A rose is a rose is a rose - update

More than two years ago, I wrote about the rose bush that my mother gave me.
It was a positive story about the survival of a rose bush down the years and the generations.  When I wrote about it, the bush was in full bloom outside my front door.
Sadly, my optimism was mis-placed.   Last winter, the rose bush, for no apparent reason, died.  My brother's cutting didn't survive, neither did one I gave to my daughter.  This seemed like the end of the line.  I even went to the house where my mother and father used to live in Hockley Heath to see if "their" bush still survived but there was no sign of it.
My last hope was my next door neighbour, who lives mainly in France, near the Swiss border.  I had given her a cutting.  Sure enough, she was able to confirm that it  had survived.  Better still, she arrived back in Bristol last week with the cutting in a pot and has given it back to me.
My job now is to nurture it to full health and growth and then if possible to take some cuttings.
And so the story goes on  Wish me green-fingered success!

The legacy of Phillip Hughes

The death of Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes was a tragic accident that has touched millions of people (cricketers and others) around the world. This has been most vividly symbolised by the cricket bats put out on doorsteps and in public places by those wanting to honour the memory of someone that most of us never really knew. He was just a name on a scorecard or an image on a television screen.

Now that his funeral has taken place, maybe we can begin to take stock and reflect on the possible long-term consequences of this tragedy. I am not thinking in particular about helmets and bouncers. No doubt the helmet manufacturers will look at improvements that might have prevented the fatal consequences of that blow to the neck. But there is a trade-off between safety and mobility. Being safe from the rarity of a blow to the neck is of little use if the batsman has insufficient neck movement to twist and turn. As for bouncers, they have been part of the game ever since Australian fast bowler Ernest Jones sent a ball through W.G. Grace's beard. “Sorry, doc, she slipped,” he is alleged to have said.

No, my thoughts concern the whole way in which players conduct themselves on the field. Over the last quarter of a century, it has become the norm, in international cricket at least, for players routinely to swear at, abuse,mock and threaten their opponents. The kind of behaviour and language that might cause you or I to be arrested if we indulged in it on a night out on the town has been celebrated and praised as being evidence of a manly competitive spirit on the cricket field. The same Australians who are now mourning Phillip Hughes were largely responsible for initiating this approach. Steve Waugh coined the euphemistic phrase “mental disintegration” to describe the purpose of the behaviour. Successive captains continued to endorse the practice by their words and their deeds. The term sledging came into being to describe everything from the occasional (supposedly) witty remark to the crudest personal verbal attacks. In America, they call it trash-talking, which gets closer to describing a set of behaviours intended to demean the receiver but that also taints the deliverer.

How did we get to this point? Probably because it's in our nature as human beings. Australian psychologist Dorothy Rowe got it right in her profoundly wise book Friendsand Enemies. We need enemies because we can project onto them all those attributes we find unacceptable in ourselves. Our enemy binds our group (or team) together. The anger and aggression which might tear our team apart we can turn on our enemy. In order to make this work for us, we have, to a greater or lesser extent, to dehumanise the enemy. The less that we see our enemies fully as fellow human beings, the easier it is, on the cricket field, to humiliate and abuse them – or, on the world stage, to kill them.

Sometimes, events occur that change our narrow view of friends and enemies, of “us and them”. Sadly, it often has to be a tragedy like the death of Phillip Hughes that achieves this. Undoubtedly, within the world of cricket in the last week, there has been, in the short term at least, a major attitude shift, most clearly demonstrated by the words and actions of the Australian captain, Michael Clarke. This is the man who told tail-end England batsman James Anderson to “look out for a ****ing broken arm” at the start of the last Ashes series and who has, since he was appointed as Australian captain, orchestrated, condoned and encouraged the sledging efforts of his team.

Clarke's response to the death of his teammate has been moving for all to behold. He has grown in stature day by day and, in the process, has redefined for himself and others what it means to be a real man. We know now that it can include opening your heart for the world to see, shedding public tears and expressing deep emotions.

In his funeral oration, Michael Clarke said of his fallen comrade:

“His spirit has brought us closer together..... He always wanted to bring people together and he always wanted to celebrate his love for the game and its people.

Is this what we call the spirit of cricket?.....The bonds that lead to cricketers from around the world putting their bats out, that saw people who didn't even know Phillip lay flowers and that brought every cricketing nation on earth to make its own heartfelt tribute.....

This is what makes our game the greatest game in the world.

Phillips's spirit, which is now part of our game forever, will act as the custodian of the sport we all love.

