Mike Gatting plays Father Christmas on the 1994/95 Ashes tour
PHOTO BY GRAHAM CHADWICK
The festive season can be a trying time for lots of reasons but for an international cricketer it can be particularly tricky. The emphasis on family, friends and a chance to down tools and wind down in the cosy environs of home is often in stark contrast to the practicalities of life on a winter tour. The fact they both tend to ramp up around the start of November is one similarity they do share. A full international tour brings its own bulging sack of pressures: selection, performance, training, media and sponsor commitments, and a near-constant stream of travel and hotels. Day in, day out, same routine, same faces, same tracksuit. Doesn’t sound like Christmas at all…
Poor, poor players you might sco.. It’s their chosen job of course, and a privileged one at that, with the modern players handsomely remunerated for their sacrifices. But it would take a Scrooge-like soul not to have a shred of sympathy for those involved.