"Indoor Nets Begin This Thursday"
One line from a Club issued message that reminds me my new year’s resolutions have once more fallen to the wayside. I will, once more, enter the new season with huffs and puffs; and that the day after, the day after nets will be filled with aches and pains from complaining muscles that won’t go away until March. Every year I state my intention to remain supple if not actually fit, then not completely unfit during the off season and every year indoor nets sneak up and surprise me. It’ll be a case of back to the products of Glaxo Smith Kline, Phifzer or the Colorado Harvest Company. Paracetamol, Solphadene, Aspirin or Difiene, I have no favourites and this column does not have product placement (although I would be open to offers).
However, the start of one more season is always welcome. Global communication ensures that cricket has not been too far away during the dark dank days of winter. Images of South African savannah sun, Arabian evenings, Australian floodlights have been beamed directly from all corners of the globe to my television. It provides drama and entertainment from day/night Test Matches to Big Bash League, from pink days to the beige of the Kiwi’s T20 gear. Cricket truly is a year round game. It is said that Joe Root got to spend one night at home in 2015. Either cricket is as much all consuming for the international players as it is for spectators, or he didn’t do the hoovering last time he was there and is now consigned to the doghouse.
Here in Dublin, it has been anything but cricket weather. Whoever decided that we should start naming our storms has not helped matters one little bit. We are all suddenly aware of how many storms have passed through from the Atlantic, having learnt our alphabets. In years gone by, the memories of bad weather slipped from our minds after a day or two of clear cool days. Now as soon as we hear that Storm James or Storm Kelly is on its way, we immediately calculate what number storm it is and images of previous storms come to mind. Stop it. It lengthens winter and makes us all feel cold. I don’t see us naming sunny summers days. I suppose that having only got to ‘Summers Day Dervla’ by September, we would all be rightly pissed off and start making plans to emigrate to somewhere that sees ‘Summers Day Zebedee’ at least once a year.
Of course we must be thankful that our exposure to the inclement weather has not been as awful as the west of Ireland or even Cumbria with their floods and landslides. Rain has certainly accumulated in the ground all over and grounds-men, as is their wont, will be hoping for a dry period, although not too long, or too dry, or too windy. Groundsmen, like farmers, are never happy with the weather we actually get. But I suspect even groundmen have been happy not to find their beloved grass too far under water.
This time last year saw me preparing not for winter nets, but for travel to the far side of the world for the 50 over World Cup. Some of you will have been subjected to a picture by picture barrage on social media. Not this season, India doesn’t have the same appeal as Australia, for me, although the tempting trip would be in September to watch the Ireland team in ODIs against both South Africa and Australia in Pretoria. Now that would be a good way to end the season, wouldn’t it?
The full Irish team, as I write, are in the middle of an Inter-Continental Cup clash with Papua New Guinea in Townsville, QLD as part of their pursuit of Test status. The experience of Niall O’Brien and Gary Wilson has been supplemented by the return of Boyd Rankin and one hopes that our golden generation do get their chance to play test cricket and that Larry the Leprechaun also completes the journey from Townsville to Lords.
The Irish Under 19’s attempt to replicate Danish football’s 1992 European Championship victory having missed out on qualification, but appearing at the finals anyway due to withdrawals, seems to have fallen short, but what a great experience for the boys. For Josh Little, it has been a short trip from playing Division 12 a couple of years ago for the Pembroke Sixth XI to appearing in Bangladesh on Sky Sports 3 and he will have another couple of years at this level too. The Irish team have not won a group game, but will have been heartened to find that they have not been too far away from matching the likes of India and New Zealand. Nepal have been the surprise package and have made the most of the absence of Australia. What a shame that these players may never get the chance to perform at the highest level. It cannot be right that potentially the next Bradman, Hadlee, or Gilchrist might be denied such a chance by location of birth. Yes I know that many players end up playing for a country other than that of their birth, such as Tony Greig, Mike Denness, Eoin Morgan, Nasser Hussain, Gavin Hamilton, Boyd Rankin, Ed Joyce to name but a few, but surely they would prefer to see their own countries succeed. Imagine the amount of declarations a similar rule in football would see.
