Cricket with a difference

This summer has provided me with a completely new outlook on cricket. On a professional level, the game is changing with amazing speed, illustrated by the naming today of an England squad of prospective cricketing millionaires; a concept that would have seemed unimaginable and highly implausible even a few years ago, let alone in the eras of Bradman and Sobers.

From a personal perspective, this summer has given me the chance to rediscover my love for the game. Having played a minimum 30-game season for club, school and county as a schoolboy, my university years provided only a handful of matches due to travelling, laziness, and a loss of desire to play cricket. The Everest Test changed all of that; it gave me a new purpose to play the game again, and a chance to revel in stories that only cricket can provide.

Such philosophical thoughts on the game did not require particularly deep thinking with teammates and opponents like the ones I encountered over the season. On one occasion, Old Haberdasher’s (my team) took the field with only nine players after the tea break. With no one sure of their whereabouts, play had to continue, and things only became clear fifteen minutes and three overs later when the pair returned holding Big Macs! To exacerbate their calm approach to the game, they decided to stand with deadpan faces on the boundary and finish the burgers before returning to the field. I’m not entirely certain but I don’t think there will be a Golden Arches up on Everest…

Another season highlight was seeing a fully grown man using the old trick of taking guard as a left hander in order to induce a field change, when actually he was right handed! What a ridiculous man, I thought that sort of behaviour stopped after the age of eleven. (To give him credit, I was slightly jealous of his immature stunt).

On the playing side, I found some form with the bat, and after a season best 72 in the final game, finished with an average of 40. A pleasing return to the fray, and all in all an enjoyable return to cricket.

The opportunity to combine cricket’s unique camaraderie with a trek up Mount Everest is a marvellous one, but it is the reasons behind it which I know will provide most satisfaction. I have watched Comic Relief so many times on BBC, and been moved by the suffering of the deprived families who are depicted. Up until now, I have never done anything meaningful about it. I am so pleased to feel I can make a difference for Comic Relief and the Himalayan Trust through this expedition, and am doing my utmost to raise as much money as I can for such worthwhile causes.

Millionaire cricketers or cricket on Mount Everest; I am not sure what sounds more outlandish. But, fingers crossed, at least the bank balances of these charities will have risen come April 2009.