Pre-Match Preparation from (a few of) Levante CC
Now this is probably not for everyone but some of the Levante players have worked long and hard at this pre match preparation and have offered you all these tips to get you in the zone for matches once the quarantine is over.
Arrival –
This is one for young players to get into good habits, make sure you arrive at least one hour before start time. Now this next part isn’t really for the upcoming gems, as this time allows you to make the most of the facilities you have at home or if away, the novelty of your hosts surroundings. For us this 60-90 minutes sees sausage and bacon sandwiches, first two or three beers of the day and where required a few smokes to get the body completely ready. For the fitter amongst you, exchange “beers” for just “beer”.
Now this is probably not for everyone but some of the Levante players have worked long and hard at this pre match preparation and have offered you all these tips to get you in the zone for matches once the quarantine is over.
Arrival –
This is one for young players to get into good habits, make sure you arrive at least one hour before start time. Now this next part isn’t really for the upcoming gems, as this time allows you to make the most of the facilities you have at home or if away, the novelty of your hosts surroundings. For us this 60-90 minutes sees sausage and bacon sandwiches, first two or three beers of the day and where required a few smokes to get the body completely ready. For the fitter amongst you, exchange “beers” for just “beer”.
The Captain –
Time and banter before the game also allows you to get into your own captain with “information” on the opposition, conditions and any other nonsense you need to put into his head to push him towards batting or bowling first completely for your own benefit. You wont always want to do one or the other first, but for the same outcome, as much laughing and drinking time as possible. Comments like “Dave is playing for them today and he bowls pies before 2pm, make them bowl first” or “Alfas today, they love a chase, need to get them into bat first” or sometimes honesty can prevail depending on the captain, “we’re going to get battered, let’s bat first so we enjoy a few hours or drinking in the sunshine after the game”. IF you are playing a double header with much of the team staying over night, Sunday can also be a very different experience to Saturday so make sure this is taken into consideration as there is always a chance you wont even be there when the match is about to start so work on your captain in the bar the night before as you may have received “inside information” on the opposition line up the following morning, it may allow you another hour in bed.
Warm Up –
If you have got your way with the captain and he has won the toss, you will be mentally prepared for the match. As a result physical warming up isn’t necessary if you are batting. Whether opening or down the order, avoiding thinking about the task at hand is always the best foot forward. Over thinking can be disastrous so best to enjoy the time you have with your team mates to give you the moral support you need. Simply swinging your bat in a circle and going through a forward drive and forward defensive on the walk to the crease will be perfectly adequate for your warm up. You wont be there long anyway. As for fielding practice, position yourself as far away from the man with the bat as possible, he will never reach you for any sort of catching. In fact, in 20 minutes, there will only be about 4 balls that go up to a decent height for anyone to practice catches. If any sort of physical action is likely to put your game head in jeopardy, advise your captain you are trying to gather further info on the batting line up of the opposition and have another beer with your mates on the other team.
The Umpires –
All umpires love a bit of winding up before a game. Honestly they think you are the funniest player in the league so make sure you get an arm around them both (if there are two of course), offer a drink (coffee, laugh about how you will get them a beer later) and maybe bring up a poor decision they made last time umpiring at one of your matches, again, they absolutely love that, remember you are hilarious. Avoid talking about the time one of you players shouted c&%t at them. We never talk about that…….ever!
Stepping onto the ground –
As a batsman, you can go one of two ways, silent and in the zone or joking with a touch of malice. To be honest, neither option will make a great deal of difference to the resulting playing and missing anyone quicker than 55mph or the embarrassment of running down the wicket to missing a ball with snow on it from one of the talented opposition spinners. You’ll be drunk by this time so you’ll have limited memory of the 4 balls you faced.
So there you have it. Preparation is key and we can guarantee your cricket will be packed with laughs and limited disappointed.
Looking forward to a beer with you all again soon.
And Finally ………………..
Post Match Entertainment
Post match celebrations are equally entertaining and have consisted of horse racing nights, comedy events that have included Dane Baptiste, and more recently we had Umpire Keith Clark´s rendition of Jerusalem on St. George´s Day that went viral on twitter !!!
Barry and Levante CC