Assuming the Presidency

I'm now the new president of my Toastmasters club at work. I got nominated, with no objections from other members (not sure if that's a good or bad thing). So from July onwards till June 2008, I'll become President and I will be making sweeping autocratic changes.

Yeah, right!

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing as President. A lot of good work has been done by the committee over the last year and a bit, and hopefully this good work will continue and we can start new initiatives. Hopefully we can get new members, introduce newer courses, and get all present members to do all their speeches in the competent communicator manual. At present, I've got 2 more speeches to go, but since I'm doing a speech every meeting, I'll be assured to complete all 10 speeches by the end of June.

So it's a good feeling to have a President who has completed 10 speeches and is deemed a competent communicator. Looks like I have big shoes to fill in the next club year.

Indoor Cricket Batting "Master Class"

After watching a couple of my team mates bat like a bunch of primary school kids last night, I feel compelled to write something on how you should go about batting in an indoor cricket situation. Even after giving them specific instructions on how they should appoach their innings, they still managed to sink into their old habits, which often led to losing their wickets.

While I'm not a batting expert (far from it), I can safely say I know the basics very well and I apply them very well, which has resulted in me getting reasonable scores in my partnership, and not being dismissed for the past 5 innings to date (so far). Given my current batting ability, which is still limited, I feel that I get the job done in the bigger scheme of things: getting a competitve team total. If the rest of the team do the same, we could end up with a massive score.

Here are a list of the basics, or the MUST DO's, when batting in indoor cricket. You might not agree with them; if you don't, please make a comment. Sometimes I fail to do some of the MUST DO's, but most of the time I get away with it. All of these were not followed, one way or another, in last night's match against the top ranked team.

1. Never lose your wicket. Losing your wicket costs your team 5 runs. When you lose your wicket regularly in your innings, you end up costing your team those lost runs when you could have easily scored a single or a two or even a boundary. This radically changes your team's total runs scored. Losing your wicket also puts pressure on the other batsmen in your team to make up for those lost runs. So, always protect your wicket. If there's a scoring chance, always consider first that your wicket stays intact. If you happen to lose your wicket, make bloody sure that you don't lose your wicket another time.


2. Score off every delivery. Indoor cricket is a very fast game, and the least that you should score off every delivery is a single. This ensures that you rotate the strike, keep the momentum going and build a good score. If you score a single off every ball, without losing your wicket, you will get a good score. If you can score a few boundaries or accumulate two's and three's you will get a very good score. But keeping your wicket comes first; if you fail to score off a delivery make sure your wicket is intact; there will be other deliveries to score off.


3. Get bat on every ball. As mentioned above, if you get ball on ball, you will have a very good chance of scoring, provided the ball doesn't end up in the hands of a fielder. If you get bat on ball, and the ball hits the nets you will get much needed bonus runs depending on which part of the nets the ball travels to. If you swing outside off stump and miss, you won't score, but at least you won't lose your wicket. There will be other balls for you to score off.


4. Take each ball on its merits. Not every ball is meant to be smashed to the boundary, unless they bowl a pile of shit. Every once in a while, you will get a ball that will be just too good for you, no matter how good a batsmen you are. If you are faced with a good ball, the best you can do is to try to get bat on ball and hopefully steal a single. If you are confident enough you might be able to angle the ball to the nets for a two or a three. That's a fantastic return against good bowling. Don't go for a wild slog, potentially getting yourself bowled or caught by a fielder. If you are faced with a bad ball, play the best shot you can to score maximum runs. Preferably you should attempt a boundary, but an easy two runs is okay because at least you are scoring. Bad balls very rarely lead to wickets, unless you played a poor shot in return.


5. Communicate with your partner. How many times have I seen batsmen not calling each other through for a run? Time and time again, I've seen batsmen end up on the same side of the pitch because one batsmen didn't call his partner through for the run, or the other batsmen was too slow to respond to the call. It just takes two words: 'yes' and 'no'. Call these words, loudly. Call 'yes' for the run, call 'no' to state that you're not interested in running. Do not say 'go' because it just sounds like 'no'. The most difficult scenario in making good calls is when the batsman hits straight back to the bowler. Too often, the non-striker takes off for a run, giving the on-strike batsman no chance to complete the run safely.


6. Slide your bat. A lot of run-outs happen when the batsmen fail to slide their bats over the batting crease. Batsmen will run to the other end, and just when their foot is about to cross the crease, they pop their bats down like they are hitting something with a club. This is soooooo wrong. Use the length of the bat to reach for the crease so that your bat crosses the line, instead of running as close to the crease as possible before plonking your bat over the crease. I'm not saying you run the length of the pitch sliding your bat. What I recommend is as soon as you are about 2 metres away from the crease, put your bat down before the crease, and slide the bat while you run. Your bat will reach the crease first. In tight run-outs, sliding the bat is the difference between being safely home or being given run-out by the umpire. Run-outs are also one of the most common forms of dismissal in indoor cricket, so if you don't want to be a run-out statistic, master sliding your bat.