The Irish Women’s team has just four weeks to go before they head off to their World Cup. Coach Aaron Hamilton is taking a side to India for the T20 World Cup. So I wish them the very best of luck, as I am sure everyone does. They may be amateurs, but their preparation has been entirely professional.
For my own, and other players preparations, they may be slightly less professional but they do start in earnest now. I begin usually by using the latest technology to check www.cricketleinster.ie for the league structures. Checking mileage (kilometreage) to away grounds, checking clashes with other major summer events, and seeing the cup draws for potential silverware are all little tasks that are undertaken at this time of year. Other summer events include the Olympic Games coming from Rio, The Association Football European Games, plus the usual Croke Park festivities, Formula 1 from around the world, Wimbledon, The British Open, The Ryder Cup, plus anything else BT Sport and Sky deem to be worthy of a monthly subscription. Of course football has always impeded the cricket season. A normal English football season used to end in early May and begin again in September, but now the Euros will take us through to July and preseason and the transfer window will pop up in August. Footballers are nearly like the rest of us, ignoring the gulf in salary, now getting but a two week break in their summer. Oh the poor little overworked boys. My heart breaks, but then I remember that Wayne Rooney gets to kick a ball around and get as much money in one week as I do in 8 years.
The one job that every player will undertake as they prepare for the start of the season is to rescue their kit from its winter hibernation. Some players will only drag out the equipment, that is, pads, bat, box, and helmet that they will need for indoor nets. Other will take out everything and pack and repack their bag, seeing how it all fits and what shortcomings will see them scuttling off to Ed Sports (other retailers are available) to purchase a new box, but exit with a new bag, gloves, two club jerseys and for some strange reason, because he is not a wicket keeper, wicket-keepers gloves. He will have to go back for the box when he remembers.
One important task that does need to be done sooner rather than later is to register as a player on the www.cricketleinster.ie website, with the added fun of uploading a picture this year. If all passport photographs have the effect of making us all look like drug couriers or similar criminals, then our pictures on the Cricket Leinster website will make us look like cricketers, or more likely, not.
In recent seasons I have compiled, with a great deal of assistance from Paul Reynolds and the OCC, a fantasy table of players in Leinster Cricket and I would hope to continue to do so this coming season. However, to be honest I have tired of writing the same stuff each week and propose to let the figures do most of their own talking. All the usual categories will be covered together with some more of the unusual or noteworthy items I come across. I also intend to write more of a blog of my season. It will include any material anyone wants me to write about and will not be just a record of my personal accomplishments and my team’s progress through the season. In the past I wrote under the GOM (Grumpy Old Man) and Grinds my Gears headings and this season will undoubtedly, be no different. They say write about things you know and as most people who know me are well aware, I do know how to get p1ssed off. Sometimes it is something small and trivial but occasionally I do see and hear things that seem to need either to be discussed, or just raised.
Pembroke Fifths and Sixths, where I hope to spend many a day around the grounds of Leinster have both got new captains for the new season. The Fifths will be led by Stephen Moore, taking over from my mid season appointment last term and a new era of discipline, blind obedience and body-on-the-line stuff will undoubtedly be demanded. The Sixth XI has no official appointment as yet, although the rumour mill is in full flow with ex-First team player Steve McCarthy being the favourite to take on the reins.
My biggest hope for 2016 is not glory or silverware, but that we see resurgence in the Spirit of the Game. Like a broken record you’ll hear me mention that the prize money in the Leinster leagues is not enough to necessitate winning by any means. That the chance of international recognition is fairly slim in Division 13 and that these games represent my time off from work and I do not wish to waste them playing in games that do not conform to the Spirit of the Game. That said one’s heart is often lifted by the behaviour of most cricketers in Leinster and the way they play the game. This spirit does not just include walking when you know you are out, but an overall attitude from welcoming your visitors, playing hard but fair, being hosts and not hostile and leaving the other team looking forward to the return match. Of course my team did this a lot last year, leaving teams looking forward to playing us again, but usually and sadly for the easy points on offer. Having stepped down for the onerous task of captaincy, I do look forward to my return to the trenches from where I can observe with prejudice and comment without self-censorship. Well until the Disciplinary Committee says otherwise.