Why I love cricket: Toby Tarrant

I went to Milbourne Lodge School in Surrey and I hated it. I arrived wanting to play professional football even though I had the turning circle of an oil tanker. I saw these kids playing cricket and I gave it a wide birth. I ended up moving to Parkside where you had to play. Like every kid getting into cricket for the first time I didn’t understand the rules. I picked up a ball and it went vaguely in the direction I wanted it to go. Cricket is like a secret society. Once you get it you fall completely in love.

My mum is Norwegian but I can’t stand the cold. Football and rugby, you always had to play in the freezing cold. With cricket, I realised that it’s normally glorious sunshine, and if it isn’t you go inside and eat instead. That was made for me.

I quickly realised I could bowl other kids out. I never really had that euphoric moment in sport before so once you start bowling people you suddenly become arrogant. 

We toured Barbados when I was 13 and I turned up thinking I was quite quick. I used to be your typical snarly fast bowler. And then you face a 6ft 4in guy with a full-blown beard bowling 90mph at your head. I’d love to have seen a birth certificate. There were times we had to play some teams twice a day just to make the whole thing worthwhile.

^{Allan Donald}

Parkside had a huge link with Stoke d’Abernon CC, where I still play today. After going to cricket camps I got my trial for Surrey juniors. I was convinced that if I got through, I’d be a professional and that was my life sorted. But as soon as I got there, I realised there was this gulf in class. I opened the bowling with Matt Dunn for Surrey Under-14s, and he was 20mph quicker than me. I realised I’d hit my peak.

At the trial there was this kid at the time who was really cocky and mouthy called Rob opening the batting. Everyone knew he’d scored runs for fun at youth level. I hated this kid. I got him out for an eight-ball duck and fast-forward a few years and we ended up at the same school together and we’re now best mates. But I’ll never forget ending his Surrey career aged 14.

I went through the age groups but then you reach a stage where you have a decision to make. Life starts getting in the way and you realise you can go to the pub on a Saturday instead of getting carted around the park. Since I moved to Radio X in London I’ve never appreciated cricket more. Six years ago, I opted out of the start of a season. It got to the first Saturday and I remember waking up in my flat, hungover, and I was in my pants eating cereal and watching TV. I thought ‘what social life do I think cricket is getting in the way of’? Tail between my legs I called up my skipper and said I’d be available for the rest of the season.

When I go and play for Lord’s Taverners I end up looking quite good because it is usually with a few guys who haven’t picked up a bat in 50 years. I played in a game at Windsor Castle with Allan Donald. He’d only been retired a couple of years and the ball was fizzing out of his hand off three paces. The stumps were flying three feet back.

^{England's World Cup}

I got good at cricket playing against my dad in the garden. He used to have all these made-up characters to bowl at me. ‘Tweaker-Thompson’ would produce little off-breaks and ‘Beamer-Bob’ would bowl straight at my head. I think in there somewhere was an attempt at character building. It hasn’t worked because I’m still terrified of a cricket ball now.

We played a charity game together at Lord’s and Dad and I opened the batting. The photo of us walking onto the outfield is framed and has pride of place in his living room. We were so lucky. He’s much better in the bar nowadays but we had a good few crossover years.

Give me a Test match any day of the week. I’m a Liverpool fan and I watch them home and away, but I’d be torn if you told me I could only stand in the Kop or watch a day of Test cricket again for the rest of my life. For all the passion of football, there is nothing that can beat a day in the sunshine watching a Test.

I watched the entire England World Cup campaign from the Radio X studio. My dad had a summer party on the day of the final and got a huge screen driven in. Branches had to be cut away to get it down the road. It was like being at the IMAX. Me and my dad hugging and jumping up and down when England won ranks up there as one of the best moments of my life. He let me have a glass of champagne when the Ashes were regained in 2005 and we had one for the World Cup win too.

This article was published in the March edition of The Cricketer - the home of the best cricket analysis and commentary, covering the international, county, women's and amateur game