MCCU - End of Season.

5 August 2010

A blistering day in Loughborough marks the beginning of the end of ten months of hard work, jubilant highs and despondent lows for the student cricketers at the six MCC Universities.

This week could turn an average season into a brilliant one, or a fine campaign into a disappointing one, as the teams fight to be crowned MCC Universities Twenty20 champions and, at Lord’s at the end of the week, MCC University Challenge winners. For Durham and Loughborough, the two Lord’s finalists, the two-day Twenty20 tournament gives them the chance to get one over their opponents before the big day; for the rest – Cambridge, Cardiff, Leeds/Bradford and Oxford – it’s an opportunity for a final hurrah before they disperse to play county, 2nd XI Championship and club cricket during the summer.

While Chris Scott sets about educating the attendant MCC staff about Ian Dury and the Blockheads, his Cambridge team are enjoying the combination of short boundaries and pink balls against Leeds/Bradford. Captain Nick Lee, whose swashbuckling is cut short by an lbw decision that leaves him less than happy, is one of handful of Cambridge MCCU stalwarts graduating this summer. Lee, with Eddie Ballard, Akbar Ansari and Stephen Gray, has been a central part of the side for three years, but Lee also acts as the strength and conditioning coach for his team-mates. Extraordinarily his team-mates still talk to him.

With his Sports Science degree in the bag, Lee is going on to work as a strength and conditioning coach with Sussex CCC’s academy and 2nd XI players. Lee says his personal highlight from the scheme was captaining the MCC Universities combined side of non-contracted players in last season’s 2nd XI Championship, and it also opened the door for the Sussex job, because it was at a match against Sussex II that he was spotted and asked to work and go on tour with the county.

His counterpart at Leeds, Richard Browning, is sitting out the Cambridge game after helping his side to a resounding victory against Exeter, and contemplating the start of a new life as a director of the League Cricketers’ Association, which he describes as the league cricketer’s best friend (any lonely league cricketers should visit www.thelca.co.uk). With schoolmate and Northamptonshire teammate Richard Logan, Browning is intent on establishing a body to cater for the needs of the 600,000 or so league cricketers in the country, from providing a forum where they can access their statistics to granting members benefits from partner companies.
Leeds MCCU Captain Richard Browning

Already his degree has helped – “I had to put together a sponsorship proposal and I wouldn’t have had a clue how to do it if I hadn’t done a module on it” – and he’s using the contacts he’s made on the scheme to spread the word. Browning, who is doing his Level 3 Coaching Badge, plans to running coaching courses for the LCA and has also been offered a coaching role at a school. Having played under both Yorkshire Coach of the Year Richard Horner and current Leeds/Bradford MCCU coach Andrew Lawson, he has wise confidants.

Another cricketer who intends to take the skills learnt in his degree directly into the workplace is Oxford’s Chris Swainland. After many years playing for Essex II (as a 16-year-old he played alongside current MCC Head of Cricket John Stephenson nearing the end of his career) he had come to the conclusion that: “cricket’s not going to pay the bills but I could go to an MCCU, keep improving, and even if I didn’t make it as a pro I’ll come out as a better cricketer and have a degree.” He has spent three years studying Construction Management at Oxford Brookes to be able to move into his family’s construction business, but can also take lessons learnt in cricket training in his future career. “A lot of the psychology training we’ve done [with former Middlesex and Nottinghamshire player and now Chartered Psychologist Steve Sylvester] and things like the Myers-Briggs personality test can be related to business."

On another Loughborough pitch, Durham and Cardiff are going for it hammer and tongs, but both sides’ opening bowlers find time to discuss their plans for the summer, namely securing permanent county contracts for themselves. Durham’s John Glover and Cardiff’s Alex Jones will both be trying to impress Matthew Maynard at Glamorgan CCC and get their summer contracts extended into full contracts. Jones reckons the MCCU scheme has given him an extra three years to impress at Glamorgan – a claim echoed by Glover’s coach Graeme Fowler who says cash-strapped counties benefit from the MCCUs giving their players intensive coaching and playing opportunities for the early and mid-summer.

John Glover - Will be playing for Glamorgan after term ends

On arriving at Durham in 2007, Glover had all but given up serious cricket due to a back injury. He saw it as his last chance to play at the highest level and after impressing at fresher nets, has gone from strength to strength, with a five-for against Durham CCC at the beginning of 2009 alerting county coaches to his potential. “There’s no way Glamorgan would be interested in me now if it wasn’t for the MCCU scheme,” he says. “First-class cricket is a real step up for a student cricketer, but it’s an inspiring experience to play those games – because our opposition are where we want to be. If you impress, particularly in those games, county coaches will take notice.”

A fast bowler with a few more overs and wickets behind him than Glover after a long career with England, Kent and Worcestershire – Loughborough head coach Graham Dilley – characterises the challenge thus: “The professionals have found their games; our players are still working theirs out.”

The beauty of the MCCU scheme is that those players who do find the formula that takes them into the professional game will have a qualification to fall back on come retirement, and those that don’t will have enjoyed a remarkable and intense three-year cricketing experience without compromising their education.

MCC Staff