I caught up with the master blaster himself, T20 cricketer Chris Lynn, earlier in the week.
He had arrived home from a stint in Abu Dhabi, with the Mumbai Indians, after the Indian Premier League was moved from India.
Lynn’s cricket ability is only surpassed by his quick wit.
He was telling me that he only played one game in which he scored 49 runs, but he also ran out his team captain Rohit Sharma. When he got his award in the dressing room he chirped that it would probably be the only game he played and he was right.
In actual fact, he didn’t make it into the side for the rest of the tournament.
With a limit on international players, he got replaced by Quinton de Kock because of his ability to also keep wickets, as an insurance against their keeper getting injured.
So Chris played 17 rounds of golf and got his handicap down to 10 while he was in Abu Dhabi and he got paid for it, not bad.
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There is a downside though. He spent 15 weeks in isolation during the past 18 months due to all of his travel.
I look forward to seeing a pumped Lynn in the Big Bash League for a couple of reasons.
It will precede the next IPL auction, so it will be important dollar wise, and he tells me the isolation has also given him time to reflect on his mental approach to cricket.
He has been working with a sports psychologist during the last few isolations and is really confident that he will be a more patient player and be more positive. I can’t wait to see the 2022 version of the master blaster.
Salute to a former Swan
I got some really sad news last Sunday when I heard that Mark Cumming passed away, which was obviously a massive shock for his family and friends.
I knew Mark when he came to the Maroochydore Swans rugby league club back in 1986 when he was just a kid.
He had a lot of bad luck with injuries but was a very talented footy player who gave so much to the Swans over his career.
He represented Wide Bay as an Under-19 player and played in the Sunshine Coast Falcons rep team.
He debuted in the Falcons side as a winger and an old clipping quoted him as saying that “They probably threw me on there because I was so tall, but I was just happy to get a run.”
He won an A-grade premiership in 1996 before having to retire the next season due to injury, but he always stayed involved with the club.
He went on to coach his son Tyler and his nephew Aaron from 2009 to 2010 at the Maroochydore junior rugby league club.
Mark was an important part of the Maroochy Old Boys which maintained a strong bond with past team-mates, who I know are all really hurting at the moment as this passing is so hard to understand.
I was 13 years older than Mark so to be truthful I didn’t know him that well but in my dealings with him he was just a bloody good bloke.
I did find out this week we did have something else in common – he owned a GT Falcon which makes him an even better bloke, as so did I.
Mark leaves behind three boys and a grandchild, with another on the way, and if you can help his grieving family please go to this website, and share the link as we never know when something like this can happen to someone we love, just like Mark.
