Bessborough Cricket Club

Only four games under his captaincy but Danny Hawes’ ideas and methods are already shining through and his fresh approach can hopefully lead our first eleven onto bigger and better things, this season and for years to come.

I had heard from some of the first team regulars about how impressed they had been with ‘Bruce’and I got my first look at his captaincy at the weekend in our Middlesex Championship Fixture v Osterley at Headstone Manor. I have played with Danny for many years and my first experience of playing with him was when he played under my captaincy in the third eleven during 2003. I had never thought of Dan as captain material, simply for the reason that I can’t recall him captaining any levels of cricket. However he has always had a good cricket brain and being our leading batsman made him the obvious choice for 2012.

After finding out from Bushy that I had been selected for the first team on the waydown to the club the Tuesday before I had to say that I was slightly apprehensive. I had scored runs in both my previous games this season, however due to a broken arm that I suffered 3 months ago, I am unable to throw a ball. After letting Dan know the situation, he told me it would be fine and I was getting picked on merit. It was good man management and the way of making me feel like I belonged in the first team.

On the day of the game, Dan was relaxed during an organised warm up which he ran alongside senior all-rounder Ian Barrie. It was well run, short and got everybody involved, even Danny joined in the full warm-up. During the stretches, Dan asked everybody, not just his ‘box office’ players what we should do if we won the toss.

After winning the toss and putting Osterley in our opening bowlers IB and Niv attacked from the off with Dan posting adventurous and attacking fields. He also wisely didn’t waste his opening bowlers in the field by putting both IB and Niv in fielding positions where they could influence the game rather than wasting their talents down at Fine Leg between overs. I was one of the fielders who did Fine Leg at one end but Dan made me feel important and put me at Mid Off for Niv’s bowling and told him he needed me in this crucial position.

Also Dan made sure all the best fielders were in the slips and in the cover regions. It may sound obvious but little things like that can be missed without careful planning . Every player was made to feel important in the field whether you areone of the box office players or a fill in like myself on the day.

Dan tinkered with the field regularly, watching what the batsman were doing at the crease and altered the field accordingly. In one over off Niv’s bowling he pushed me back 10 yards to a certain batsman and next ball I took a catch at Deep Mid Off which I wouldn’t have been able to catch if I hadn’t been moved.

We reduced Osterley to 30-5 and then soon after to 50-8 but Dan was never intent on just letting the game settle and even though Niv bowled a good spell from the Allotment End he still took him off at the good time and brought on Rambo’s offspin.  

We eventually rolled over Osterley for 90 and after tea our response began. After our batting collapse the week before, Dan stressed the importance of the senior batsman taking responsibility and the opening pair of himself and Ramesh Gunalan did just that leading us to a vital 10 wicket win.

As I wrote earlier in the piece, it maybe early days but the combination of Dan’s batting and captaincy look to be an excellent fit and that he looks like he could be the leader that our first eleven needs at this moment in time to start the rebuilding process.

With him on the bridge, here is to hoping he can steer the ‘good ship’ Bessborough into calmer waters.