Ealing CC Academy - The Captain's Perspective
Mylo Wilkin writes his thoughts on becoming Ealing CC Academy Captain
I was a four-foot nothing, long blond, floppy-haired 10 year old when I embarked on my first Academy training session. A fledgling keeper-batsman with boundless enthusiasm and never-ending zeal for the game I had been playing since I was about 0. Having only ever been to age-group training, practising with boys eight or nine years my senior was not to be underestimated as a challenge. At first, the 19 year-old superiors may have frowned upon awestruck staring as they ran in to bowl, but I immediately earned a degree of respect when they first saw me keep-wicket. They realised I was a young talent, something I had in common with everyone present...
Eight-and-a-half years on and I have risen through the ranks to become Academy captain, an honour only bestowed upon a select handful before me. This means it has become partly my responsibility to oversee these new members to the team, the initial fear oh so reminiscent as they turn up on the cold, wet, windy late March evening, the pristineness of their whites still intact.
Everybody in the Academy knows they are the potential future, and all dream and aspire to follow in the footsteps of Ned Eckersley and Ravi Patel in breaking into the First Team, the most successful side in the country. Having had my first few opportunities this year, playing in six 1st XI games, including the League-winning match vs Southgate in late August, followed emphatically by being asked to be 12th man in the Evening Standard final and, as a result, being on that balcony when Blanny hit the winning run in possibly the greatest spectacle an Ealing crowd will be privileged enough to see. I fielded three balls in that final and took four catches and two stumpings in the League, a good percentage of which I must credit to my previous eight years in an Academy shirt...
Not many, if any, 10 year-old cricketers will be keeping-wicket to Middlesex U19 opening bowlers, or having a bin strategically placed behind me so I couldn't back away as people nearly twice my age tried to remove a couple of brain-cells. However, nothing compares to the undoubtedly most dreaded two words uttered on in a training session...'pressure catch'... The whole congregation gathers as you take a steepling, snow-capped catch, the result if one fails is the torment and torture of a 'timed lap'. I have felt more nervous taking a pressure catch in training than grasping a skier at Long-On in front of 300 spectators, and for this reason, you don't drop them when it really matters.
Further to this timed-lap pressure, there is an added incentive for the senior players to do these fielding drills perfectly: When I was 12, I was inspired no-end by watching the older members fizzing the ball across the ground and clutching anything which flew at them, enthusing me to lift my game and compete on a similar level. Now being the most senior player, I know I will be being scrutinised, an added pressure to further my own practice sessions. Knowing just how much influence I might have on the next generation of cricketers is serenely comparable to coaching on Friday evenings, but to be able to train with them and bowl at equally as talented youngsters as I was nearly nine years ago is an honour just as much as it is a privilege.
Mylo Wilkin
Captain - Ealing CC Academy
