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Drinks Duties on Tour: Tales of an Inexperienced 12th man

Drinks Duties on Tour: Tales of an Inexperienced 12th man

As a wicketkeeper it’s not often you end up carrying the drinks. You are either in the 11 or you aren’t in the 12.

I’ve only ever done it twice and both occasions were novel events, one I now laugh about and the other one I will always savour.

Hopefully, they will never happen again.

The first time I carried the drinks was at the Under 19 World Cup in South Africa in 1999. We were about to play home side South Africa at Newlands, Cape Town, in what we thought was a must win match to make the final.

Maybe it was complacency or arrogance, but I assumed I would be playing, as the reserve Keeper, Michael Papps, had been sent home after dislocating his shoulder in the swimming pool the night before the tournament opened. Hamish Marshall, (twin brother to James) had been brought over as a replacement and he’d only ever kept once in a school game.

I was shocked and disappointed when told I was 12th man, knowing the importance of the game and the pressure it placed on Hamish. Ten years on, playing together for the Northern Knights, we joke about it and re-enact his botched run out, where he knocked the bails off prematurely before the ball arrived.

He hopes he will never have to take the gloves off me again… as do I!

At the time I was gutted, but in hindsight it was a good lesson for me. In professional sport, like most things in life, complacency is a dangerous trap to fall into. Standards slip and you become comfortable with mediocre performances and average results.

The second, and most recent, time I’ve carried the drinks was last weekend in Sydney. It capped off a crazy week where I’d gone from playing Twenty20 for the Northern Knights in Hamilton in front of 1,500 people to potentially playing for the Black Caps in front of 35,000 at the SCG.

My sister, Sara, who plays for the NZ womens cricket team, the White Ferns, was already set to play the curtain raiser to the mens KFC Twenty20 on the SCG that night.

When told of my selection I rang Mum to check where my passport was. Mum, Dad and my youngest sister, were already booked to fly over and watch Sara play so were running round making last minute preparations for the trip away.

Mum asked why I needed my passport. Was I thinking of coming and watching Sara play?

“I might be playing just after her”, I replied. Further panic spread through the household.

In the end I didn’t play, as Brendon’s shoulder came right, and had to settle for carrying the drinks. The moment of disappointment passes, then the excitement of helping the team get the desired result kicks in.

It was great to get a taste of it again and I’ll never forget standing on the balcony of the Away dressing room at the SCG and looking out seeing our surname on my sister’s shirt playing in front of 21,000 people.

We’ve both got the Twenty20 World Cup in England to look forward to now. Fingers crossed we both get picked.

The women are again playing curtain raisers to the mens games so hopefully we can replicate that night in Sydney.

Except this time I’d rather not be carrying the drinks?

Peter McGlashan
State Northern Knights
Wicketkeeper/Batsman

Sara Mcglashan
Sara McGlashan fielding during the New Zealand White Ferns Twenty20 game against Australia

Comments

Ha ha, good stuff

Comment by archie mac | 12:00am GMT 25 February 2009

Great little read Peter. Where do you think you would have batted had McCullum been out for the SCG?

Comment by Nath | 12:00am GMT 25 February 2009

Peter, interesting to read your perspective on the drinks waiter’s role.

With your most recent call up to the national squad being in the shortest form of the game, do you see yourself devoting more or all of your energies into that form of the game, or is your primary goal playing Test cricket?

Thanks for the blog. Enjoyed it.

Comment by Cameron | 12:00am GMT 25 February 2009

Peter, the under-19 world cup you were in was in 1997/98. Trying to shave a few years off your age to prolong your career and make yourself a more viable long term prospect for the Black Caps?

Comment by thierry henry | 12:00am GMT 25 February 2009

🙂 Great to see you guys do your research!
Ha ha, you’re right it was the start of 98, an amazing tour to do at that age and indeed one of our most productive and successful U19 sides ever. Might have to do a few Flashback blogs of the trip but will try and get the dates right this time.
Cameron- my primary goal is to play the best cricket I can and Test cricket, while it would be a huge honour, would mean radically reshaping my game.Unfortunately in NZ domestic cricket the contracts aren\’t large enough to be able to successfully pick and choose which forms of the game you play. One of the main reasons Ian Butler left ND was he prob would have missed out on a contract due to not being a sure pick for our 4day side. His career has obviously prospered from being contracted and playing every game for Otago so good on him for having the guts to pack up his life in Counties and head south. I think you\’ll see more of that in the future as the best talent spreads around the country improving the standards of all the competitions. Enough about that, maybe a topic for an up coming piece… 🙂
Nath- absolutely no idea sorry, 5 or 6? 🙂
Glad you enjoyed my first effort. Hoping to be a regular here.

Comment by Peter McGlashan | 12:00am GMT 25 February 2009

Hi Peter.

An enjoyable read. As you must know what’s going on at ND this season; what exactly has Graeme Aldridge been up to this season. Scoring plenty of runs and batting up the order? I never knew he had it in him. Do you know what the secret to his batting improvement is?

Comment by Heef | 12:00am GMT 25 February 2009

Why do you think that you were picked for the SCG ahead of me?

Comment by Reece Y | 12:00am GMT 25 February 2009

Heef- G is batting 7 or 8 and has worked really hard during the winter to ‘refine’ his game. More accurate execution and controlled aggression probably being the key elements.

Comment by Peter McGlashan | 12:00am GMT 25 February 2009

Hey Pete.

Congrats on being picked, so with your batting, do you deliberately set out to bat in the most unorthodox fashion you can think of, or is that just how you\’ve always been?

Certainly a FC century of yours would be interesting to watch. All the best for the future.

Also, haha at the Reece Young imitator.

Comment by Flem274* | 12:00am GMT 25 February 2009

Great to see you here Pete, hopefully you can get a regular blog!

I know this might be a strange.

Comment by Polo | 12:00am GMT 26 February 2009

Great to see you here Pete, hopefully you can get a regular blog!

I know this might be a strange question, but are you a real cricket fanatic (like most of us here)? Do you enjoy watching cricket on TV, even if NZ aren’t involved? Could you name the last 5 test wicket keepers for NZ?

I always wondered if cricket flowed through most pro’s blood, or if they just did it because they were good at it, and it was a sweet job.

Cheers

Comment by Mark | 12:00am GMT 26 February 2009

Hi Mark, have been a cricket fan all my life after my grandfather who also played 1st class cricket as a keeper got me into it, I was in the stand last night at NZ vs Indias Twenty20 match in Wellington actually and despite the freezing weather there was a good crowd of 20,000, I went early to watch the Masters curtain raiser which included many former NZ and Aussie greats- Healy, Doull, Matthews, Nash and Bryan Young- 1 of NZ’s former keepers you speak of.(Possibly only One dayers from memory as Chill Blain used to keep in the tests I think) Cricket is one sport, at least in NZ, where the ‘pros’ still sit and talk about how their club sides are going or who is doing well in their home provinces. I know there is a much different attitude in the UK after playing there where ‘pros’ are exactly that and won’t do anything cricket related without a hand out. We haven’t quite evolved (or regressed, depending on your viewpoint) to that yet.

Comment by Peter McGlashan | 12:00am GMT 27 February 2009

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