B Grade - Round 19 - 18/2/2012

Let's start this week off with a positive.....

Saturday morning saw the two MRCC Division 2 teams play their first game against each other for the season. It was also the start of our Pink Stumps Day. It was great to see so many parents down to watch the kids go at it in some pretty hot conditions. A sausage sizzle cooked by Renz, and some cold softies went down really well with all there. The much hyped "game of the season" lived up to expectations, with the "newer" Div 2 side running out narrow winners in the last over. It was a pleasure to see everyone play the game in the right spirit.

The day fell away rapidly from there, with A grade losing players left right and centre. This meant giving up 4 of the 7 players I had named for B's. At 12:15, just 15 minutes before the game, we numbered 7 in total. 3 seniors and 4 juniors. A phone call by young James Ling got his brother down to the game, and Chappy turned up after one over was bowled. After much talk and thinking, we went ahead and played, starting with 8, to give Wests "a chance for their blokes to get a bat". I could go into boring detail about how the day went, but needless to say, it wasn't pretty. It's pretty well set in stone that I will never play the nice guy for those idiots again.

That being said, I was once again extremely proud of the way the kids handled the game. Jacko Smart, James Ling, Jordi Nicolai, Mitch Gridley - you boys should be extremely proud of yourselves. Jordi managed to take the first 2 wickets of the match, after us "old blokes" had struggled a bit at the start. All bowled well, and there were only a couple of tough fielding errors all day. Nearly 3 hours of cricket in the morning, and these lads backed up to field for 40 overs with only nine of us on the field..... an incredible effort.

Right then, time to switch hats..........

To say that I am disappointed and pissed off with the lack of interest/committment of the majority of players this year is a massive understatement. It never ceases to amaze me how hard it is to find 33 blokes willing to have a game of cricket. This year might not be the best year we have had, indeed those that have been around a while know we've had some shockers in the past, but we've always managed to fill sides. Having to forfeit a game of B Grade this season was the most embarrassing thing I've ever had to do, and I've done some pretty embarrassing stuff in my time. Fielding 9 blokes (Including 4 juniors) for your second best team in the comp is just not on.

I don't understand what is so hard for all of you. You turn up at 12:00, you play, you go home. Pretty fucken easy.

It would be different if you had to organise beers, water, ice, scorebooks, kits, balls, cones, pick a team, do raffles, coach Juniors in the morning, drop kids home, field texts and phone calls all week, etc etc. That's my job, and I do it. All I ask is for 11 blokes to put their hand up, without me having to harass and message continually. One phone call or text message or Facebook message, that's all you have to do. Read that bit again..... it's one bloody thing, and for the majority of you, even that's too hard.

I realize that this might piss some people off, but I am really past caring. The blokes that do the right thing know who they are, those that don't, well........

There is a game of B Grade next week against Federals, starting at 12:30. If you can play, let me know.

Scott