Getting a surprise call up

The day had been going as planned. A cold wintry day in Wellington where I had just jumped out to assist Doug Watson (Firebirds batting coach) throw some balls to Troy Johnson and Tom Blundell at the Sky stadium indoor nets.

I noticed my phone vibrating and it was Bryan Stronach from New Zealand Cricket (NZC) so immediately thought I wonder what the call was about. I did not answer it as I was busy with the players and Doug. As I continued throwing, I figured he was trying to get hold of me to discuss my development plan as I had been meeting Christian Penney from High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) earlier in the day about some development opportunities that I wanted to explore. Christian had mentioned he would have a word to Bryan to ensure everyone was on the same page as to my coaching development needs.

I rung Bryan back that afternoon and was stunned, shocked, surprised, elated when he said he wanted me to travel with the BLACKCAPS on the Pakistan and Bangladesh tours. He ran through some points about it; however, the basis of the conversation was to plant the seed for me to consider and then I would go back to him with questions in the next few days. At the end of the conversation, he threw in who the travelling staff would be and said I would be the Head Coach so that created even more emotions. Again, I was surprised, shocked, elated and pumped all in one! Even though it has always been something I have aspired to it certainly had not been on my radar as was incredibly happy, fulfilled and focused on my Wellington role.

I got home later that afternoon still on a massive high and was trying to figure out how to tell Hilary about this opportunity that has been presented. I broke the ice after being home for an hour or so and seeing the look on her face was special. She was over the moon to say the least and I felt so proud just to see her happy. Straight away without any discussion she said, well you must do it, which made me feel at ease as at the end of the day it is her decision. She was the one that had to hold the home front down and deal with all the challenges of having two young kids while I was away. To make the challenge for her even bigger the country went into lockdown a couple of days before we left so this meant she could not work and would be stuck at home, not being able to go anywhere, on her own and with two kids under five.

The next day Hilary and I had produced some questions and I spoke with NZC and Cricket Wellington (CW) to go over the finer details with which I was comfortable. Later that night I got back in touch and said yes, I am in. I was absolutely buzzing, and it felt a bit like a dream. It bought back a flood of memories. Memories of playing cricket in the backyard as a kid, memories of being a schoolboy cricketer, memories of leaving school not knowing what I wanted to do, and memories of all my dreams really coming to fruition in this one moment. And it is a dream and has been since I was kid. Wow who would have thought.

When I started coaching 20 years ago after giving up the game as a club cricketer, I certainly did not think so…. But that’s where dreams make you believe, and over time I did believe. I still need to pinch myself now to make sure I am awake and this experience I had was real.