#2 the second post. Mission statement (and some personal history).

Hi there and welcome to the second blog post. This is the one where I lay down what I intend to do or write about in this blog, and how often and about what.

Well, I intend to write mostly about cricket. It’s the one thing that has constantly been in my top three things I like in life (the other two were girls and music. Don’t get me wrong, I still love girls, it’s just that since I’ve been married, I’ve kinda had to give up on other girls. For some reason wife seems to take a dim view on me looking at other ladies. Can’t imagine why, but that’s that! As for music, I’ve fallen in and out with music a few times during my life. Every now everything gets a bit stale in the music world, or it heads of in the wrong direction (brit pop anyone!!!) and it needs a healthy kick up the backside to boot it into (or out of) shape. Remember to last band to shake up the music biz? No, me neither. It was probably Nirvana back in the early 90’s. A dirty grungy type of music that killed off the last remnants of poodle rock and M.O.R. for good. Since then, and since the decline of then, there has been very little to look forward to in music and my own personal tastes have changed while I’ve been waiting for the revolution to be televised. J-pop is where I find my highly synthesized, over produced, mass marketed clichéd music kicks these days (a blatant case of if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!). I don’t know what direction the new wave (of new wave) that keeps being promised to us that will breath fresh air into the music world will come from, but it wont be from one direction!!!

Anyway, cricket has always been a major part of my life and the one thing that I could easily imagine devoting my life to. From being a pre teen playing in the backyard and howling at my mum that she had to bowl it so I could hit it (I found out in a conversation with her when I became an adult that ‘bowling it so I could hit it’ meant that she had to throw it underarm, right into the bat!)  into being a moody teenager, refusing to go outside and actually play cricket as I was ravenously watching it on TV whenever it was on, no matter who was playing or what the format (at age 15, living in a coastal town by the beach, having spent 4 of the best summer days indoors glued to the box, I finally had to admit to myself ‘I even love the test matches’). Working out statistics on my school calculator (the only time it ever really received any attention) and turning down the volume whenever Bill Lawry came on and doing my own commentary instead. (In the proceeding years I came to tolerate the nasal whine of bill Lawry and even admire his encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the game.) Onto my late teenage years where I spent every single spare minute I had practicing in the nets, and not just when it was official practice sessions (although I never missed one of those) but before practice started, after practice finished, on days when there was no practice I’d be there with a bunch of mates, or just one mate or even on my own. After work, during work, skiving off work just to knock about for a few hours, getting annoyed when the darkness ruined the session and I had to go home. Looking forward to the weekend and getting out there on the field and trying to get a bat, desperate for a bowl, usually not getting either but instead getting banished to the outfield, kicking my heals and battling against the flies and the violent roosting magpies.  Only touching the ball twice in the whole game but unable to wait to do it all again next weekend, wishing this weekend would never end, giving anything to avoid any rain, anything to avoid getting back to the boring life again. Moving into my early adult life, moving out of home, following the world cup all over Australia, moving out of Australia and moving into Scotland. “No cricket up here mate, that’s an English game.” (I’m pretty sure it’s for everyone’). The winters are long, oh so long, and the summers (‘was that it!’) are cold. Slowly discovering those people were wrong, the Scots do play cricket, they even have a national team! ‘Look, they played the west indies in a three day tour match the other day’. Did pretty well as well, held them to a draw. Following their progress, joining a team of my own, watching their progress grow, captaining my team. Discovering a glory and a drama in the world outside the test world nations. Marvelling at the hoops the associate nations have to jump through to gain any sort of recognition (people are still surprised to discover that Scotland have a national team, ‘yeah, we made it to the last world cup you know!!!’), struggling to make it to another world cup ... loving the fight, loving the dream.

And these days with my body giving out on me, unable to even stand a slip for an entire Twenty/20 match with out feeling the pain for the remainder of the week, I find that the body is weak but the mind still in love with the amazing game. Soon, this season or the next, will mark my final season out on the field of play but the passion will remain, I’m sure. In an effort not to be driven mad by the prospect of not being directly involved with the game that has given me so much fun/enjoyment/freedom my mind has scrambled to find a way to stay involved with it all and express myself into the bargain.

And hence, this blog is born.

And so, onto what I intend to devote this blog about.

Well, cricket, obviously. (The clue is in the title). Just what the world needs eh?, another cricket blogger!

My focus will be on the nations closest to the test boundary. Teams like Ireland, The Netherlands, Afghanistan, Canada, Kenya, Namibia, The United Arab Emirates, and Scotland, (probably with a bias towards Scotland) and their struggles to break into the top tier of the world nations. These associate and affiliate nations are where my fascination lays these days and I find it inspiring to watch them push each other onto greater heights while also frustrating to see them nearly ignored by the elite full members of the games governing body. But it sure is exciting to watch when these two worlds collide and something I always look forward to.

The International Cricket Council (I.C.C.) may find themselves the subject of a few articles too as its never long before they change their mind about some aspect of policy that exposes them to be raving hypocrites especially where it involves their apparent (lip service) desire to globalize the game while (actual disservice) limiting exposure to developing nations and their chance to progress.

I intend to write one article per month on average. Maybe more, maybe less but hopefully at the end of the year I will have written a minimum of 12 articles on all the different realms of cricket and its rich tapestry for you to enjoy.

Having said that my focus will be on the developing nations I might reserve the right to talk about any aspect of the full members as I see fit or interesting.

Or anything else cricket related.

Or J-pop related.

Or just about anything I wanted to.

But mostly cricket.

It’s probably the thing

I like above all others in my life