Shane and I have had very different journeys – but nevertheless we share a special bond – we are both leg spin bowlers. We take the greatest risks of any on the cricket field as we use loop, spin and guile to bewitch the batsman. My task is much harder than Shane’s – as I suspect the ball rarely deviates when I can get it to hit the pitch. I hold onto the belief that in my career if I had been allowed to bowl on turf pitches – something to which I was truly entitled – things might have been very different. In the last few weeks Shane and my cricketing journeys have collided once again.
Shane’s prodigious talent was spotted early in his career – I am still waiting for this to happen. Unlike Shane – I can reel off my cricketing highlights in the next five lines. (OK I’ll spin it out to ten) At the age of twelve I made it to the “Possibles” in a in a Possibles vs Probables trial game for the mighty Darling Downs region. Since that day on March 17th 1980 in Stanthorpe it has all probably been downhill. In senior cricket at the age of 14 I debuted for the Yagaburne Cricket Club. My Dad was a vet in the country and to my knowledge never played except in the backyard. One of his work colleagues would don the whites every Saturday and on one particular day (like all good teams) Yagaburne was short and I got to take the field. I have been lucky enough to mainly play in places where there was no grading (I prefer to call it degrading) system.
The towns only had one competition and they combined city based A Grade cricketers with others who didn’t know which end of the bat to hold. In terms of leadership on the field – I spent a season as a Deputy Vice Captain of the Hospitals Cricket Club in Derby in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The fact that there were four other deputy vice captains (I tell the truth) – meant that I was part of the selection panel and was lucky enough to play every game over a four season period. In terms of achievements on the field – I once opened the bowling for the Pils (Hospitals nickname) in the West Kimberley comp – not bad for a leg spinner – and I once miraculously made a half century in a tightly fought semi-final which my team went onto lose. And that’s pretty much it. I could recall my training trial with the University of Queensland cricket club when I spent most of my time in the bush near the Brisbane River bank trying to find a ball that some batsman hitting across the line had despatched – but that would be far too painful.
So when last week Shane decided to dust off the twenty twenty pyjamas and make a comeback for Eddie McGuire’s Melbourne team my ears pricked up. Once again Shane and I were sharing a dream. Mine was an accidental comeback – but it is a comeback nevertheless. A team mate in the Kimberley named Dennis inspired me many years ago. Dennis was a very good cricketer and had made a living coaching and playing in England for a while. An accident on the farm had taken out one eye – so he came to the PILS side with a few challenges – but was good enough to open the bowling. He was more regular in doing this than me. OK so I only did it once – but the captain wouldn’t have known what would have happened if he didn’t throw me the ball. A few years ago post 50 Dennis sent me an email boasting of his greatest moment in cricket – batting at one end while his son made fifty at the other. Since then I have dreamt of that day. The cricketing drought has only been punctuated by a game in England when I played with a mate as part of an Anglican Priests Team in the Fifth Division of the Bradford League. For the record it was on turf and my last ball in England (there were only seven in total) was a wicket taker.
I then heard about Colts cricket here in Toowoomba and learnt that a few of the older guys could make up the numbers guiding and mentoring the young bucks. I had already ahared all of my cricketing knowledge when my sons were in the Under 9s – so really this was an excuse to pull on the boots and play with one of my boys who had kept the faith and continued playing into his teens. And then tragedy struck. The week before we were due to take the field lad smashed his left foot in some neighbourhood basketball game. So I dutifully went to training without son and then things on the home-front went really bad. As my son’s foot healed it emerged that the thrill was gone – cricket was no longer for him and he would pursue a sporting career in other pursuits.
In the long dark night of the soul I decided to do what was right and true – I would play on anyway. I won’t bore you with the details – but it has been magnificent. Each week at the club nets there is great ceremony as the Club President reads the selections from his clip board. There are whispers in the background and I secretly wonder who is hurting and who is happy. But we need to focus as El Presidente shares some words of inspiration. He mentions three things about being a Warrior – to stay together, to play tough – but I forget the third – because my name was read out as part of the C grade list and since then it has all been a blur!
There have only been two games in C Grade for me and I won’t bore you with the details – but it is all the same as it ever was. A great bunch of team mates, banter, humour and even controversy. For five hours every Saturday afternoon a very diverse bunch of men devote themselves to one of the noblest of causes – and that is the game of cricket. I got through the first game OK but did a severe injury in the warm up stage of the second game. Many in my team now battle two opponents each week. The opposition and the real enemy for all of us – age and the tyranny of time. Rehabilitation is going well and I hope to be at training some time in the next fortnight.
So I don’t know what motivated Shane to make this latest move. It might be for the media attention. It could be for the money or it might be to show off to his latest flame. If any of it is because when he got to training he couldn’t help himself then I wish him well. Shane says he is playing again to “give something back to the game”. Right now I am more of a taker than a giver – and I am not even sure if my gift to the game of cricket would be accepted. This Summer I will have a passing interest in the pursuits of the Earl of Twirl and all of the other cricket on offer on the TV. But most of all I will be hoping to get back on the park and be a part of the C Grade Warriors conjuring up another win.
