New stripes

With last Thursday's Special General Meeting following the presentation evening the previous Friday, this week could be said to be the point at which the 2011 season properly ends and next season begins. A Special General Meeting sounds a little bureaucratic and pretty far removed from anything that happens on a cricket field, but it is in fact the meeting at which we as a cricket section choose our captains and committee for the coming season.

The presentation evening was a good night, with everyone having a good time. I took my girlfriend along and she enjoyed getting to know all my team-mates. Each captain in turn gave their review of the season and selected their player of the season. I got an honourable mention as "most improved" for the 4ths, while Shaun got the award (quite rightly) for his batting and keeping. I had a little cameo on the microphone as I gave a brief review of the tour, and it seemed to go down well. There was a little bit of fun at the end as we had a "True or False" game (there's several rounds, each round you each guess true or false. If you're wrong you sit down and the last person standing wins) where two of the questions involved me - firstly did 4th team captain Sam register more ducks this season than me? (he did) and secondly did Wilko take more wickets than me? (he didn't).

On to the SGM. We re-elected the Chairman, Club Secretary and Team Secretary pretty quickly and moved on to the Captains. The 1st team Captaincy was left to a later date as no-one volunteered and it wasn't entirely clear who would be capable amongst the team. The 2nd and 3rd team Captains were both re-appointed unopposed, so it was only the 4th team that had a contest. I had thought about having a go for the 4th team Captaincy earlier in the season, but having captained the tour game I decided I simply didn't have enough matches under my belt and I wasn't really in a position to do the job as well as I would want to, so I didn't go looking for nominees.

Then, earlier in the day, I'd had a text from Manu urging me to consider captaining the Sunday team but that was always going to be a non-runner - as long as my Grandmother's alive I'm not going to be available more than every other Sunday - so then he suggested the 4th team, so again I said I didn't feel I had enough experience or confidence. Still he urged me on. Back to the meeting, and when the 4th team captaincy came up for discussion Manu looked across to me as if to say "do you fancy a go?" and I looked back with an expression of "it's up to you" so after Dan was nominated and seconded Manu nominated me and a seconder piped up.

Chigsy was also nominated but he's in Sweden, so only Dan and myself where able to make a pitch for the job. I went first, and the gist of what I had to say was that while I hadn't sought the nomination I would accept it, that I did covet the job of captain, but I felt in myself that I was too inexperienced and not established enough within the side, nevertheless if people thought I was being a bit wet then they could vote accordingly. Dan's pitch was perhaps less well-presented but he said more than I did about exactly what he wanted to do with the team. Neither of these features were surprising given that my job involves a fair amount of public speaking, and that he wanted the job and I wasn't too bothered.

Dan and myself stepped out while the voting took place, and when were were invited back in it was announced that Dan had been selected. Dan came over to shake my hand, which was a nice touch, and while my emotions were ever so slightly mixed I was predominantly relieved not to have been given a job I wasn't sure I could satisfactorily perform. Sam was elected as Sunday captain, and while the remaining committee members were elected (of which I'm one) me and Dan went outside for a smoke and Dan said I'd be Vice-Captain and we started to chat about how things would be run.

I'll still better give Dan the chance to change his mind just in case something comes up. Still, assuming I do get that role, I'm very much looking forward to what it will involve next year. Dan and myself seem to see eye to eye on most things, and since I had already had thoughts about how I would captain the side, I can suggest a few of them to Dan and see what he thinks. I'm not sure Dan's done much captaincy before so it'll be an interesting adventure for both of us, and I really want to be as much use to him as I can be.