One day last week, at around 2.30 am and unable to sleep, I tuned in to the BBC’s World Service.
At some stage in the following hour (forgive me for not being more definite, but it was night-time) the programme changed to sport. Initially, all the big news was mentioned (mainly football) before the broadcaster spent three or four minutes talking about cricket – or, to be more accurate, Jersey acting as host to the ICC World Cricket League Division V.
Earlier this week I mentioned this to the Jersey Cricket Development Officer Chris Minty. He wasn’t surprised, for he is acutely aware that our tiny Island is making headlines across the world.
After Singapore produced the shock result of the tournament by beating Afghanistan on Tuesday, for example, Christopher Janik (5 for 9 after 3.2 overs) said that if his island cricket XI reached the final, ‘For a small country like Singapore with four million people it would be absolutely fantastic for us.’ In other words, it will make big-time news.
Four million people … ‘small country’. Hmm. How does that compare with the 90,000 who live in Jersey? And what about America, which boasts 150,000 cricketers yet still regards it very much as a minor sport?
For four days in a row I watched international cricket in Jersey earlier this week, and although there was something incongruous about sharing a chocolate cake in the middle of a St Martin field with a dozen West Indian and Pakistani-born cricketers (I doubt if I’ll ever be able to write that again), I have loved every minute of it.
I have also appreciated that Jersey, little old Jersey, are one of the best four teams in the competition. Their fielding has been superb, they bowl intelligently, and if one batsman fails with the bat, there’s always another decent batsman about to come in.
‘Jersey aren’t a Division V side,’ coach Peter Kirsten told me on Monday. ‘Our players are much better than that.’
I hope he’s right. If they do progress to Division IV, I know that Peter, if at all possible, would like to be with them in Dar es Salaam.
And well done JFA president Rickie Weir and the Jersey Muratti players for turning up more than once to cheer on their fellow Islanders.
How’s that for cricket’s global groundbreaker?
One day last week, at around 2.30 am and unable to sleep, I tuned in to the BBC’s World Service.
At some stage in the following hour (forgive me for not being more definite, but it was night-time) the programme changed to sport. Initially, all the big news was mentioned (mainly football) before the broadcaster spent three or four minutes talking about cricket – or, to be more accurate, Jersey acting as host to the ICC World Cricket League Division V.
Earlier this week I mentioned this to the Jersey Cricket Development Officer Chris Minty. He wasn’t surprised, for he is acutely aware that our tiny Island is making headlines across the world.
After Singapore produced the shock result of the tournament by beating Afghanistan on Tuesday, for example, Christopher Janik (5 for 9 after 3.2 overs) said that if his island cricket XI reached the final, ‘For a small country like Singapore with four million people it would be absolutely fantastic for us.’ In other words, it will make big-time news.
Four million people … ‘small country’. Hmm. How does that compare with the 90,000 who live in Jersey? And what about America, which boasts 150,000 cricketers yet still regards it very much as a minor sport?
For four days in a row I watched international cricket in Jersey earlier this week, and although there was something incongruous about sharing a chocolate cake in the middle of a St Martin field with a dozen West Indian and Pakistani-born cricketers (I doubt if I’ll ever be able to write that again), I have loved every minute of it.
I have also appreciated that Jersey, little old Jersey, are one of the best four teams in the competition. Their fielding has been superb, they bowl intelligently, and if one batsman fails with the bat, there’s always another decent batsman about to come in.
‘Jersey aren’t a Division V side,’ coach Peter Kirsten told me on Monday. ‘Our players are much better than that.’
I hope he’s right. If they do progress to Division IV, I know that Peter, if at all possible, would like to be with them in Dar es Salaam.
And well done JFA president Rickie Weir and the Jersey Muratti players for turning up more than once to cheer on their fellow Islanders.
Article posted on 30th May, 2008 - 2.59pm