7. Back yourself to do shots. Sometimes, especially when you are falling behind in a run-chase or the scoring has become stagnant, you will need to play some shots to increase the scoring, no matter how good the bowling is. If there is a bad ball which you feel you can smash to the boundary then by all means attempt the shot. If you are faced with a good ball, try and play a good shot in return, such as a forward push or a drive. The ball may not go to the boundary, but at least you are scoring vital runs against good bowling. However, if you cannot play the shot because you're not in position or you're not confident enough, then don't attempt to do it. This produces bad shots, and bad shots lead to losing your wicket cheaply. Be positive, move the feet, and hit the ball as hard as you can. Aim to hit down the ground. Never hit upwards unless it's a straight shot towards the back nets.


8. Be positive with your running. You should always aim to score off every delivery and the only way to do this is to complete the run. If you play a scoring shot, call for the run, run hard and run fast. If you respond to a call for a run, run hard and run fast. If you're a non-striker, try to back up one or two feet just at the point the bowler bowls the ball. Too often I've seen non-strikers still inside their crease even after the batsman on strike has hit the ball. By being one or two feet outside the crease while the ball is being delivered, you have less distance to cover for a run. Just be careful that the bowler doesn't have the opportunity to mankad you if you backup too far or too early in your run. So in a nutshell, run hard, run fast, run confidently, and call call call.


9. Take stock. Finally at the end of every over, always take stock. Encourage your batting partner to keep things ticking over. Set a small target, e.g. score ten runs in the upcoming over. This will bring out more responsibility into you and your partner's batting. Never ever avoid communication between overs. Just touching gloves in the middle of the pitch isn't enough. You should be communicating to each other, setting objectives, reminding each other to keep the score flowing and, most importantly, not losing your wicket.
   

Well I hope that next week those guys who failed miserably can apply some of these basics in their batting, and hopefully their batting will improve as a result.

Lapping The Lake

Last Friday I travelled down to Rotorua to compete in the Rotorua Marathon. It was a very tough and very slow course for all runners, and I managed to finish the marathon in a slow time of 5 hours 20 seconds. I wasn't expecting to better my previous time at Auckland, and wasn't surprised when I took 43 minutes more to finish the Rotorua course. It was basically the mother of all New Zealand marathons, with the hard roads and various hills to overcome. The course starts and finishes in the middle of Rotorua, with runners making one circuit around Lake Rotorua.

Anyway, the road trip on Friday was quick, and I got settled in Rotorua. The only thing to do on Friday was to pick up my race pack and survey the course by car. I noted that there were some difficult hill climbs and some very long straight stretches. Other than that, it seemed to be a normal kind of run. That assessment may have been too premature. So for the remainder of Friday, I just sat in bed watching TV, fuelling and stretching.

Come Saturday morning, it was raining. The runners congregated at the start line waiting for the countdown to go. I started way at the back of the queue, as I didn't want to be mown down by runners behind. It took me 3 minutes to cross the start line.

It stopped raining around the 10 km mark, and the time registered 67 mins, so I was reasonably confident at that pace that I could probably make 4 hours 30 minutes, provided I pick up some speed in the latter half of the run. At that time I started chatting with another runner who lived in the same area as me. Very nice bloke, and he has an impressive running record too. Because of injuries he finished around the 4:40 mark. I could have tagged along, but unfortunately faded when I tried keeping up.

Then near halfway, which was around the time my friend pulled in front, I started to fade. The hard roads, with the big chips and uneven surface, started hurting my feet, which subsequently hurt my ankles. Not even my running shoes could give me comfort, as I was used to pounding the smoother roads in my area. The hard road surface with the big chips was one thing I didn't pick up from my surveying of the course earlier. And I couldn't increase the pace when I wanted to. So I was consigned to the marathon shuffle where your feet seem to shuffle in a consistent motion, and your legs cannot increase the length that you stride, as if you were shackled in chains at your feet.

By the time it was 3 hours, I had covered around 27 km. I thought I was on target for 4 hours 30 minutes if I kept going at my current pace, maybe even 5-10 minutes overtime. But the pain, caused by the hard road, forced me to walk a few times. After a couple of minutes of walking, I could continue the shuffle, only to walk later on when the feet starting screaming for comfort. This continued all the way until the 42 km mark (and I also had to make 2 brief stops to the toilet), where I decided to throw everything aside and sprint 195 metres towards the finish in an attempt to get a few seconds under 5 hours. Unfortunately the legs started to cramp and I was forced to slow down, hence the reason I clocked in at 5 hours 20 seconds.

After the race, I tried moving around constantly so that I wouldn't cramp up severely. I even went for a post-race massage, which accelerates muscle recovery. I paid $10 for 10 minutes, but the lovely masseuse spent more time on me, around 30 minutes, and didn't require additional payment. She certainly did the trick, my muscles don't hurt. Unlike my last marathon, I couldn't walk properly the next day. This time, I could walk comfortably.

I'm a little disappointed that I didn't do better, even former Black Cap Roger Twose did better than me. I saw him on the course, but I was too shy to say hello. But it was a great experience, and I will certainly do Rotorua again next year in an effort to improve my time.