Bowled Over in India
12/02/2008Peter Dodd, a trainee solicitor at Temple Heelis returns from playing for England at the Lawyers’ Cricket World Cup in India and reports on the very different experiences to those he normally has when playing for Ambleside Cricket Club.
On the face of it, the Lawyers’ Cricket World Cup campaign was not as successful as the team had planned as they lost all 5 games and finished bottom of the league table! As a life enhancing experience, however, it lived up to all expectations and bonds of friendship were formed that will last forever.
Upon his encounter with the sub-continent, Peter said “India is a country of extremes and it tests you physically and mentally. The heat was stifling, 32 degrees during the day which made playing cricket an exercise in endurance as much as skill. We stayed in a luxury hotel with impeccable service and luxuries at every turn, yet outside in the street the contrast could not have been more defined as beggars with severe disabilities wandered in front of cars desperate for money or food. The volume of traffic and constant noise in Hyderabad also took a lot of adjusting to, as though all volume levels had been set to 11 before we left the tranquillity of our hotel. Despite the heat and the noise, we all found the people we met most welcoming and predictably very keen to have a chat about the cricket, some even asking us for our autographs!”
“As for the cricket, a particular low point was a thrashing against the West Indies who scored over 300 runs in 30 overs. We struggled to get past 100 in reply and shuffled off the pitch in embarrassment. We should have beaten Australia in our opening game, but dropped catches cost us dear; the only game in which we really did ourselves justice was our final game against India (the eventual winners). Here, we batted with purpose, bowled accurately and gave a very good account of ourselves against a team who contained several ex-professional cricketers”.
Commenting on his own batting, Peter said, “I was satisfied with my personal batting performances, although I would have liked to have done better. I managed to get past 20 against both Australia and India which doesn’t sound like a lot but in the context of our overall batting displays both were pretty decent scores. My wicket keeping also went pretty well although I seemed to spend a lot of time admiring some destructive batting from the opposition and watching the ball sail over the boundary ropes!”.
“I’d like to thank the partners at Temple Heelis, Acorn Coaching & Development and Russell Armer Homes for providing funding for my trip. Without their help I would not have been able to take part in the competition”.
The next Lawyers’ Cricket World Cup has been scheduled to take place in Cambridge in 2009. With one eye on the next World Cup Peter said “Hopefully I can keep my place in the squad and have another crack at pretending to be a professional cricketer!”.