![]() ![]() ![]() November”, or “The Captain”, big things are going to be expected of you. ![]() Usually, taking five wickets would get you the man of the match honours but I hadn't counted on Darryl 'that's my man of the match award' Lewis going in and scoring 167 in a stunning batting performance.Īll the boys contributed runs which resulted in us posting a score of 434 to take the game and points against the Dartmoor team which has left us at 4-1 in this season of working class cricket.When your nicknames include, “Mr. In the end though we let the Dartmoor boys get 50 more than they should of leaving us with 169 to chase with plenty of overs available. Of course that was no issue for us because even though daylight savings hadn't ended, the fat captain turned back the clock with an outstanding display of swing bowling, taking a five for and a bit of stick from the boys for bowling himself for 27 overs straight. It appeared to overwhelm most of the boys as a few had tears streaming down their faces though Phil McBain told me later that it had more to do with those boys forgetting their hay fever tablets than my speech.Ī two-day game at the home of cricket, the Yahl C-grade against a bunch of Victorians, the Dartmoor boys started off poorly for us as we only had nine players by time play commenced, leaving some big gaps in the field. The only time I have come close to a decent speech was a couple of seasons ago when we played our first final, I told the boys that it didn't matter if we lost this match because I was proud of each and every one of them for making this far. The tried and tested, 'lets field well, back up the bowler, keep the chatter up, throw the ball at McBains feet, catches win matches'.it's all a bit dull. It seems so different in sports movies when the coach or some sort of senior player will giving a rousing call to war speech about doing it for the Gipper or some player who may not be able to play because his wife has demanded some home improvement jobs be finally finished.įor me it is the same old sort of speech - Captain Obvious is what I think of myself. Of course, all this pales in comparison to the pre-game speech, it is something I feel I have never quite got the hang of in all my time captaining. It has become a waste of time to even mention that there are plenty of overs still to go and they should take their time and get their eyes in, as far as they are concerned their contact lenses are in so good enough, let's go for a six first ball. To make matters worse though, you now have to deal with a bunch of kids whom have grown up on a steady diet of 20/20 cricket and self-entitlement and try to bat accordingly. It is a hard juggle as everybody wants to bat at number 5 or 6 and nobody wants to open the batting or bat last. You have to manage a group of 10 individuals all with different personalities and possibly inflated ideas of their own abilities and position in the team. In saying this though, it isn't just the bowlers that make the job of captaincy such hard work, sure it is a lot of their fault but not 100 per cent of the time. I guess if I think I have it hard, then the South African captain must have it much worse having to give his pre match pep talk in Afrikaans, bowler Afrikaans, English and bowler English.įair crack he must be exhausted before he even steps onto the field of play.Īs it is though, I have enlisted the help of wicket keeping all-rounder and Yahl Cricket Club sign language teacher, Phil McBain to teach the bowlers how to sign so then he can relay any of the worthwhile points of my pre-game speech to the bowlers in an attempt to speed things up and actually start a game on time for once this season. Most of the time it is just hard work being the captain.Ī fair bit of effort has to go into keeping the bowlers in line, luckily I am an all-rounder so I can speak bowler English but it is hard to keep a conversation going on with the team when I have to switch so often between the two dialects. ![]() Sure it has its benefits like when you go to a restaurant that is fully booked out, they'll always set up another table just for you, but that may have more to do with me being a fair old fatty than the prestige that comes with the letter C after your name on the team list. It isn't quite as much fun as people think, being a C-grade cricket captain. ![]()
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