We must listen to it. We must cherish it. We must learn from it. We must dig in and get through to tea. And we must play on.”

Hard though it must have been for Michael Clarke to stand up and say those words, the real challenge lies ahead when deeds take over from words. There surely must be no more threats of broken arms, no more of James Anderson calling MS Dhoni a “f***ing fat c***” and no more of Dhoni threatening to “squeeze the life out of” the England bowler.

So here is the challenge. If we want to live out the fine words spoken by Michael Clarke, those of us who play the game, who write about the game, who umpire the game , who watch the game, need to re-set our standards, to raise our sights and, in our own actions and in our reactions to others, reject the idea that being aggressively boorish is the best way to play the game.

Can the world of cricket rise to the challenge? It won't be easy because a whole macho culture has developed that will refuse to disappear overnight. But if enough people stand up to be counted, maybe – just maybe - a change can come to pass. This thing can be done if, as Michael Clarke says, we listen to the spirit of the game as expressed through the life of Phillip Hughes. We will need to take it one step at a time. We must dig in and get through to tea. And we must play on.

Review of the season - Warwickshire

My review of Warwickshire's season, as published by Deep Extra Cover:
See
I'm glad that they haven't edited out the very personal bits at the beginning and end about Kim Jones.  I'm also pleased that my deliberate dig at Michael Vaughan has survived the sub-editor's vigilant eye.
Just a pity that George Dobell's supposed Tweet of the Season has somehow become the Twee of the Season!

Taking the long view

I've had my say elsewhere about the spat that has developed between Warwickshire and Kent about the pricing policy that the Bears are applying for the Royal London Cup semi-final match between the two counties this Thursday (4 September) -see http://deepextracover.com/2014/09/02/kent-chief-executive-gets-cross-with-bears-admission-policy/#.VAXOlrtX6zs

I've had some additional thoughts about this. The short-term economics of the situation are obviously important. Kent want to get the most they can out of their 25% share of the gate receipts. Too many freebies and their “take” may be much smaller than they would have liked. On the other hand, Warwickshire will be hoping that plenty of spectators will be attracted by the cheap prices and the free offers and will not just turn up but will spend well at the food and drinks outlets and in the Club shop.

But there's a wider picture with a longer time horizon. 

Let me personalise it. I write as someone who has supported Warwickshire County Cricket Club for a very long time. To be precise, I first saw a match at Edgbaston on 6 August 1953. It was the second day of the match between the county and the Australian touring team.

I don't have any recollection of the admission charges for that match. They can't have been that excessive because there were hordes of kids there, sitting on the grass just outside the boundary. I was up in what was then the Rea Bank stand with my mother. She had cycled about six miles to pick me up from my grandmother's house and taken me on three buses to get to the ground. Neither she nor my dad had any personal interest in cricket. So she must have been indulging her number one son's latest whim. That being so, there must have been a price cut-off point at which my mother would have decided that she couldn't quite afford to take me. Without going into details, we were not wealthy. My dad made his living as a cobbler. If there was a week when not enough people wanted their shoes repaired, we certainly didn't starve; but we probably didn't eat so well and any treats were out of the question.

My point is this. What would the long-term consequences have been if the Warwickshire authorities had upped the prices beyond what my mother could afford? “Some other time, maybe next season” she would have said; and I would have accepted it. But possibly, by the following April, I would have found a new passion and my devotion to Warwickshire cricket would have been strangled at birth.

I'm not sure how much money Warwickshire have made out of me. I've been a member for well over fifty years and have spent my share of money on food and drink. Whatever the total, I have no doubts that, from my point of view, it has been well worth it. I am also sure that Warwickshire would have survived without me. But every time prices are lifted, they will exclude some youngsters who have the potential, like me, to give half a century or more of loyalty to the Club; and every time prices go down or are maintained at a realistic level, another few boys and girls may get their first chance to see the best county on the best ground in the country and may become fans for life. So the economics of these decisions go well beyond the short term calculations of the turnstile and bar takings on the day.

Maybe Kent's Chief Executive might wish to reflect on this.

As for me, when I am settled down in the Press Box on Thursday, I will glance across at what is now the Eric Hollies Stand and try to pick out the spot where that young lad and his mum sat just over 61 years ago. Possibly I'll see another boy or girl of a similar age; and maybe they will be there because they have been allowed in for free. Thursday may just be the day when they fall in love with the game of cricket and with the Warwickshire team. I hope so; and if they do, I can tell them that it's likely to be a lifelong passion. Believe me, I know.

