Young cricketers life

Last summer on the 18th June Tom Maynard died, after being chased by police officers he ended up being electrocuted on some railway tracks before being hit by a train. For those of you who do not know the story, Tom was only 22 and in his second season at Surrey County Cricket Club. He and his flat mate Rory Hamilton Brown were out that evening in Wandsworth London following the loss of a twenty twenty game.

The post-mortem examination revealed to a jury today that Tom was 3 times over the drink driving limit. Police officers were chasing him as they had seen him drive dangerously. He was also to have had cocaine present in his system.

While there are many different things that could be discussed regarding this story I have decided to take the line how unique and confusing a young cricketers life can be. In Andrew Flintoff's autobiography he discussed the problems he had when he was a young cricketer at Lancashire mentioning the club game him very little support when settling into a flat in Manchester on his own at just 19 years old. This lead to Flintoff having late nights eating take aways and drinking excessively and we know the consequences of this when Flintoff was ridiculed for his size in 2000/ 2001. Luckily Flintoff had the opportunity to turn his youthful mistakes around unfortunately Maynard will not.

Like Flintoff Maynard was a young lad living in a big city away from home for the very first time and with this comes many temptations. Surrey as a club had put some measures in place to help Tom with the maturing process such as sharing a flat with Lions team mate and club captain Hamilton Brown. With the thinking they could support one and other with their quest to play for England and Hamilton Brown could keep an eye on his young team mate. However the week before the accident both Hamilton Brown and Maynard were warned by the club for their late nights and drinking before a championship game. Yet no serious measures were taken to prevent what happened a week later.

Now I'm not suggesting all the blame lies at the door step of Surrey County cricket club in fact Tom himself needs to take some blame like wise his team mates who were out with him that night. I do believe county cricket clubs need to help young players make this transition when they move out of home have lots of money and the temptation of the big city. I was pleased to hear Surrey have announced some form of recreational drug screening today hopefully to act as deterrent not to take these substances. Clubs should also consider players schedules thinking about when they have free time and when they do not. Living accommodations maybe a young player sharing with the overseas pro. Could you imagine this scenario occurring if Maynard shared a flat with Surrey's club captain this year Graeme Smith. Most importantly teach this young players what it means to be a professional cricket commitment in your playing life and social, lifestyle, diet, training etc.

I hope this harsh lesson learnt can be a wake up call for county cricket clubs rather than just looked upon as a young immature cricketer making a mistake and clubs put some guidelines in place to support these young players.