Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2015

40 Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society As if my debut in the ‘big-boy’ league was not daunting enough already. Allow me to explain. The year was 2004, I was 14 and, as a reward for my decent U15 form/because the U17s were short (*delete as applicable), I was summoned into the U17 side amongst giants of the club (in a literal sense, anyway). We weren’t a bad side, with some very good cricketers, but I prayed for a relatively ‘easy’ fixture. No such luck. Sheffield Collegiate were in town. The first sign of trouble was always when a side rolled up in matching tracksuits. At my club, half the side struggled to match their boots together - and that was just the lad who used to wear astroturf football trainers to play. In luminous green, of course. But you also know you’re in strife when one of the opposition players is being tagged as ‘Future England captain’. We could hear it as we were getting ready, over the balcony, as our opponents took part in a vigorous fielding exercise. At first, I thought it must have been Danny Walton who had the ‘FEC’ tag. The giant skipper punished our bowling attack to all parts, and we couldn’t wait for him to get to 50 and retire. He did, and we breathed a collective sigh of relief. How wrong we were - and how wrong I was. Walton was clapped off, and out strode a youngster who looked even more fresh-faced than I did. As he approached the wicket, I expected him to get taller. But he didn’t. This was my first glimpse of Joe Root. Slightly uneasy, we glimpsed towards our coach, wondering if they had reversed the batting order and given the youngest lad a chance of some runs against us. Our coach, Clarkey, only half allayed our suspicions. “This lad’s only 13,” he warned us, “but don’t get carried away.” Clarkey had seen Joe at district nets and, like seemingly half the local cricketing world, knew all about him. We, of course, didn’t know him at all and his diminutive frame saw him cop for some stick, from our wicketkeeper in particular. But Joe just smiled. Remember the baby-faced grin which unnerved the fearsome Mitchell Johnson over the winter? Yep - it’s nothing new. Here I was, a bag of nerves on my U17 debut, and this lad was strolling around like he’d done it a million times before. Then he set to work. My game at U15 level - and, come to think of it, in the years since - never offered the illusion of someone with a great deal of patience. But Joe was something else. We were six months apart in age, a matter of yards apart in distance as I was volunteered for short midwicket but, in cricketing terms, we were a million miles away, even then. The amount of time he had, against our 6’ 6” pace bowlers, was staggering and he remains the only junior player I have seen, before or since, ever leave a ball with such conviction. He had nudged and nurdled, cut and pulled his way to 40-odd when pace got the better of him Early Roots... twitter: @scloverssociety By DANNY HALL, SHEFFIELD STAR