Luis Reece: The Derbyshire allrounder making a difference on and off the field

NICK FRIEND: By nature, Reece is no exhibitionist. Rather, the blue hair, the bleached hair, the ginger beard – all have been challenges through which to raise funds for tackling mental illness and cardiac risk

Pinned to the top of Luis Reece’s Twitter profile is a message. ‘How crazy do you want my beard to look?’ it asks. ‘What would I look like if my beard, eyebrows and hair were all dyed?’

In recent years, Derbyshire have rarely found themselves at the centre of domestic showpiece events. Yet, as they journeyed towards a maiden appearance at T20 Finals Day in September, Reece did so with an ever-changing appearance.

When his side saw off Gloucestershire in a landmark quarter-final – a result that brought to an end the club’s wait for an overdue Edgbaston date, Reece sported a blue head of hair. Come Finals Day, the blue had been replaced with a bleached sheen. Beforehand, through the crux of the season, he had sported a ginger beard.

By nature, he is no exhibitionist. Rather, his unusual summer makeover represented part of a yearlong charity drive from the 29-year-old allrounder aimed at tackling a pair of issues close to his heart, while raising money for three separate organisations in the process.

He has split all funds raised thus far between mental health charity MIND, cardiac risk awareness charity CRY and the Professional Cricketers’ Trust.

If this was a journey that began in earnest after breaking his foot in May 2018 during a One-Day Cup clash with Yorkshire – an injury that all but ended a season and left Reece with little to focus on, its foundations lie in his own personal circumstances and a personal battle with mental health struggles.

“It is quite common and it is around everyday life now,” he says. “I think people feel a bit freer to speak about it now. There is still a stigma there but it is dying away a bit more.

“Most people, if you ask, are affected in one way or another – whether through knowing someone or they personally have gone through it. Although you can’t see mental health problems like a common cold or an illness, it is still there and it can be a very dark and lonely place.

“I think the more that people speak up about it and realise it is nothing to be ashamed of or to hide from, the better it will be. More and more people will keep coming out and seeking help.

“As a result of that, you hope that fewer people will get to the stage where they feel like they can’t carry on or go and do other drastic things that perhaps could have been avoided if they had the support network to talk about it.”

It is no competition, of course, but few sports can claim to have done as much as cricket in recent years to open up on the subject, to recognise it for what it is and to dispel any lasting sense of shame.

^{Reece's all-round exploits in 2019 have earned him a Hundred contract}

Reece references the example of Marcus Trescothick, whose retirement at the end of the season gave the cricketing world the opportunity to pay tribute to one of the English game’s most significant cricketers. The precedent set by his like, Reece reflects, has made it easier for others – himself included – to speak out.

It is why he values the Professional Cricketers’ Trust so highly – “If there is anything we need, they are right there supporting us all the way,” he explains.

The charity provides ‘support for PCA members and their immediate families when they need it most’, according to the strapline on its website. Recently, the PCA relaunched its mental wellbeing app in partnership with Thrive, an NHS-approved smartphone platform.

“You can speak to every county cricketer and every former pro and they will tell you how great they are at supporting us,” he adds.

“I’m no different – it’s not a secret that I’ve struggled with mental health stuff. It’s something that I’ve probably continued to suffer with throughout my whole career and they have been superb at working with me and helping me get the right guidance and the right treatment for me.

“Without them, I probably wouldn’t still be in the game now because like many who suffer with mental health stuff, there are a lot of highs and a lot of lows. Sometimes, you don’t know which way to turn.”

While his fundraising tasks once the season began in earnest were limited to his facial hair, others have been far more physically taxing. He began with a Top Gear-style race from London to Bolton, with Reece restricted to public transport, while an opposing team took a car. It also involved an en-route scavenger hunt and a public song.

He has since performed a 10km run through Derby dressed in full batting gear, as well as eating a scotch bonnet chilli. Unsurprisingly, he was handed the club’s Spirit of Cricket Award for his off-field work.

Yet, there is a rare self-awareness to Reece and the way in which he analyses and looks back upon the nuances of mental health.

He has included MIND as one of his charities of choice to highlight an understanding of his own fortune – not everyone, after all, has a ready-made support system to fall back on.

“I didn’t want it just to be cricketers getting the help,” he explains. “Everyday people without any interest in cricket whatsoever suffer with mental health issues in life and unfortunately, the availability of these treatments or people to speak to isn’t as accessible as what it was for me.

“I wanted to help to raise money to help towards getting people able to see people when they really need it. Hopefully, moving forward and in years to come, these people become more accessible.”

^{Reece recorded his personal best with the bat against Sussex, having taken five wickets earlier in the match}

As with so many who have faced their own struggle, one of Reece’s difficulties has been in tracing back the origins. It is something he has discussed with experts, though there is no definitive answer.

It leads him to CRY, the third beneficiary of his fundraising drive. The organisation’s focus is on raising awareness of sudden cardiac death in young people.