Finals Day Preview - Birmingham Bears

Here is my preview of the Birmingham Bears' appearance in the NatWest T20 Blast Finals at Edgbaston.
http://deepextracover.com/2014/08/20/finals-day-preview-birmingham-bears/#.U_XDFrtX6zt
I'll be there for what should be an exciting day's cricket.

Sam Hain Profile

Here is the profile of young Warwickshire cricketer Sam Hain, as published by Deep Extra Cover:

http://deepextracover.com/2014/06/14/dec-introduces-warwickshires-sam-hain/#.U5xNnHQU-Uk

Launching the Birmingham Bears

I was lucky enough to be invited to Edgbaston last night for the launch of the Birmingham Bears.  Here is the article I posted on Deep Extra Cover:
http://deepextracover.com/2014/03/27/its-what-fridays-are-for-birmingham-bears-officially-launched/#.UzR3anSPOUk
Don't worry - Jonathan Trott hasn't aged badly.  That's me sat in front of his shirt in the Changing Room.  Only the hairline is similar.

Kim Jones, 1954 - 2014

Kim Jones was one of the nicest people I never met.  Several times, we came agonisingly close to meeting.  We were sometimes at the same cricket match on different days or even on the same day but at different ends of the ground.

I knew him mainly through Bearsfans, the on-line discussion forum for supporters of Warwickshire County Cricket Club.  He set up the forum and also was the leading light behind Spin cricket magazine, which he owned.  His articles for Spin and his Bearsfans postings all brimmed with his unique blend of wit and wisdom.

Few of us who knew him in recent times were aware of his unique and varied history – his childhood in Africa where he had a baby crocodile as a pet, his successful academic career at Shrewsbury School and at Oxford, his qualifications in both law and accountancy (not always a guarantee of either wit or wisdom) and his work in the world of advertising including running successful agencies both here and in the States.

What we did come to know was that he was a caring man of immense kindness.  When I had some problems with personal issues on-line, he helped to resolve the situation behind the scenes.  When my daughter was the victim of some unfair and untrue comments, he did the same.  He also gave her valuable opportunities to cut her journalistic teeth with Spin.

For me and for others, it was a dreadful start to the New Year when we heard that Kim was terminally ill.  Fortunately, many of us were able to send him messages of goodwill so that he was aware, in the short time before his passing, of the deep affection in which he was held by so many people.  A handwritten letter from Warwickshire and England’s Jonathan Trott probably took pride of place because, whenever anyone wrote something critical of Trotty, you could be sure that Kim would leap to his defence, often with irrefutable statistics to back up his argument.  Warwickshire captain Jim Troughton phoned him to offer his support and sympathy.

Similar tributes flowed out at his funeral on 10 February at Wrexham Crematorium and at the appropriately titled Big Bash Cricket Tea at Sweeney Hall in Oswestry.  The same words were used over and over again, in both the written and the spoken tributes.  He was kind, generous, knowledgeable, intelligent, modest, unassuming.  He made people laugh and they felt privileged to have known someone who was both a gentleman and a gentle man.

His wife and his sister both spoke movingly of their deep love for Kim.  George Dobell, a good friend over many years, also gave a heartfelt tribute.  At Kim’s request, George wore a jacket that had once belonged to the lead singer of Showaddywaddy.  Greater love hath no man for his friend than to be willing to stand up in front of so many people in such a monstrosity of a garment!

Unusually for a funeral, all three of these tributes evoked rounds of applause that seemed entirely fitting.  There was so much of Kim everywhere in that room, all his very special qualities that were being celebrated, that it seemed irrelevant to me that in front of us was a coffin that was eventually consigned to the flames.  That wooden box may have contained his mortal remains but Kim was all around us and, most especially, in our hearts.

Here is the lovely poem by Michael Laskey that is so appropriate that it might have been specially written for Kim:

I shall play cricket in heaven
in return for the afternoons
gladly given to the other
pleasure of others' leisure.

I shall walk, without haste, to the wicket
and nod to the angels kitted
in their whites waiting to discern
the kind of batspirit I am.

And one stroke in heaven, one dream
of a cover drive will redeem
every meeting of bat
and ball I've done without.

And I'll bowl too, come on to bowl
leg-breaks with such control
of flight and slight changes of pace
that one over will efface

the faint regret I now feel.
But best of all I shall field:
alert in the heavenly deep,
beyond the boundary of sleep.

Kim Jones – may you rest in peace.