These are the words uttered by an Indian mother on an in-bound flight after finding out Alex Reese was 19 years of age and about to spend three months in 2010 in Mumbai, India.
Indeed Alex had just stepped outside his comfort zone. Months before he had decided after completion of high school he wanted a challenge. A gap year to develop his cricket sounded perfect. He had come upon GCS (Global Cricket School) in Mumbai and stepped off the plane ready to face the unexpected. He likened it to a “journey through a maze. The whole point is to get lost, and to find your way out — if you are scared about getting lost in it, don’t even try”.
What were the cricket challenges which took Alex outside his comfort zone in India?
The weather
⬛ The most obvious being the extreme heat and humidity. His first game was played in excruciating heat (35°C plus). He played throughout with a splitting headache he reckons due to mild heatstroke mixed with the constant yelling of encouragement from his teammates — which never seemed to stop.
⬛ One afternoon at training the heavens opened and the rain poured down. When Alex and his mate started putting away their gear to keep it dry one of the Indian boys said: “What do you think you’re doing? Put your gear back on and finish your session. It’s only rain.”
Playing conditions
⬛ There were some far from pristine playing surfaces. He likened one ground to a farm yard; in places like a gravel driveway and elsewhere covered in knee-high grass after recent monsoon rains. Whatever, a canny Alex soon learned not to dive for the ball as the chance of landing on a rock or broken bottle was high.
⬛ Keeping up the water intake was critical given the heat. Alex, after one slip-up, soon learned to be ultra-vigilant not to drink tap water. Quality bottled water is available so stock up. You can also resort to fresh lime soda or mango lassi (which he rates as a “nutritionist’s Powerade”) — both are delicious.
Training
⬛ Started at 7am on the dot. The pitch was still wet from overnight dew. When he batted Alex copped a few on the body and showed his frustration. The response of the GCS coach was simple — “If he couldn’t bat on a pitch like this, then he didn’t understand cricket at all”.
⬛ When it came time to bowl, the pitch had dried out and was a lovely surface to bat on. Bowling leg spin against Indian lads who had been brought up playing spin bowling on a flat deck was a challenge. The lesson Alex learned from training in India was that he needed to be out of his comfort zone at practice so that on game day he was as prepared as he could be.
⬛ Training lasted four hours in the heat. Then the coach asked the leg spinners to remain. Before they could leave they had to bowl a further 120 balls at a cone and see how many times they hit it. The rationale being that in India the competition for selection is so competitive that hundreds turn up to trial and a bowler may be allowed only a handful of deliveries to impress — those four or five balls must be absolutely perfect! So if you don’t bowl your 120 balls “the only person you are short changing is yourself”.
Alex’s story is there to motivate and encourage young cricketers to step outside their own comfort zones and try something they have never done before. Anything is possible in life.
⬛ From the publication: “One Foot Forward” by Alex Reese (2011). Alex is Chairman and Founder of Cricket Live Foundation which operates cricket-life skills academies in depressed areas of Sri Lanka and India. He is currently employed at sports marketing agency Wasserman and is also a Level 3 cricket coach.
For further info:
www.globalcricketschool.com www.cricketlivefoundation.org