It is a cause that resonates with Reece, who lost Tom Hardman, a close friend and former teammate, in 2012. Hardman had been named as captain of Leeds Bradford MCCU before his passing; he and Reece had represented Lancashire’s academy together, as well as their university. It was a tragedy that hit him hard.

“He was definitely a very popular member of the team,” he recalls of his late friend. Reece would captain the university the following year – a poignant accolade in itself. There remains an audible emotion to his words as he looks back upon a time seven years ago that he has never allowed himself to forget.

“It was just a way to help raise money to try to help people become aware of heart defects and stuff like that before you get to these tragic places, where someone as kind-hearted and as talented as Tom passed away.

“His passing is definitely something that has affected me in a big way. Tom was very close to me and I definitely took it badly not in terms of the way I handled things, but I didn’t accept it or try to give myself time to get over it.

“I just tried to carry on and I tried to stay focused on everything else. It’s like everything really; if you try to hide and run away from things, eventually they catch up with you and get on top of you. It certainly got on top of me.”

Finally it's gone!! Before, during, after! Massive thankyou to @hartleybarber @CricketersTrust @DerbyshireCCC pic.twitter.com/hjVgM7jHXJ

— luis reece (@lreece17) August 1, 2019

Since joining Derbyshire, however, Reece has found a home. He has signed a new deal on the back of a fine year with both bat and ball – a decision he puts down to a camaraderie between player and club. A tightknit community has been crucial to his own state of mind.

“Everyone is so friendly,” he says. “Even at the top of the hierarchy everyone is really supportive and I think that is quite rare in a workplace, let alone in an environment where results are a massive thing.

“It’s something I fell in love with as soon as I came to Derby and it was a contributing factor in me signing a longer contract.”

In many ways, Reece is somewhat unique as a modern-day cricketer. In red-ball cricket, he has forged himself an almost unprecedented role opening both the batting and bowling.

It is the position of childhood dreams – the ‘my ball, my game’ world, but a tough gig, nevertheless, physically as much as mentally.

Ultimately, nobody took more Derbyshire wickets in the County Championship than Reece with his left-arm seamers, while only the ever-consistent pair of Wayne Madsen and Billy Godleman churned out more red-ball runs.

In the penultimate game of the campaign, Reece followed a five-wicket haul, in which he dismantled Sussex’s top order, with a run-a-ball 184 as he and Godleman put on 274 for the first wicket against a much-vaunted bowling attack.

It is the most fluently he has ever played, he acknowledges, while praising Godleman; the club captain scored 1,982 runs across all competitions in 2019.

^{Reece was a key member of the Derbyshire side that reached T20 Finals Day for the first time}

Having rarely bowled during his time at Lancashire, there can be little argument with the notion that the county circuit is finally seeing the very best version of himself.

He was a bowler who batted until his time at university – he has a 10-wicket match haul in an MCCU win against Sussex as proof – when it was suggested to him that his best route into the professional game might be through his batting. That became the logic on which Lancashire re-signed him, having initially let him go as a teenager.

“Unfortunately, whether they didn’t rate my bowling or didn’t see it as an asset, at Lancs I didn’t get that many opportunities to bowl week in, week out there,” he recalls.

“As someone who enjoyed both facets of the game, sometimes if you are going through a bit of a lean trot with the ball, that bat can carry you through and vice versa. When I came to Derby, I got handed a bit of responsibility and a lot of faith, which every cricketer really desires.

“Usually, if you give a cricketer a bit of faith and a bit of support, then they’ll flourish. Derby have welcomed me in with open arms to the club – it has been a work in progress and it will continue to be a work in progress in terms of trying to increase my skill and my attributes as a bowler, as I do with my batting.

“Hopefully, there’s more to come from my game and it’s not just a one-year thing. I want it to be here to stay and to continue getting better from year to year.”

The reward for a terrific season came in the form of a £30,000 contract in The Hundred with Shane Warne’s London Spirit squad. He is one of four Derbyshire players to have been picked up in the draft, a marker of a changing in attitudes towards Dave Houghton’s side.

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when little was thought of the county, that they represented easy pickings. Recent campaigns, therefore, have represented something of a paradigm shift, with September’s trip to Finals Day a milestone occasion, even if they were outclassed by eventual winners Essex.

“I know it’s Derbyshire and we’re not a Test venue and all that sort of stuff, but we don’t see ourselves at Derby as a small county,” Reece stresses.

“That’s something we’ve tried to transform; we’ve tried to change that outlook. Slowly but surely, we’re seeing that people don’t just see us as whipping boys or people that you can just come and rock up against and things will all be easy.

“Part of what we’ve done over the last few years – and hopefully building in the next few years – will be that we can lock horns with the biggest counties and we can get results against them. We thrive on people seeing us as underdogs or seeing us as an easy target.

“I think we enjoy proving people wrong. That’s the great thing; we don’t see ourselves as that. We don’t want to be seen as that – that’s the motivation going forward: having pride in our club. Derbyshire haven’t had silverware in recent years but we are desperate for it.

“We’ve got the right people in place and hopefully in the next few years, we can get ourselves in positions where we can start bringing silverware home and people can actually see what we see.”