Hello and welcome to Stumped, your intercontinental hit of news, features,
and debate from the quirky world of cricket. I'm Alison Mitchell in London and there's a
Test match going on at Yorkshire County Cricket Club up at Headingley in Leeds. That's the club
which is looking to reform in the midst of ongoing racism allegations. Meanwhile, looking across the
Atlantic, noting that in the Caribbean there is a new Sixty cricket tournament starting,
so not even The Hundred; sixty balls, although it's not that much different to a T10 tournament,
which already takes place in some places, and ten over the six balls each but this has got
different rules. It is only a small tournament at the moment and they're not dispensing with the T20
Caribbean Premier League, but an interesting development, nonetheless. And since I last spoke
to you, we've had gorgeous weather here in the UK and I managed to do a bit of paddle boarding
and getting back on the horse as well. So, I've been absolutely making the most of it.
Jim Maxwell in Sydney. I suppose the word that goes out at the moment, and we'll get to
that subject at some point as we travel is Lisa Sthalekar - the first woman to be made president
of the Professional Cricketers' Association. What a big development that is for cricket
and specifically, of course, women's cricket. Well done, Lisa! Terrific!
Yeah, well done Lisa! This is Sunil Gupta for All India Radio in New Delhi, and you were talking about the weather in
England, Ali. I remember Jim talking about the rain in Sydney many, many months ago. In Delhi,
it was very hot. I don t know whether you remember that song by America called A Horse
with No Name? There are four lines in it which says: "The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz;
And the sky with no clouds; The heat was hot, and the ground was dry; But the air was full of sound."
And I can tell you that sums up Delhi and north India especially. Nevertheless, the other hot
topic in India, of course, is the composition of the T20 World Cup team that's flying around
and the big name that's doing the rounds is none other than DK - Dinesh Karthik - who I can't recall
maybe Jim and Ali, you can tell me. Anybody who from cricket commentary, international panel
of TV commentators went back and played for the national team? If T20 or any other international game.
This is fairytale stuff that's happening. Lot's going on, that's for sure. Sunil, great to have
you with us again. We've got lots to get stuck into this week. So, let's start off with the fact
that the life of a cricketer can be chaotic at the best of times. Now, just imagine starting
the year playing in the Pakistan Super League, then crossing to the Indian Premier League.
No time for a stop because you're straight back to England for the T20 Blast and The Hundred,
but that is not the end because there's even more air miles then, flying across the world take part
in Australia's Big Bash League before making it into your country's squad for the T20 World Cup.
Welcome to the life of Australian cricketer, Dan Christian. Or I should say what should
have been the life of Dan Christian. Like many, the global Covid-19 pandemic really changed his
schedule in the last year, confined him to bio-bubbles and forced he and his pregnant
partner Jorgia to find some way of living a "normal life" preparing for parenthood in
far from ideal circumstances but they got through it. A few days ago, Jim, Charu Sharma and I spoke
to Dan and began by asking him about one of the key themes in the book, which is his indigenous heritage.
It's something I've always been really proud of and that was drummed into me as a child
through my dad's side of the family. I've always grown up knowing about it and being taught to be
proud of it. So that's just carried on through my adult life. Funnily enough,
it's become more prevalent, really in cricket circles, I guess in the last five years or so.
I think as a society or particularly as a sport, we've become much more
tolerant and open of people from other backgrounds. So, that's one thing that
the indigenous stuff's been a bit more prevalent for me. I guess the last few years and
be a bit more vocal and on the way that Cricket Australia are progressing in that space. Yes,
so Gideon and I touched on it a bit at different stages throughout the book. There's obviously a
few things have happened in the last couple of years with the way that Cricket Australia
have progressed the space - the Johnny Mullagh medal - Scott Boland winning that last year was
fantastic. Ash Gardener's progression as a player and how vocal she is in the space as well. I just
think it's all going in a really a really nice direction. And you played a role, didn't you, in
the decision that was made by the Australian team to kneel when the West Indies team were touring?
Yeah. We spoke about it a lot. There was a bit of blow back with the Australian team
last year, or two years ago when they came over to England to play that one-day series. I
spoke to Aaron Finch a lot about it, and basically my stance around that stage was if the West
Indies are going to do it and we are going - they're hosting us - then I think we should be
basically following whatever their lead is and respecting whatever line they want to take,
really. As long as it's not too extreme, which of course, it's not going to be. Yeah. So that was,
from my perspective, a pretty easy decision for us to take that to go down that path and all the boys
were really receptive to it. Yeah, that's a reasonably minor gesture, I think. It's
such an easy thing to do it just to kneel but it shows so much respect for how strongly the other teas feel about it.
