Member-only story
Team Sport Can Give You So Much
Try it or re-connect with it
Yesterday, I played my first game of club cricket in a decade. A beautiful ground, the sun shining, a friendly but competitive opposition — fantastic.
Sunday club cricket in the UK has a few traditions. Teams of mixed ages and abilities. Nothing riding on the result — no league, no cup, just a friendly game with the playing conditions agreed by the captains with a fist-bump.
People volunteer to umpire, score, even maintain the pitch between innings.
There is so much good on offer. Positivity, community, teamwork. I’d only met one of my team once before, the rest were strangers to me. Six hours later we were all chatting and laughing over a post-match drink.
The result? We lost in a close, keenly contested game. But that was the least important thing about the whole day.
