Topic: What got you hooked with cricket? (Read 6445 times)

SLA · « **Reply #15 on:** June 10, 2020, 08:56:20 AM »

I didn't really know anyone who played cricket. I played a bit in PE at school aged 8/9, but didn't really get it or enjoy it. That would have been it, except I one day I randomly watched a bit of the 1991 Headingley test on bbc2 out of school summer holiday boredom and became hooked (watch the highlights of that game on the bbc this weekend, you'll see why).

The quality of visiting teams in those days was inspirational. Watching Wasim and Waqar in 1992 convinced me to be a swing bowler. Watching Warne and May in 1993 changed my mind and I took up spin instead. I played a lot in the back garden with my dad or with friends, practicing turning the ball square; however I was still not particularly good in an actual game setting, and only just scraped into my school team as 4th choice seamer.

Then one summer (94?) everything clicked - I switched permanently to spin and got more confident batting, and in the space of a month I took my first 5-fer and scored my first 50, became 1st choice spinner and moved up from 9 to 3 in the batting order. Then dad and I started turning out for his work team and at 13 I was already one of the better players, and that was a really fun team to play for and we won a load of games. I think that was the point where I was "hooked".

I've always loved those very casual t20 games where even if you score a duck you generally still have a fun evening. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with longer format league cricket; it can be great if you have a good team spirit and everyone is contributing, but it can also be pretty painful if either of those things are missing. I've moved around the country a lot and have dipped into league cricket here and there for various teams and at various standards but keep playing T20 stuff year in year out. Including school and university teams I think I've turned out for about 20 different sides over the years.

Lumsden · « **Reply #16 on:** September 12, 2020, 12:51:39 AM »

I played cricket as a junior but got into senior cricket via hitch-hiking. The person giving me a lift was the skipper of one club who had received a call another skipper asking if he had any spare players that weekend. The chap went home, passed my number to the other skipper who then phoned me up. My first ever match senior match was on FA Cup final day and took a catch, got a couple of wickets and was at the crease when the winning runs were scored. I wasn't fully conversant with the rules and didn't realise the match ends when the winning runs are scored. I took it quite literally that both teams bat 40 overs and since I had just arrived in the middle, I was looking forward to hitting a few runs. I mean it was a nice evening, I was happy to continue batting, I just couldn't see the problem.

adb club cricketer · « **Reply #17 on:** September 12, 2020, 03:46:34 PM »

When I was a kid, just looking at three stumps and a rule of the game where you try to use a ball to topple those stumps made me fascinated. Another thing that I really liked about the game as a kid was the rule to catch the ball before it bounced on the ground to get the batsman out - I remember I used to feel so elated whenever I could catch a ball before it hit the ground, it felt like the greatest achievement. Right now these rules might seem second nature and taken for granted but I remember when I first didn't know anything about the game, these rules particularly made me fascinated about the game and had me hooked since.

NT50 · « **Reply #18 on:** September 14, 2020, 10:49:25 PM »

Watched my first cricket in 2005. I was 8 years old and my older brother got into it and went training a few times but dropped out due to football commitments. I went to a couple of sessions that winter but the clubs head of youth was only interested in the 2/3 youth players at the club who were �promising� and the rest were an inconvenience to him. As it was my first session I obviously wasn�t at that level, so I never went back. I play for that club on a Sunday now and thankfully he�s long moved on, but I was one of, if not, the best sportsman at my school at that age, so Its not too much of a stretch to say I would be a much better player now if I had received proper coaching from age 8 onwards.

Anyway fast forward to 2015 and my A Level PE exam. We�d all finished but had to wait a few hours to get the bus home. I went to have a hit with some people on my course who were cricketers and I really enjoyed it. That summer I started walking down to their club to watch, and then the 2015 ashes got me completely hooked. I had nothing to do for my long summer, so I watched every test match, watched and read as much as I could about cricket and joined the forum.