It's been a crazy couple of years for everybody, Dan. You were there
for the birth of your daughter, Harper. There's a lovely picture in the book with the caption
"Born 12 hours after I finished a game and 48 before leaving for the next." It must have been a
ridiculous time for you. And how special a time, and yet you couldn't really eat into it, could
you? You had to run away over again. Yeah, that was one of the beauties,
I guess of... Jorgia had a Caesarean, which was all planned and she's been so accommodating and
still so accommodating, so she made sure that we had it perfectly in between games,
just to lessen the disruption on the both of us and meant that I was still able to play
and then be there for the birth as well. So, yeah. She's been amazing all the way through,
really lucky for me. We had games. I was lucky we had a game in Sydney and the day before
and then a couple of days after were down in Launceston for a quick fly in and fly out,
and she and she almost pushed me out the door and told me to go. She had the midwives looking after her and
there's not much I can do really at that stage. So, yeah, she was fantastic.
You end the book by saying this was the year that your life finally broke through your career. Just expand and clarify
what you mean by that exactly. Beautifully written by Gideon, that piece. I just think
I've put so much time and effort into cricket over the last almost twenty years or so now and
I guess, having now had that life change of having a daughter, your whole perspective on everything
changes. Cricket's always been number one for me and everything else has been number two. Whereas
I've just had this instant change where Harper's number one and
everything about her and her wellbeing is first and foremost and everything else comes second. So,
as Gideon said he put it so beautifully saying that life's broken through cricket, finally.
Well, it's wonderful to know that life and family is front and centre for you now and it's a wonderful shift,
beautifully written by Gideon and beautifully communicated by you Dan and all your conversations
with him. Thanks for sharing your story with us on Stumped. I think it's quite an important one to
communicate as well giving that insight, so thank you very much for being with us.
Thanks everyone, cheers.
Next on Stumped, If you remember the early hours of the 24th February, Russian forces invaded Ukraine. They entered from the
north, south and east with a key target of the war to capture the capital, Kyiv. Now, the chief executive of the
Ukraine Cricket Federation, Kobus Olivier, was living in Kyiv and taking his four dogs for a walk when he heard bombs and
missiles landing nearby and he spoke to us on Stumped that very morning.
We were walking outside and I heard about eighteen huge explosions like it was right next to me. So I knew immediately
what was happening. I rushed into the apartment and brought my dogs in. I heard they bombed, apparently, military
bases around Kyiv, and also Boryspil airport, so that was the blast we heard. As I'm sitting here,
they say the tanks are coming and there's video footage from Belarus, which has only two hours
away from Kyiv. The ground troops coming in with their tanks. Wow, that was quite extraordinary.
And those explosions that Kobus heard signalled the start of the invasion. Some residents
chose to flee to safety. Kobus, at the time, intended to stay in Kyiv and continue his work,
but the situation did soon escalate. I'm pleased to say, though, that four months on, Kobus is safe
and well and joins us now. Kobus, welcome back to Stumped. Hello, Alison. How are you?
I'm good, thank you. Thanks for having me back, lovely to talk to you guys. I'm a lot better than
I was, I think it's about four months ago, the last time I spoke to you. I'm a lot better. I'm
in Zagreb in Croatia with my four dogs. OK, so how did you get then from Ukraine to Croatia? Fill in that blank.
Sure, that's quite a blank. Yes, it is quite a journey. We ended up in the end,
they were bombing Bucha and Irpin, which is literally fifteen minutes down the road from me.
So, I understood at that time I have to get out, I can't stay. My original plan was to stay,
but I knew I had to get out. So, I paid a guy to drive us in his private car to a little
town called Ivano-Frankivsk in the west of Ukraine. It is very close to the Polish border.
I spent five days there in a refugee shelter with the dogs, in a school that they converted
into a shelter. I then, again, paid somebody to take me in a private car with me and the dogs
to take us across the border into Poland. I settled down in a little village outside
Warsaw, but then again, they changed the law. The Polish government changed the law and not
being a Ukrainian citizen, but only on temporary residency status, I had fifteen days, basically,
to leave Poland. So, at about eleven o'clock one night I had about two or three days left off my
stay in Poland. I bought a car with cash. I paid €1,000 and I bought an old station wagon 1996.
