KINGS CLUB Senior Cricket is intended to cater for a broad range of players.
Some will simply want to come down, have a net, hit a few balls, bowl a few overs and enjoy being around the game again.
Some will want the occasional social fixture.
Others will want to train regularly, compete for places and help us build strong KINGS CLUB teams.
All of those players have a place here.
The important thing for me is not that everyone wants exactly the same thing from cricket. It is that the people involved approach the game in the right way and contribute positively to the environment we are trying to build.
That is the starting point for our Senior Cricket Programme.
CRICKET HAS TO FIT AROUND LIFE
I spent a large part of my life playing professional cricket, where the game came first and everything else tended to fit around it.
Senior club cricket is different.
Work, travel, family and everything else that comes with life makes cricket much harder to fit in than it once was.
It is also a time-consuming game.
A full match can take most of a Saturday or Sunday. Training requires another evening. Miss a season or two and it can become very easy to drift away from the game altogether.
I understand that much more now than I did when I was playing professionally.
I am in my late thirties, and I increasingly coach players in their thirties and forties who have been away from the game for a while and want to start playing again.
I enjoy that enormously.
There is often no great ambition attached to it initially. They simply miss cricket.
They miss hitting a ball properly. Bowling again. Being around a net. Competing a little. Being around other people who enjoy the game.
I think there should be somewhere for that.
Part of what we are trying to create at KINGS CLUB is an environment where cricket can fit back into people’s lives.
FROM A WEEKLY NET TO COMPETITIVE CRICKET
There should not be one definition of what it means to be a Senior Cricketer at KINGS CLUB.
For one person, it might simply mean a net when time allows.
For another, it might mean training and playing the occasional social match.
For somebody else, it might mean wanting to train seriously, compete regularly and help us build a strong competitive side.
Our intention is to create opportunities for all three.
Over time, we want KINGS CLUB to produce both Social and Competitive Senior Teams, supported by a regular training environment where players can improve, enjoy the game and become part of the club.
Naturally, different teams and playing opportunities will have different standards and expectations.
But the wider Senior Cricket section should still feel like one group.
ICH DIEN — I SERVE
At the centre of the KINGS CLUB badge are the words ICH DIEN.
They translate to “I Serve.”
I first came across those words through the Prince of Wales emblem when I was around eleven or twelve years old at Surrey County Cricket Club.
Those two words resonated with me immediately. Even at eleven or twelve, I found the idea behind them profound, and they have stayed with me ever since.
They stayed with me strongly enough that, now, I have them at the heart of the KINGS CLUB badge.
For me, they represent something quite special.
Cricket has given me far more than I could ever give back to it.
It gave me a career, friendships, experiences, opportunities and lessons that have stayed with me long after professional cricket finished.
I think everyone involved in the game becomes, in some small way, responsible for looking after it.
We serve the game through the way we play it, the way we treat teammates and opposition, the way we welcome people into it, and the example we set for those coming through behind us — on and off the pitch.
That idea is intended to be part of the DNA of KINGS CLUB.
It does not matter whether you are playing in our strongest side or coming down once in a while for a net.
If you are part of the club, you have a part to play in the environment around you.
THE STANDARD IS HOW WE GO ABOUT IT
KINGS CLUB can accommodate different abilities.
It can accommodate different levels of experience.
It can accommodate somebody who has played good cricket for twenty years and somebody who has not picked up a bat for ten.
It can also accommodate different levels of commitment.
What I do not want to compromise on is the way people go about the game.
That means respecting teammates, opposition, coaches and training.
It means training properly when you are there.
It means helping create an environment other people want to be part of.
It means understanding that a club works best when people contribute to it rather than simply take from it.
None of that needs to be complicated.
Most good sports club environments are built on relatively simple things: good people, good standards, a bit of humour, competitiveness and a willingness to look after the group.
That is the balance we are trying to find.
BUILDING A CLUB, NOT JUST A TRAINING SESSION
The word club matters to me.
I do not want KINGS CLUB to become somewhere people simply purchase an hour of cricket and leave.
Training is obviously a major part of what we offer, but the longer-term ambition is to build a proper Senior Cricket section around it.
A group of people who know each other.
Players who train together.
Social fixtures.
Competitive teams.
Senior players supporting younger players coming through the KINGS CLUB pathway.
People taking some pride in representing the club.
That will take time.
It has to grow naturally and it has to be built around the right people.
But that is the direction.
SOCIAL AND COMPETITIVE CRICKET
One of the things I want us to avoid is creating the impression that cricket only matters if you are playing at the highest level available to you.
It does not.
There is plenty of value in playing because you enjoy the game.
There is plenty of value in a social fixture with good people.
There is plenty of value in coming to training because you enjoy batting and bowling for a couple of hours after work.
Equally, there should be an opportunity for the players who want more.
I am competitive by nature and I want KINGS CLUB to develop strong teams that take their cricket seriously and want to win.
We can have both.
The social side of the club does not need to dilute the competitive side.
The competitive side does not need to make the social player feel like an outsider.
If we structure it properly, they should strengthen each other.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
For me, success is not simply the number of teams we enter or the number of matches we win (although I am not going to pretend I don’t like winning).
It is building a Senior Cricket section made up of people who enjoy being part of it.
Players getting back into cricket after time away.
Players training consistently and improving.
People finding a level of cricket that suits where they are in life.
Social teams enjoying playing together.
Competitive teams representing KINGS CLUB properly and performing well.
Younger players progressing through our Junior Pathway and eventually stepping into senior cricket.
And, over time, a group of people who feel some ownership over what we are building together.
If we get the culture right, I think the cricket side of it will take care of itself.
THERE IS A PLACE FOR YOU HERE
If you have not played for years and want to pick the game back up, you are welcome.
If you want a good net when time allows and nothing more, you are welcome.
If you want to play the occasional social fixture, you are welcome.
If you want to train seriously, compete and help us build strong KINGS CLUB teams, you are welcome.
We do not all need to want the same thing from cricket.
We do need to respect the game, go about it in the right way and contribute positively to the club around us.
That, ultimately, is what ICH DIEN — I Serve means to me.
And it is the foundation I want KINGS CLUB to be built on.