Living large in Rarotonga: February 2012

The last thing I expected upon coming to the Cook Islands at the beginning of 2011 was to get so heavily involved in cricket again. Having two young children, aged two and a half and four, had long ago seen me seemingly give up all hope of being able to spend Saturday afternoons playing cricket and one afternoon a week practicing. But circumstances have conspired to allow this exact thing to happen, and then some. Not least of those circumstances of course is the support of my very understanding and patient wife Janine! Not only have I enjoyed a season's cricket playing for Avatiu-Nikao in the local Computer Man's 40 over, 10 team, club competition, and then selection in the elite Turtles Domestic League T20 tournament (3 teams involved, Cook Islands equivalent of First Class Cricket), but I have also achieved my Stage 3 umpiring certification and have umpired in a Secondary School tournament in Gisborne, New Zealand, a first for a Cook Island resident, as well as also becoming the first Cook Island resident to be appointed onto the Eastern-Asia Pacific Supplementary Umpires panel, which enables me to umpire in official ICC tournaments within the region! This is something I have thoroughly enjoyed and hope to continue to develop as far as I can. As the body increasingly tells me to retire, despite a successful season in which I was our clubs highest wicket taker with 24, as well as a few useful knocks, I see umpiring as a way of staying in the game I love!

The day the lights got turned on for cricket in the Cook Islands.
Te-Au-O-Tonga vs Matavera-Ngatangia, 3rd February 2012.

I have also, on a voluntary basis, been involved in aspects of the administration of cricket in the Cook Islands, including being on the interview panel to select the coach of the Cook Island Women's Cricket team to participate in an international tournament in Vanuatu; a tournament I may well be umpiring in - finger's crossed! I also anticipate being heavily involved in the development of umpiring standards in the Cook Islands.

All of this has seen me be on local television and radio occasionally, which, while being somewhat surreal initially, I have also enjoyed and gotten used to - my 15 minutes of fame!

Te-Au-O-Tonga celebrate another wicket

Sometimes the rain didn't play ball

A fiery opening spell

One of the highlights on the playing front thus far has been the introduction of day/night cricket for the Turtles Domestic League in the Cook Islands, the first time this has been done in the Pacific! Whilst the weather hasn't always played ball and the pitch requires some work, there is no doubt that this is an exciting innovation for cricket, and sport in general, in the Cooks. This is a three team round robin competition played over four weeks on a Friday night at the BCI International Stadium. Each team plays each other twice with the two top teams playing in the final. The teams are selected from the best, and most promising, players in the Computer Man competition within the three Vaka's on Rarotonga, and Aitutaki. I was lucky enough, and honoured, to be selected to play for Te-Au-O-Tonga, which incorporates players from Avatiu-Nikao, Tupapa, and Takuvaine.

THE FINAL

And so to the final, which saw Te-Au-O-Tonga, whom I play for, and Puaikura-Titikaveka meet. PT had defeated TAOT in the two previous low scoring encounters during the round robin series so were justifiably favourites, but we were still quietly confident and knew that if we played to our potential we could certainly beat them. The day started well when we won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first. I opened the batting and soon managed to run myself again! But after a cautious first few overs we quickly got into our stride and built steadily towards an all out assault in the final overs, finishing up with a formidable 173. As the lights took full affect batting proved difficult against some tight bowling and apart from one or two anxious overs our total was never seriously threatened, restricting them to 115 for eight after their allotted 20 overs. I opened the bowling and finished with 2 cheap wickets off 4 inexpensive overs so was very happy with my performance. It was a wonderful feeling to win this inaugural day/night Turtles D-League competition.

First ball to Toara - SIX!

second ball to Toara - FOUR!

We celebrated with a few quiet beers in the stands until they turned the lights out on us, at which point we continued on a little longer under torch light, before we were actually physically asked to move on!

And so ends the 2011/2012 cricket season, and a most enjoyable one it has been too! Now all I have to consider is whether I continue playing or pursue my umpiring career...? At least I now have several months to consider my options - ideally I'd like to do both!