. I showed an aptitude for ball sports very early on. I was playing two years above at the age of nine, facing loads of future Australian Test stars at 15 and playing county second-team cricket three months after my 17th birthday. I trained like a maniac, I watched my weight and I wanted it, I really wanted it.
In my mid-teens I had to overcome a pretty traumatic episode when probably one of the best-known coaches in the world tried to change my game so fundamentally that a few weeks later I turned up at games dreading the thought of even walking on to the pitch. Quite a few contemporaries who worked with him at the same time were ruined by his methods and their chance of a career in cricket disappeared. But I was mentally strong even then and got through it.
So here are a few things that happened when I was finding my way in cricket, how I approached and how I responded to different setbacks and challenges. I think for young players and parents they are still relevant now.
The right school - does it make a difference?
I coach kids occasionally nowadays, enough to get a sense of whether the development of young players has improved in the past 20-25 years. Some of these boys and girls have been educated in private schools, with the access to better facilities that gives them. Their parents are also happy to pay me 70 an hour to operate the bowling machine and encourage them along. Happy days. I have also worked with a lot of promising young players free of charge to try to help them in areas where they may not have had much help, so it s not just about taking a bit of spare cash off parents I can assure you.
In 2020, statistics showed that 43% of English professional cricketers were privately educated yet only 7% of the total school-age population in the UK go to public schools. That first figure is probably going to keep rising as more and more state schools sell off playing fields and fewer teachers provide cricket coaching after normal lessons. Those two things were just starting to happen when I went to school.
Does your school make any difference to your chances of making it? That figure of 43% suggests being privately educated does give you a decent advantage, but it still means more than half who come into professional cricket do so via state schools, universities or the club system.
The most important thing to remember is you are never more than a few miles from a cricket club in this country, whether you live in a city, town or a village. And there are coaches and volunteers working at local clubs who will be able to spot young talent and push it in the right direction, through their own contacts in county or Minor Counties cricket. So, is it access that stops young boys or girls being full-time cricketers? Are there advantages to living in certain counties? Does the cost of kit have a big impact on who can or who can t play cricket? The sport s lack of visibility is a much bigger issue, as has become apparent in recent years.
In my opinion, if you turn out to be good enough the opportunities to become a pro are the same now as they were when I started, whatever way you get there, and there are many different routes to the top. It is simple when you think about it. We still have 18 counties as we did 20 years ago, so we still have around 400 players who can make a full-time living out of the game. And that s not including players who play Minor Counties cricket for two or three days at the weekend and supplement their income by coaching in schools, often in th