Carradale blossoming under Flower

Neil Drysdale accompanied one of Scotland's most remote cricketing outposts to an amazing day of coaching under the tutelage of England coach Andy Flower...

Aidan Keogh and his team mates didn’t get back to their homes in Campbeltown until 2.30 on Friday morning, but the cricketers of Carradale CC were floating on air for most of their journey up from Loughborough University.

In the previous 24 hours, Keogh and his confreres had enjoyed their billing as celebrities in the presence of the England coach, Andy Flower, and Sky TV’s cameras whilst the Scots who normally play in the tranquil backwater of the Argyll & Islands League, were propelled onto centre stage.

The team were blossoming under Flower, because they had secured their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, courtesy of the burgeoning Sky Sports ECB Coach Education Programme, which, as part of a boom in grassroots cricket, has trained nearly 25,000 coaches in the aftermath of England’s memorable 2005 Ashes triumph.

“We learned that we had won back in January and it was fantastic news for us, and we couldn’t wait to climb on the bus and head down to Loughborough,” said Keogh, the Carradale captain, who exhibited a keen-as-mustard approach to his day in the sun.

“We have school pupils in our ranks, and our age range stretches from 13 to 60, but we are passionate about our cricket and this will give Carradale a big boost as we try to build up our profile.”

It was certainly a change from their usual routine, once they arrived at the ECB’s High Performance Centre, where Flower ran his new charges through their paces with some of the meticulous attention to detail which is the Zimbabwean’s forte.

It would have been easy for him to patronise his guests and dole out cheap platitudes; instead, he adopted the same regimen which he employs in working with the likes of Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Graham Swann and James Anderson.

“We tried to give them a taste of what the England lads do and they put in a terrific performance during the whole session. We started with a warm-up, then we got them doing fielding practice and had them diving all over the place. I had a bit of trepidation about that, because one or two of the guys were on the old side and it is one thing to worry about somebody tearing a hamstring, and another thing entirely to be apprehensive about them suffering a heart attack.

"But they were right up for it,” said Flower, who is an ambassador for the Sky-backed initiative. “Then we worked on their batting skills and they spent 10 minutes in the nets, while I split them up into groups and showed them how to defend, how to hit over the top, and they were really attentive, they soaked up loads of information.

"We used a bowling machine to test them out with some short-pitched stuff, then we put them up against the 'Merlin' spin bowling machine, which can replicate what a Muralitharan or Warne might do. Finally, we looked at their actions and used technology to record their bowling speeds and the amount of turn their spinners were getting. There was a great rapport between us and I hope they benefit from what I have told them.”

Flower certainly wasn’t shocked by the devotion to cricket demonstrated by Keogh’s personnel. On the contrary, he is well-acquainted with the widespread backing the game commands north of the Border and, although he has more pressing matters to attend to – he and his England squad have just flown to the Caribbean for the World Twenty20 Championship – he is already looking forward to bringing his star-studded line-up to the Grange on June 19.

“When I was playing in the Central Lancashire League, I did a little cricket tour to Scotland and I saw for myself just how many people were dedicated to the sport. So I am not surprised that the Carradale lads made the effort to travel all the way down to Loughborough and responded with such enthusiasm to the visit. It will be nice to come back up this summer and I’m sure that it will be another competitive match.”

For his part, Keogh sounded rather like a youngster who has been handed possession of a chocolate factory. “It was absolutely brilliant and Andy treated every single one of us as if we were professional cricketers, which obviously we aren’t.

"The experience of being involved with him and then taking on a Loughborough team in a 20/20 tussle, while Sky were filming us, was something that we will never forget,” said Keogh, whose club launch their 2010 campaign on May 9 against the Arran-based side, Sannox.

“When you see the attention to detail which the professionals employ, it lets you know that it isn’t just a case of turning up at the ground and playing. Virtually nothing is left to chance and I wouldn’t have missed the chance to taste what the professionals do for the world.”

It was a trip to relish, and these Carradale comrades will never relinquish the memories of that session. Some may argue that cricket should return to terrestrial television, but when one looks into these kind of exercises and discovers the extent of Sky’s backing for the grassroots circuit, it makes you appreciate their coverage all the more.