Everybody Matters

Cricket is one of those games where an individual can appear to be the significant difference between the two sides. Ostensibly and particularly in limited over cricket and especially club level it is easy to see why. A hundred there, 6 for not many here, that’s what won the game right?.. on the day sure, but there’s more to it than that.
Yes it is true that a particular individual may be blessed with a certain ability that helps him. However when that person plays in a team, a squad, a club he has every member of that squad, team who comes to practice and or steps on the pitch with him to thank.
Cricket is a game of infinite variables and as such every delivery you bowl, every shot you play, every stop you make is likely to be slightly different than that which has come before, maybe not massively so but often enough to make a difference.
When you are doing your best and bowling in the nets and it keeps slipping down the leg side or not going through with enough pace or being too short, too full, too wide etc, just remember, the batsman has to deal with that. Also the harder you try the more likely you are to produce that delivery which right there and then causes him to make a mistake. That same batsman may well have to deal with one of those type deliveries in a game, he will have to keep it out and score off it,but thanks to you he may well be better prepared. Yes it is often the unusual that causes the problem. Also the sheer volume of deliveries you bowl help prepare that batsman, whether it be keeping out the good delivery or emphatically dispatching the poor one.
When you are doing your best and batting in the nets. For every delivery you miss or block or smash regardless of your ability, you are of course stopping the bowler from getting a wicket. You are forcing him to draw on something to find a way of getting you to nick that delivery or miss it in such a way that you can be bowled or palpably LBW. For every delivery you prevent that happening, you present the bowler with a problem he has to overcome. He needs to be able to find a solution which he can use in a game situation to help make him successful there. Your ability to do this also enhances your own game such that when you are called upon to bat, you can do so knowing that if you apply yourself you can help your team.
On the field for example, when your bowler inexplicably bowls that shot wide one and it is thrashed to your right or left and you dive and stop it, not only have you saved in all likelihood 4 runs, but you have sent a clear message to the opposition…. No easy runs here! You have helped your bowling team mate by boosting his confidence, he knows that his fielders will support him and armed with that confidence he can step up his game. Given that often the best and toughest games are won by the smallest margins, that extra effort you make in the field could turn out to be as valuable as the runs scored by your top batsman or the wickets taken by your top bowler. Your desire and application in producing that effort over and over again will give your team a clear advantage.
Previously we have spoken about raising your minimum standard. If you apply yourself in all these disciplines, you are likely to raise your own personal minimum standard, by doing so when you practice with your club mates, you also help to raise their minimum standard.!!!
Everyone matters.

Radley Cricket Club

Membership Form

Radley College - Facilities Map

2015 AGM minutes

Proposed amendments to Constitution

Agenda for AGM