Rewrites, new angles and best laid plans... the unglamorous existence of a freelance cricket reporter

PAUL EDWARDS: Ben Stokes, Finn Allen and Sarah Taylor all in a matter of days. But the life of a pen for hire is far from romantic

When that long first tranche of LV=Insurance County Championship matches ended on June 6 I thought my working routine would change for a few weeks. The plan was that I should cover the occasional T20 Blast game at Emirates Old Trafford or Headingley and actually live in the flat on which I pay a mortgage.

To a degree I was right but the last week has been so remarkable, and also so accurate a reflection of my trade that I’ve decided to share it with you. This is done with no sense of vanity or achievement whatsoever but rather in the hope that it might cast some light on freelance sports journalism. If I thought anyone came out of it badly, I wouldn’t be doing it. If you expect some secrets to be revealed or scandal exposed, you’re reading the wrong column.

My original schedule had me covering just one match in the week beginning June 7. That was Lancashire’s Blast game against Leicestershire on June 10, when I would be writing a report and getting quotes for the ECB Network, which currently supplies copy to the national and local papers, most of whom do not have a hope of sending journalists to every match. (This was not always the case. Unless it is Premier League football, coverage of local sport has withered in many regional papers. You may have noticed. But maybe that’s a column for another day.)

Then my plans were changed for the first time. One of my employers asked if I’d go to Lancashire’s opening Blast match of the season against Derbyshire on June 9. The game was probably worth covering in any case but the real spice was provided by the fact that Jos Buttler would be making his first appearance for his nominal county since September 2018. (Please note the added value a star name always gives to a relatively ordinary fixture. It will be a theme).

^{Old Trafford - a boundary worth respecting}

But of course, there is really no such thing as a “relatively ordinary fixture”. I’ve never attended a match, never mind played in one, that did not add to my understanding of the game in some significant way. Last Wednesday (June 9) this factor was provided by Liam Livingstone, whose unbeaten 94 was largely responsible for his side overhauling Derbyshire’s 168 for 7 with three balls to spare. So after properly noting Buttler’s contribution to the game – he made 30 before reverse-sweeping Luis Reece to Fynn Hudson-Prentice at short third-man – I wrote about Livingstone and how he remains one of English cricket’s unrealised talents.

I’d decided to stay in Manchester overnight on June 9 but even before I made those arrangements my plans had been changed once more. On the last day of Yorkshire’s championship game against Sussex word had reached us that Ben Stokes might make his comeback from injury in the game at the Riverside the following Friday (June 11).

I contacted another employer and asked if they wanted me there. I didn’t have to wait long for the reply. Stokes is box-office par excellence. He has proved himself capable of changing the course of Test matches. He is the player to whom the other players look for inspiration and wordless leadership. He does not need to be England captain. If he was playing, the paper wanted to know about it.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. On June 10, I spent the morning writing a different piece about the four-day Roses Match and then went to Emirates Old Trafford for the Leicestershire game. I arrived about two hours before stumps were due to be pitched. This is not my usual habit. I’m normally earlier and after a T20 it’s rare for me to leave a ground before about 11pm.

Anyway, I’ll always remember one innings from that match, which Lancashire won by 16 runs, and also one shot. The innings was played by the New Zealand opener, Finn Allen, whose 51-ball 73 not out revealed a formidable cricketing intelligence and an appreciation of the dimensions of the ground.

Put simply, in T20 matches at Old Trafford at least one of the square boundaries is likely to be huge. If you take it on, make sure you middle the ball but – fogey klaxon – it’s often better to keep the thing on the ground. Allen hit seven fours and one six in his innings but Lancashire’s 172 for 8 immediately looked vulnerable when Scott Steel and Josh Inglis put on 47 in 4.4 overs. Inglis, who plays for the Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League, got off the mark with a pulled four off Tom Bailey. These things are relative but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a cricket ball hit harder. It was a snapshot of the modern game in all its brutality.

The next morning I packed the bags and made my way to Wigan, where I was to be picked up for the journey to Chester-le-Street, arriving in time to see Stokes bowling in a net on the outfield. Over the preceding 48 hours, it had become clear that the England all-rounder would not be playing in the game but my presence on the ground was immediately justified. I watched closely as Stokes bowled, fielded and then did some shuttle runs. It seemed to me that he expended just as much effort as any player would in a tense game. Half measures are anathematic to him. In any event, there was my piece. I was asked for 300 words and only about half of them concerned Durham’s victory. An England angle will always drive a story for a national paper.

We went back to Leeds that evening and I checked in at my hotel at around 12.15am. My colleague was due to be covering a game in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy on Saturday (June 12) whereas my intention was to go home and watch my club play a league match at Ormskirk. Except those plans had changed again.

^{Finn Allen has taken his international form into the Blast}

Northern Diamonds were having something of a wicketkeeping crisis and had signed Sarah Taylor. Yet again I didn’t have to offer my availability for long. Taylor retired from international cricket nearly two years ago and her return was plainly noteworthy. I was asked to write a piece about her and not to worry about the match report. That could be carried separately.

As things turned out, Taylor kept excellently, conceding no byes but dropping what would have been a stunning catch off the eighth ball of the game. She then made two runs before being bowled but Diamonds won a terrific match thanks to fifties from Sterre Kalis, Jenny Gunn and Beth Langston. I went down to pitchside to speak to Taylor.

“But she’s not done anything!” said Dani Hazell, the Diamonds coach.  Very true, of course, and also not very true. We did speak to Langston and Kalis and also to Taylor. All three were excellent and Taylor was plainly delighted to be back now that playing cricket was only one of the things in her life rather than the sole focus. The burden of expectation had fallen away. She’s now a teacher and a coach who will play the game when she can. It was my privilege to write about her.

But then privilege is really the hidden theme of this piece. Buttler and Stokes are world-class cricketers; Taylor was once regarded as the best wicketkeeper on the planet and you could see why; God knows what lies ahead for Livingstone, Inglis and Allen. But I got the chance to watch them for free and someone even paid me for doing so.

And there is a predictable appendix to all this activity. I got back to Southport at about 10pm on Saturday evening and the following morning I woke up in my own home on a Sunday (June 13) morning for the first time since April 4. I made some coffee, noted that a loaf had turned green, ambled about a bit, collected the papers and checked my emails. One of them asked if I could cover the Blast game between Lancashire and Nottinghamshire on June 20. I said yes.