The next year I started playing before I went off to uni as a seam bowler. I joined the uni team when I got there and made mates that I�ll consider friends for life, as half of my social life revolved around our social nights out. I ended up turning to spin whilst there, but was still batting 8/9 and not bowling much. Then in my second year at uni, me and my much better mate spent 2 hours a week at the cricket asylum on the bowling machine. I went back to my club that summer, promptly got bumped up the batting order after a few scores and subsequently scored my first hundred batting at 3. I still bat at the top of the order now and have started bowling spin again as I discovered I can still give it a rip!

JTtaylor145 · « **Reply #19 on:** September 15, 2020, 06:29:38 AM »

Great post @NT50 really enjoyed reading that.

SD · « **Reply #20 on:** September 15, 2020, 08:30:15 PM »

For me it was playing every free minute of the summer with my two brothers in the garden from the age when we could all walk. I was also luckily growing up at the time in Cheshire that the game was played at primary school and secondary school and with a huge number of clubs for the population size with excellent facilities. It is only as I have got older that I have really appreciated how luckily i was to have a set up like this.

Growing up watching England in the 90s, you had to make your own passion from the game from playing rather than being inspired by the national team.

jamielsn15 · « **Reply #21 on:** September 16, 2020, 05:25:03 PM »

I grew up playing and watching football. My dad played semi professionally and early memories are of me being watched by a random club bloke while my dad played and usually shouted at referees.

He'd never played cricket but i was 10 innthe summer of 1985. Switched on the tv one day to catch the back end of David Gower's 215 in the Ashes at Edgbaston. I was hooked. The sun, the floppy sunhat, the GN bat with the blue grip. Two of my mates who lived on the same street watched that summer as well and we were out playing before the summer was out with a cricket set bought from a high street sports shop in Coventry.

By the 86/7 Ashes i was collecting newspaper cuttings, watching the news for those 30 seconds of highlights and recreatimg the scorecards. Been playing now for 35 years!

AK17 · « **Reply #22 on:** January 05, 2021, 05:29:06 PM »

For me, it's a who rather than what. My elder brother . He needed someone to bowl to him at home for practice, so he taught me how to bowl and used to make me throw wet tennis balls for him so that he could practice . Learnt to bowl by the time I was 7 -8 years old and really loved fast bowling .Running in fast , cutting through the air , aiming for the spot I will land the ball at . Was a pathetic batsman till maybe around age 10 -11 and then started to concentrate more on batting and in school cricket moved from no.7-8 batsman to opening slot by the time I was 14. I still love to bowl and my mind is probably the clearest when I'm at the top of run up and settled on which ball to bowl next. I'm considered a better batsman than a bowler by my team mates, but fast bowling was and is still my first love and got me hooked to cricket .

procricket · « **Reply #23 on:** January 05, 2021, 05:31:12 PM »

Chris Broad and Duncan Fearnley bats and watching Steve Waugh as a club professional

jbrommo · « **Reply #24 on:** January 05, 2021, 10:11:52 PM »

From an early age (around 2 or 3) I went with my mum and dad to watch cricket at my local village team, and never stopped watching them until I played for them and some 45 years later I am a life member. In those days it was something a lot of the villagers would do on a Sunday, and continued for many years but sadly that link between the village and the cricket club seems to have gone!

Author Topic: What got you hooked with cricket? (Read 6445 times)

SLA

Re: What got you hooked with cricket?

Lumsden

Re: What got you hooked with cricket?

adb club cricketer

Re: What got you hooked with cricket?

NT50

Re: What got you hooked with cricket?

JTtaylor145

Re: What got you hooked with cricket?

SD

Re: What got you hooked with cricket?

jamielsn15

Re: What got you hooked with cricket?

AK17

Re: What got you hooked with cricket?

procricket

Re: What got you hooked with cricket?

jbrommo

Re: What got you hooked with cricket?