Diary Of A Vegan Cricketer (Week Twenty Four)

C is for ….. Club Cricket and the direction it is heading, with no nets and no cricket it feels like the season is over (but not quite yet), and the Vegan issues in Cricket exist in Golf as well.

2024 Season Week Twenty Three: September 9th – September 15th

A lot of my Staffordshire Seniors teammates don’t play Saturday League cricket anymore. They are good enough and there is no one common reason … but a regular topic of discussion is that it just isn’t what it was.

Of course I now enter the dangerous territory of the “back in my day”, “kids of today don’t know they are born”, and of course back in the day before the kids of today were born we had availability issues, and the odd player who could usually only play at home because of work.

From my own perspective not a week goes by (it seems) that availability isn’t an issue, with players being moved up a level often against their wishes, and usually above their own abilities. Not getting a game so others can has always been a dilemma in cricket, “putting the team first” but when it is a regular occurance is it in fact fair? Or indeed right? If the team can’t get it’s better players to turn out, if the team doesn’t compete, is it reasonable to ask players to give up a perfectly adequate Saturday afternoon, to watch others have a game?

I have spoken to many clubs over the last 3 years since I returned to the game, and there are too many facing the same issues for this to be a single club issue.

Getting players to nets is an issue for many, as is putting out a Sunday team …. where a common gripe amongst the “oldies” is that they have been asked to carry on playing to help develop the youngsters, but often a team only has a few youngsters because the others are playing other sports (overlapping seasons wasn’t an issue back in the day), at a festival (not an issue back in the day), on holiday (we did have those!), or watching the 100 (certainly didn’t have that, but we did have Gillete Cup, but watching never seemed to take precedent over playing).

For these oldies getting dropped when a younger/better player decides they want to play is nothing new, but the question often asked is: is it setting the right example(s) of commitment, team, being good enough?

I said above there was no one common reason, but the more this is discuused in the changing room, walking the boundary, in the bar the more it seems to be coming down to an issue of “quantity over quality”. By aiming to accomodate all, are we putting too much pressure on the few? If a club had 50 playing members, should it put out 4 teams “in case” everyone is available, or put out 2 Saturday Teams and a Sunday Team? If the First Team week in week out ‘borrows’ players from the Second Team, should they just have one team and play at the appropriate level?

I am not sure these questions are even been considered, although personally I am increasingly becoming of the same opinion as my Staffordshire teammates: concentrate on Tuesdays, play some NBCC/Social/Charity cricket on Sunday, have Saturday at home, and play more golf in the week?

Talking of golf I have started playing a few more courses with a couple of Staffordshire Seniors teammates, including my old course in Barlaston which I played in the late 70s. It was brilliant to play it again: has matured nicely and brought back lots of happy memories.

On the downside getting a Vegan Bar Snack post game has proven impossible. Again, looking at the demograohic of those playing mid week I “get it” but ….. Vegan Soup & Bread, Hummus and Pitta Breads, Vegan Burger & Fries, a Spinach, Carrott and Hummus Wrap? They are not exactly hard to produce!

You will have gathered I haven’t played this week (Charity game rained off), or netted (rained off), and I got soaked playing golf!

Have been looking at taking up target shooting. My mate does it and we have been looking at guns and clubs: a sport you do indoors and lying down has a lot of appeal!