Priorities change with the passage of time and in cricket terms that means different strokes for different folks. At one end of the spectrum some of our Cricket Ireland heroes will be seeking to establish themselves in county cricket, while at the other end of the scale seasoned stalwarts at clubs all around the country will be resigned to junior and minor cricket and the weekly chores of getting players, transport, teas, scoring and umpiring. All this will be light years away from Paul Stirling walking down through the Long Room and onto the Lord’s sward or Gary Wilson playing at the magnificent Kennington Oval, but each bit of fabric joins together to make Ulster cricket what it is, and every season gets richer in content.
If there is one lesson in life then it is to enjoy every moment of your playing career as when you stop it is gone forever. Playing down the teams or umpiring is a great swansong, but it is not for everyone. Too many senior players stop early and get jaded because they lose their zest and enthusiasm for reasons not associated with the game. Playing cricket is just like a car engine and if you don’t service it then it won’t perform at its optimum. And that is just as important in minor cricket as in county cricket, albeit there is a huge difference in the standard. Of course you can turn up and perform, but at what percentage of your real ability? Players need to be fit, dedicated and focused at any level to do themselves and their team justice.
Cricket is still essentially an amateur game for most weekend players and despite the demands on time in modern life players still love their preferred Saturday sport. If not, why play at all?
Well done to the tourists who have organized short pre-season tours to get the players together and fine-tune their skills before the serious business of competitive cricket kicks in. Club tours can be great fun and great preparation for the season if the fixtures and the itinerary are more than a weekend jolly. In this respect it will be interesting to see how the Grasshoppers perform on the back of their exciting 18-day Caribbean tour. Their squad was a good mix of youth and experience and the younger players will surely have picked up a lot from playing alongside seasoned senior cricketers like Ryan Haire, Neil Russell, Michael Turkington, Andrew Cowden Ray McCavery, and David Haire. And to play on test grounds and to meet some of the great West Indian cricketers of yesteryear, unforgettable. But behind the cricket experience lies an even greater benefit in building character and friendships that will last a lifetime.
The new season will also have its challenges. This is the 125th Anniversary of the NCU and the 175th anniversary of Lisburn Cricket Club. These are tremendous milestones that will be proudly celebrated, but we also need to stand back and plan what we are going to leave for the next generation to celebrate. We must prioritize according to where we sit, but cricket without umpires won’t survive let alone prosper, so we all need to get together and bring more umpires into local cricket. We need to court them, train them, respect them and embrace them, because without them cricket is going nowhere! We have some outstanding umpires and others who are in it purely for the love of the game. We need both going forward and it seems logical that they will come from senior players, but the environment to entice them needs to be a lot more attractive than currently exists. And that means players, officials and spectators must show respect and have zero tolerance for dissent.
We have a beautiful game and each generation owes it to the next to leave a better product.
Let’s hope the 2011 season is one to savour.
Best wishes to everyone at every level.
Clarence Hiles
Editor
