So, you play a bit of cricket mate?
So, you play a bit of cricket mate?
Chatting in Abu Dhabi this morning one person said, “you travel a lot; you must have met so many interesting people.”
And while I wait for the next person to arrive, I’m going to write about one amazing experience I had.
You never know who you could end up sitting next to on a plane or in an airport lounge.
A couple of years ago as I entered the Emirates lounge in Dubai in the very early hours one morning, I found the lounge was unusually busy, every seat taken, I had hours to kill and just nowhere to sit, most unusual for that lounge, normally it’s empty at that time.
I walk around and around, hunting, searching for somewhere to sit, and then I spot a table of four chairs, one was taken, the other three vacant. I approach the man that was sat down, he had a cap pulled down tightly on his head, tilted forward so you couldn’t see his face, shirt collars up, and I ask him ‘excuse me, do you mind if I sit down, and pointed at the three vacant chairs.
The chap looked around the room, as if seeking out somewhere else I could sit, and when he saw that every seat was taken, he gestured to me to sit down.
I thought, this guy doesn’t want to be disturbed, no worries, mate …
Do you ever get that feeling that someone wants to talk, but they are holding back?
Just glad to have somewhere to sit down, I sat quietly, checking the menu out, and being so busy it took 15 mins or more before a waiter came over and asked me what I wanted, I just said anything that the kitchen can do easy suits me, maybe a cheeseburger and a bottle of water please. The waiter turns to the other chap and he says, in a thick West Indian accent “same please, cheeseburger and a water, thanks”.
Do you ever get that feeling that someone wants to talk, but they are holding back? Well, this chap was every now and then looking at me, I got the feeling that he was wondering why I was not talking to him, it felt a little strange to be honest.
I thought he was a diamond buyer
Eventually, he breaks the ice, and asks me, where you flying to?
I say Manila, and you? He says Joburg, and then adds for work.
Now the conversation is on, I say, hmm, Joburg that’s what 9 hours? He laughs and says yeah bout dat, and he asks me if I’ve been, and of course I have many, many times and he asks me heaps of questions about my work and we talk about mining, and recruitment and he asks about diamonds and had I seen big diamonds etc. He said he had toured the Diamond companies head quarters a few times and had seen some amazing jewels.
I ask him (thinking he’s a diamond buyer) what do you do?
He replies, I’m a cricket coach, then quickly adds, I’m a high-performance cricket coach and I’m traveling for work.
And I say “so, you play a bit of cricket mate”, and he says no, I used to a long time ago, but not now.
Do I like cricket?
He then asked me if I liked cricket and did I watch it.
I then launch into cricket tragic mode and talk about when I was younger watching test matches from the fences because I didn’t have money for a ticket, and later watching test matches at the Gabba in Brisbane and I was on fire, rabbiting on about how I couldn’t believe how far back the keeper stood for the worlds fastest bowlers, the sound of the thud into the gloves hearing it high in the stands, the relay throw the aussie’s started, throwing from the boundary.
I noticed at this point his face was a light with joy, and he started talking about when he was young, when there was a test match on everyone in his town was crowded around a wireless (old radio) and were glued to the sounds of the commentators describing the play, where each fielder was, painting a picture with words of the test match.
He had a face of pure joy, as he explained that in his home town in Trinidad it was usually very noisy at night, but when there was a test match, such as playing away against Australia, because of the time difference people were huddled around radios and at 10pm the broadcast began.
He talked about his father and his father’s friend listening to the radio intently, and as he was a young boy, with school in the morning he was told to get to bed, but he said the pull of cricket was so strong he would sit behind the door and listen to the game on the radio until he feel asleep in the early hours of the morning.
He laughed and said that when a test match was on, he was useless at school during that time, almost no sleep, cricket was far too important to miss.
My name is Brian Lara
He then said, he played cricket when he was younger and made the national side – WHAT! Wait a minute .. I said you must have been pretty good to have made it into the West Indies national side, can I ask your name.
And he says
My name is Brian Lara
And I say, you must think I am a moron, and he replied, no, no I don’t think that, he said it was one of the best conversations he had had about the love of cricket since he was a small boy talking with his father.
I went on to say how I, like millions of others around the world had been captivated by his batting and my dad was going to pass out when I tell him about our little chat.
I never asked him for an autograph or a photo, we just continued chatting, he really opened up about his thoughts on how ‘seeing’ cricket through radio commentary helped him, he had to visualise the ground in his head, working out placements from memory.
He went on to talk about making 153 not out against Australia in 99 in Bridgetown, and his love of the city of Sydney and how his daughter’s name was Sydney after his 277 runs scored in 93 at the SCG.
Brian Lara talked about the pain of losing his good friend Shane Warne, he said he still misses him and how sad he felt about Shane’s passing.
Brian was a pleasure to listen to, I am grateful to have met him, and we talked for hours, just two strangers passing time in an airport lounge, one of who used to play a bit of cricket …
Brian Charles Lara, (born 2 May 1969) is a Trinidadian former international cricketer, widely renowned as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He holds several cricketing records, including the record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket, with 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in 1994, and the record for the highest individual score in an international Test innings, after scoring 400 not out at Antigua during the 4th test against England in 2004.
