Story C2007 - My Journey to International Cricket

[straya]

(out of character note - this is my first attempt so bear with me, i've read quite a few so i though id have a dig. any further ooc notes will be signalled by parentheses)

August 11th - 2006

Hey guys, my name is John Cooper (random name gen lol) and welcome to my blog. I was recently signed by the NSW SpeedBlitz Blues where I have been graced enough to receive the opportunity to reach my dream. Playing with great players such as Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Michael Clarke and Simon Katich to name a few will be an honour, and to be able represent my home state is simply amazing.

Before I tell you about my playing credentials, let me give you a brief backstory of my life. I was born in Wagga Wagga, in the south west of New South Wales. My father, Paul, is a police officer and early in his career he was forced to change his residence a lot. I moved around the Riverina and lived in places such as Griffith and Leeton until dad finally landed in Dubbo, known as the 'hub of the central west'. All I did was a kid was play cricket and rugby union. I went to high school in Dubbo and lived there until last year. I moved to Sydney to pursue my career last year after my nineteenth birthday.

I'd like to be thought of as a 'batsman that tries to bowl a bit', although my slow-medium pacers would be lucky to be called bowling. I bat sort of aggressively but I can slow it down a notch. I've batted all over the order throughout my junior days, but to me it's either I bat first or am the last recognized batsman.

That'll have to be it for the first blog, I've got to get ready for training in a second.

Cheers,
Coop

(up next is the squad)

 

[RPHKR]

Aug 2006? Very old for me to read. Keep it up, is this your very first post on your site?

 

[straya]

NSW BLUES SQUAD 2006-07
Simon Katich (c)
Brad Haddin (vc) [wk]
Murray Creed
Aaron O'Brien
Doug Bollinger
Nathan Bracken
Stuart Clark
Michael Clarke
Phil Jacques
Brett Lee
Stuart MacGill
Beau Casson
Moises Henriques
Dominic Thornely
Matthew Nicholson
James Packman
John Cooper
Greg Mail
Glenn McGrath
Nathan Hauritz​

 

[straya]

NEW SOUTH WALES BLUES vs SOUTH AUSTRALIAN REDBACKS
13th of October 2006
Adelaide Oval
Ford Ranger Cup​

Finally, my debut was here! I was told by captain Simon Katich that I was going to bat at 5, which sounded alright with me. We had a strong batting order so I expected to only have to come in at the death and try and blast a few runs. The pitch looked nice and it was an absolutely perfect day of cricket, with a temperature high of about 29 degrees celcius and absolutely no clouds in the sky. Kato went out and won the toss against Daryl Lehman and chose to bat. A lot of the boys were happy about this, and Kato and Phil Jacques padded up I sat down with my bottle of water; hopefully not having to move for a while.

I was wrong. In the sixth over, Katich was bowled by a yorker from Shaun Tait that was about 155km/h. This intimidated me to say the least, that was easily the quickest I had seen a ball bowled in a game I was playing! Michael Clarke went out to join Jacquesy and they enjoyed a hundred run partnership which was broken when Ryan Harris got Jacquesy caught at fine leg trying to hook it out of the ground. Dom Thornely then joined Pup for nine over before Clarke was caught at slip off offie Dan Cullen for 82.

My moment was here. I bounded through the gates and ran onto the majestic Adelaide Oval where Dom was there instructing me to take it easy. My first ball was wide of off stump and spinning into me and I went to cover drive it but - oh! I caught the edge and the ball went straight to the vacant point area for a single. Off the mark in the least majestic way! Thorns batted out the next two balls to no score.

I had to face Harris next, and first ball rocketed into my chest. I just caught the face of the bat and the ball trickled down to fine leg where I was ecstatic to pick up three runs. Next ball - Thorneley caught behind! He was trying to cut a short one and lifted his head early.

So the left hander Aaron O'Brien strolled to the wicket, and we decided to get set and then go totally ballistic. With the score at 4-178 with thirteen overs left we thought that we could easily score 250 if we stayed in. The partnership was going alright early on and was worth twelve runs after three overs. We decided that it was time to go mental, and it wasn't worth it.

On my thirteenth ball I tried to hoick Cullen over square but I mistimed it horribly and I saw the ball fly in the air. I walked before the ball was caught, heck I don't even know who caught it, and I had a dismal 5 next to my name.

I spent the rest of the innings sulking, but we ended up making 264 all out with three overs to spare. I don't think I'll get a go with the ball which is disappointing but as I'm only a part timer and there are some amazing bowlers than that's fair.

---

We did it! After 50 overs of standing at cover and taking a catch we restricted the Redbacks to 5 for 235. My catch was off of Brett Lee's bowling - he raced in and Mark Cosgrove chipped it to me. It was an easy catch but it makes the disappointment of scoring 5 a bit better. Binga picked up two for the innings but all the bowlers pitched in and kept it tight. It's great to kick off the season and my career with a win however hopefully I will still be in the team for the next one-dayer against Queensland. A few more days time until we face South Australia again in a Pura Cup match where I can hopefully establish myself as a top notch player and get over this horrendous failure.

