Delighted to hear from you Simon ! Liked your analysis from channel 4 days.Cutting edge!
Recall reading both your wonderful books -travels journeys as a player,"yakking around the world ,it's a lot of hard yakka.Both were unputdownable page turners with so much humour yet lots of depth on the travails of an itinerant player ,displaying his wares ,miles away from home ,being on the road,with which I could connect a bit i guess .
No! Not much of a writer barring the odd ghosted column a few years ago..They couldn't afford me !;) haha ..only joking.
I feel one writes because one must given it is cathartic and a therapy when the subject is deep and stems from the heart.
Certain insightful topics ,articles on such deep topics moves one to tweet ,text ,write ,hence I do when such topics hit me!;)
Pen pusher in an office like so many millions in this vast and wonderful country ..a might have been cricketer when younger ,let alone missing the bus,lost sight of it like so many heaps of others,in a dog eat dog world of cricketers.widely travelled to uk and oz as a player though.Now An aspiring ,Wip cricket Commentator,hopefully not a pretending one.
What a gutsy player he was there in the middle order for England along with Mark Butcher and Alec Stewart, Mark Ramprakash and Graeme Hick along with Nasser the captain.
Brilliantly worded and with sharp insightful analysis and observations as is his wont Simon Hughes delves beautifully into the minds of cricketers,the pitfalls and failures that engulfs a players career . The analogies that he draws between life and death and cricket hits the nail on its head for the Game can leave a player desperate and lonely at many a time .His appreciations about the harsh nature of this great Game and the constant pressure and failures that hound and deplete a player are acutely well versed .Vividly recall Thorpe and his debut ton vs the Aussies at Trentbridge after the pounding at the Indians in the winter gone by,in the summer of 1993 when the English under a new regime looked to muster a fight vs it's old enemy.He was hailed as the next Gower given the latter had vacated the scene in controversial circumstances,under Gooch and Fletcher ,the Essex duo dumped for India's tour and to never to return to intl.cricket.
His nuggety knocks in those tours to SL AND PAK at the turn of the millinieum ,on those turn friendly tracks under Nasser Hussain drew huge praises and none particularly more powerful than from his fellow contemporary and Skipper who was at his eloquent best eulogizing Thorpe and his stoic displays .
Thanks for the reply Patthabi. Are you a writer too?
Delighted to hear from you Simon ! Liked your analysis from channel 4 days.Cutting edge!
Recall reading both your wonderful books -travels journeys as a player,"yakking around the world ,it's a lot of hard yakka.Both were unputdownable page turners with so much humour yet lots of depth on the travails of an itinerant player ,displaying his wares ,miles away from home ,being on the road,with which I could connect a bit i guess .
No! Not much of a writer barring the odd ghosted column a few years ago..They couldn't afford me !;) haha ..only joking.
I feel one writes because one must given it is cathartic and a therapy when the subject is deep and stems from the heart.
Certain insightful topics ,articles on such deep topics moves one to tweet ,text ,write ,hence I do when such topics hit me!;)
Cheers Simon !
Amazing. thankyou. so what do you do?!
Pen pusher in an office like so many millions in this vast and wonderful country ..a might have been cricketer when younger ,let alone missing the bus,lost sight of it like so many heaps of others,in a dog eat dog world of cricketers.widely travelled to uk and oz as a player though.Now An aspiring ,Wip cricket Commentator,hopefully not a pretending one.
You must know Roy Harper’s ‘When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease’? Beautiful meditation on the joy and loss you capture so well here!
I’ve always thought cricket is all about the temporal, I guess that’s why old Father Time presides over Lords.
Thanks for the mention and a great game on Sunday. Billy’s a hero!
What a gutsy player he was there in the middle order for England along with Mark Butcher and Alec Stewart, Mark Ramprakash and Graeme Hick along with Nasser the captain.
Remember his knock of 200 against New Zealand.
RIP
Brilliantly worded and with sharp insightful analysis and observations as is his wont Simon Hughes delves beautifully into the minds of cricketers,the pitfalls and failures that engulfs a players career . The analogies that he draws between life and death and cricket hits the nail on its head for the Game can leave a player desperate and lonely at many a time .His appreciations about the harsh nature of this great Game and the constant pressure and failures that hound and deplete a player are acutely well versed .Vividly recall Thorpe and his debut ton vs the Aussies at Trentbridge after the pounding at the Indians in the winter gone by,in the summer of 1993 when the English under a new regime looked to muster a fight vs it's old enemy.He was hailed as the next Gower given the latter had vacated the scene in controversial circumstances,under Gooch and Fletcher ,the Essex duo dumped for India's tour and to never to return to intl.cricket.
His nuggety knocks in those tours to SL AND PAK at the turn of the millinieum ,on those turn friendly tracks under Nasser Hussain drew huge praises and none particularly more powerful than from his fellow contemporary and Skipper who was at his eloquent best eulogizing Thorpe and his stoic displays .
RIP