Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Year Book 2014

19 grounds, it will be the charming ones which first come to mind. Scarborough is mine. Professional sports men and women probably treat the idea of being described as charming with suspicion. Maybe condescending. Charming is not ruthless. Does being charming make you a winner? No. It will earn you extra time and generosity if a P.R battle is needed during a lean period. But not for long. I think this year’s Champion County, Durham is a charming club and their head coach, Geoff Cook a charming man. He’s also a tough man in mind and body as was shown last summer. The warmth shown Geoff, after his heart attack was genuine. The time he gives to everyone, no matter what their position in life is exemplary and that is why the cricket family rallied as it did. Geoff cares about young people. He cares that opportunity is not afforded everyone as it should be. He cares that young cricketers are involved in such a demanding world of expectation and impatience. He cares, and that is why we cared so much about him. Heading in the same way with not so many years of understanding behind them, and within our patch, Karl Krikken, Mick Newell, Jason Gillespie, Martyn Moxon and others. It’s a judgement I make that a common denominator amongst these people is a desire to win, burning desire at times, but not at all costs. When Stuart Broad failed to walk, during the ashes, he carried out an act of charmless nature. Sharp contrast to his personality off the field. He was supported by and large by commentators, many of them former players who speak common sense and speak for those in the world, who consider sport to be a battle which applauds only the winners and pats on the head those who think otherwise. D.R.S and the undermining of umpires’ authority is another step in the march towards a cold, calculated charmless game. I’m starting to rant, Stop! A charm can also be to feel close to something, sometimes too close. To carry out the job properly demands detachment. Trying to see things from as many angles as possible is important. Too close and the mind becomes confused and overly anxious. Fun, the job must be fun and you can’t be ashamed of that fact. If it isn’t fun, then there is a danger of losing perspective of sport. That is a fight which will be fought until the end. Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society www.sheffieldcricketlovers.org.uk