MY CRICKET , A THREAD...

My earliest memories of watching cricket are from around the turn of the century, Channel 4 at my Grandma’s house on a Saturday morning after sleeping over on the Friday night...

...I didn’t pay much attention to it at the time although I vividly remember the names of Hussain and Trescothick.

The first time I took much of an interest was, unsurprisingly, the 2005 Ashes. I very much fit the cliche...

...One particular memory of that legendary summer is the Youth Club Trip to Cornwall; ten 13-15 year old lads, tired of the continuous bombardment of James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” and Mattafix’s “Big City Life” from Radio 1, turning our attention instead to Channel 4...

...As a result of that summer we began playing cricket on the schoolyard and I was hooked. Again, cliche.

To this day I have never played a game of cricket in my life but since the schoolyard of that summer I have fancied myself as a more than capable Leg Spin/Googly bowler...

... Although I had become hooked by the old leather on willow in that summer of 2005, I didn’t watch a lot of cricket after that, but always tuning in as a casual viewer of each subsequent Ashes Series...

... I remember vividly the late nights watching the 2010/11 series when I should have been in bed early for uni the day after.

To this day, my scribbled 517-1 from THAT game is still on our kitchen whiteboard...

... Anyway, I became a cricket tragic in 2015. Having gradually paying a little more attention to the National Side’s results over the preceding coupl of years (the 2013 Champions Trophy I remember well) I started following closely after the 50 over World Cup debacle...

... After threatening to do so for half a dozen years, I finally bought a membership at Burnley CC and have barely missed a game, home or away, since.

I Subsequently became a Lancashire member the following summer and the rest, is history...

... Cricket always brings me joy and hope, even in darkest of times, in particular the summer of 2016 when I was first diagnosed with Depression and an Anxiety Disorder. I will always be grateful for cricket and I will forever be a cricket tragic.

The vast majority of my book cases are now cricket related.

The vast majority of my podcasts are cricket related

All this being said, I have put together my best England XI that I can remember watching (Tests):

Trescothick
Cook
Bell
Root
Pieterson
Stokes
Prior (wk)
Flintoff
Swann
Broad
Anderson