My first stint as an overseas player began in Hampshire, England when I represented Hambledon Cricket Club in the Southern League in 2013. I had a good run before going into this League as I scored 584 runs(Avg53.09) in 9 games with 1 century and 3 half centuries in the Sri Lankan First Class competition.
I had a good season with both, bat and ball in England which gave me a lot of confidence moving forward. My next destination was Johnsonville, in Wellington towards the end of 2013 and the season went on till April 2014. I enjoyed the time spent in Wellington very much while playing some competitive cricket with and against some Black caps too. My latest stint was in Newcastle, New South wales, Australia where I represented Charlestown District Cricket Club.
There were many experiences in each of my sojourns with the clubs, but I will articulate some of the most common factors here.
Training usually starts around 6pm in most overseas clubs because they have day light till around 8pm at least, if not more. We usually train on a Tuesday night and a Thursday night while having an extra session on Friday night before the game on Saturday. Tuesday and Thursday are the days we focus more on all 3 aspects of the game while Friday is usually the day we work on our individual game.
Most of my team mates give priority to their jobs(only first class cricketers and overseas players get paid in most foreign countries) since they don’t get paid for playing cricket which means they wouldn’t be at training all the time. This doesn’t mean they are not competitive because they put in the extra yards and give it all they have whenever they find free time. When it comes to the game day, most of my team mates are pumped up and they usually give a hard time to the overseas players of opposition teams. A classic example for this would be my mates imitating the Pommy accent if it is an English overseas player and also the much more popular ‘sledging’ which they would do to any player of the opposition. Likewise, I have been at the receiving end of some sledging from opposition players but it is an experience you have to take with a pinch of salt and know that all of it just stays during the game and all of us hang around for a beer after the game and finish it off in good spirits.
Since I had to keep my self occupied during the days I didn’t have any cricket, I worked part time and also did a lot of coaching with the junior teams in the club and even spent time doing one on one coaching sessions with the kids since I am a qualified level 1 cricket coach.
When it comes to weather, Hampshire and Wellington(known as “Windy Wellington”) are very similar with the cool breeze and cold temperatures more often than not which made life difficult for me. But as time passed by, I started to enjoy the cooler conditions to the conditions I am used to back home which is always hot and humid. Newcastle in NSW was a big surprise for me as it was warmer than I expected and it even got up to 45 degrees Celsius at times. Having said that, I enjoyed every bit of it as it was tremendous exposure for me as a young cricketer to play in different conditions.
Dressing room cultures were very different as I expected but it was a good change to experience indeed. They used different words (for example they used the word ‘wrong un’ instead of ‘googly’ ) to what we use back home which made it hard for me get used to at the start. It was a culture to sing the team song inside the dressing room after every win while the ‘match fines’ (it’s a fun way of fining team mates- for example for dropping a catch, or turning up in a wrong warm up shirt etc) after every game was very popular among the players. A big change for me was having just 11 players at a game with no reserves.This was due to the fact that my team mates weren’t paid for playing cricket since it was only grade cricket.
Most coaches I worked with in these teams were more good motivators rather than technical coaches. I gained a lot of experience especially in Australia after working with Michael Hill, an ex- New South Wales cricketer who was also the manager of the Newcastle Knights(Australian Rugby League team) for 20 years. There were players with different attitudes in every team I played for but in general they were very nice to me and were very passionate about their cricket and as I have noticed they always get very excited when it’s a Sri Lankan overseas player who bowls spin, specially because they are very keen to know about how we Sri Lankans deliver various kinds of deliveries.
Something I missed terribly was the Sri Lankan food and the fact that I was a bad cook did not help. But I was fortunate that the clubs I played for, always organised a family(a foreign family) for me to live with during my stay and they took very good care of me. All the families I lived with were involved with the club in different ways like their kids playing junior cricket for the club or their kids playing top grade cricket with me. Also, the other people involved with the club were always very nice and helpful to me and organised various kinds of things such as a Sri Lankan curry night, road trips and even a surprise party for my 21st birthday in England.
The payments are usualy very good in these clubs and that’s the reason why we even see a lot of Sri Lankan First Class cricketers moving overseas to play cricket. But for me, since I was young while I travelled it was always about the experience and I am looking to make use of it now since I am back in Sri Lanka and playing domestic cricket again.
As a cricketer it was an invigorating experience and I have scribed this at the request of the editor in order to give others planning to take on such overseas stints some insights.