(cheers to the bloke who made the scorecard template)​

 

[straya]

PRESS CONFERENCE BEFORE PURE CUP MATCH​

Reporter: Simon, after that win against the Redbacks in the one day match the other night, how do you rate your chances tomorrow in the Pura Cup?

Simon Katich: Ah yeah, well before every match it's vital that the team is confident and tomorrow will be no exception. All the fellas will definitely be buoyed on by the win the other night but at the end of the day, it's a new game and we need to be focused.

Reporter: Have you seen the pitch for tomorrow's match? Any ideas on what the eleven will look like?

Simon Katich: To my knowledge it's allegedly a spinners track, and if that is the case then we'll be going with Stuey MacGill and Nathan Hauritz. So in saying that, Sarfraz [Stuart Clark] will probably miss out and carry the drinks. I think that Pidge and Binga is all we need for a pitch like this and they can get the job done efficiently. We also have the medium pace option of John Cooper if need be.

Reporter: Speaking of Cooper, what do the selection panel think of him and his chances of playing much cricket?

Simon Katich: He's only young so it goes without saying that if he does get dropped at any stage then he will be back with a vengeance. However, there is no talk of getting rid of him, everyone fails and plays loose shots and there have been a few comments overreacting to his batting performance.

Reporter: So no change in the batting lineup?

Simon Katich: No, we believe we have all the talent we need, and if the tail can wag like it did in the one-dayer, then that's even better.

Reporter: Thank you very much for your time.

Simon Katich: Cheers mate, have a good one.

 

[straya]

NEW SOUTH WALES BLUES vs SOUTH AUSTRALIAN REDBACKS
15th of October, 2006
Adelaide Oval
Pura Cup​

We are here at lunch on day two where New South Wales have declared with a total of 3 for 312. After winning the toss and batting yesterday, the Blues have put themselves in a strong position to win this match. Centuries from Phil Jacques and Dominic Thornely in a 229-run partnership led the way, as none of the rest of the top order really fired. The biggest disappointment in the innings was Michael Clarke's total of a measly four runs. The Australian representative was caught off of the bowling of Cullen Bailey after just eight balls. Simon Katich and John Cooper also struggled, hitting twenty-three and twenty respectively. Cooper's runs all came through boundaries and he looked in fantastic niche before flicking a ball to Deitz at backward square leg off Dan Cullen's bowling trying to up the run rate as the Blues batted at snail's pace.

After this aggressive declaration, the Blues are now looking to get a few early wickets before allowing S.C.G MacGill and Nathan Hauritz to run wild on this turning wicket. Katich has confirmed that medium pace part-timer John Cooper will roll his arm over to give Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath a rest when needed.

 

[Fenil]

So far so good. There are some obvious mistakes in writing like eating up words occasionally etc. but there are two things I'd like to point out.

1) Its Darren Lehmann and not Daryl Lehmann

2) You forgot to enter the team names in Pura Cup scorecard.

Also, it would have been great if you had posted the following paragraph after the scorecard of your debut match. Its your first try and it looks so good already. Try adding some in-field (in-game) pictures to generate more interest for readers. All the best!

We did it! After 50 overs of standing at cover and taking a catch we restricted the Redbacks to 5 for 235. My catch was off of Brett Lee's bowling - he raced in and Mark Cosgrove chipped it to me. It was an easy catch but it makes the disappointment of scoring 5 a bit better. Binga picked up two for the innings but all the bowlers pitched in and kept it tight. It's great to kick off the season and my career with a win however hopefully I will still be in the team for the next one-dayer against Queensland. A few more days time until we face South Australia again in a Pura Cup match where I can hopefully establish myself as a top notch player and get over this horrendous failure.

 

[straya]

Thanks for the feedback mate, it's been good fun so far and has made the game a lot more interesting.

The Lehmann things and the scorecard I think are telling me not to write this at one am every night I think. And in regards to screenshots, I'm playing on my laptop which is a dual-booted Macbook Pro, so it obviously doesn't have the print screen button. If you know any other ways then that would be great?

I appreciate your comment, have a good one. The rest of this match will be up eventually.

 

[RPHKR]

I'm playing on my laptop which is a dual-booted Macbook Pro, so it obviously doesn't have the print screen button. If you know any other ways then that would be great?

Use this.

 

[Fenil]

Use this.

I don't think Fraps runs on Mac. Fraps' web site says that it is a Windows application, and I'm inclined to believe them. You may try any of the following two free trial softwares, Straya:

1) Camtasia:Mac

2) Snapz Pro X 2.5.1

 

[Dipak]

Or you can just post pics of the players taken from the internet. Well written thus far. Will follow