So, the next morning at Six o'clock, I had the dogs in the back, and I started
the trip to Croatia, which I thought was quite a good place to go. We drove through Hungary and at
the Hungarian border, I had problems again. They wouldn't let me out of Hungary because they said
I don't have a Schengen visa. They wouldn't listen to any explanation, so I got stuck there for about
three nights sleeping in my car. Eventually, my ambassador, the South African ambassador in
Ukraine stepped in and assisted me on a diplomatic level to get out of Hungary and into Croatia. I've
been here for about two months now in Zagreb, the capital. Goodness. You are an exceedingly
positive person, Kobus. Were there other times there where you did hit lows? That was quite an extraordinary journey.
I think my years of playing cricket as a player helped me a lot. You know,
cricket, you get your lows, but you've gotta come back. You can't give up. You take each day,
each innings at a time and I learned so much from my years playing cricket that I
actually applied in this difficult time. You go through a slump. I was an opening batsman.
I went to Scotland to play as a pro and my first four innings, I got zero, zero, zero, zero in
Glasgow. I just couldn't play on those wickets and the rain and the wet wicket. I came back and I
had a reasonably good season, so you always find a way. You improvise, you find a way, and you
survive and I think cricket has taught me so many lessons. Nice to see you again, Kobus. Hello, Jim.
It's clear you've had cricket on the sidelines for a bit, organising your life and your dogs, but I
understand that you have been teaching cricket to some refugees in Croatia. Tell us about that.
Yes, I just can't get away from cricket. Cricket follows me. I left Dubai and I went to Kyiv,
originally. I thought I need a break. I've done cricket for over forty years. I want to sell wine,
though I don't even drink, but I just thought I'd do something new for a change and then I got to
Croatia. I went for a walk in the park, literally, and I saw kids in the park and they were speaking
Ukrainian. I walked over to them, introduced myself and started speaking to the mums and
their kids and they were all refugees. I spoke to them and apparently there's about 13,000 Ukrainian
refugees in Croatia now and the majority are in Zagreb, being the capital. So, I got this idea. I
said to them 'if you want, I can speak to the guys at the Croatian Cricket Federation and get some
kit and we can play. We can start a bit of cricket in the park.' It would give the kids something to
do, and that just snowballed. Apparently, this has spawned something called the Ukrainian
Freedom Cup? Tell us about that. Yeah. So, I'm incredibly excited about it. I thought
when I saw the Ukrainian football team playing and you know the support from the whole country and
then Eurovision. I thought if I could do something similar, a little bit out of the box with these
kids. Most of them are between the ages of six and ten. Boys and girls. Can you imagine if you can
get them in Ukrainian uniforms with Ukrainian flag and they're actually representing their country,
Ukraine, how proud they will be? What it will mean to them, especially at this difficult time and I
get this idea of hosting. I've got the kids, yes, so I thought little host a Ukrainian Freedom Cup
for little kids Softball cricket, ages six to 12 and I've invited
the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary and also Serbia, four more countries to come and send their
teams of little youngsters to come and play and we'll have two teams from Ukraine.
Ukrainian refugee teams and one from Croatia, obviously. So, it'll be altogether close to six
countries being represented by the kids six to 10 years old and we're going to call it the Ukrainian
Freedom Cup. I hope that will be an annual event and hopefully in that...Next year, we can host it
in Ukraine in Kyiv. But we'll be hosting this one in Zagreb and I'm very excited about the
project and I have to say thanks so much for the MCC Foundation. They have been unbelievable
with the assistance and on that weekend, they will play a huge role in this Freedom Cup day.
Kobus, this is Sunil Gupta from New Delhi, India and I can tell you what I've heard
from you not just now, but in earlier interviews has been a huge inspiration.
The last time you were on Stumped, you've been in the process of applying for Ukraine's
associate membership with the ICC. As we know the war situation has continued
in the east of Ukraine, especially so what has happened with associate member status? Is there some hope you're getting it?
It's all on track. Our application is on the table with the ICC membership committee. They
will be meeting in Birmingham in the last week somewhere around the last week of July.
Our application is on the table. Obviously, a few of the criteria I hope they will adjust it a bit.
So everything is on track. We can't pre-empt it, but I'm incredibly optimistic.
Kobus, keep up your good work and we wish you well in Croatia and fingers crossed for the associate membership. That
is Kobus, the chief executive of the Ukraine Cricket Federation back on Stumped again.
That is it after this week's Stumped. My thanks to Jim Maxwell and to Sunil Gupta and of course
to all of you for listening. Do join us again next week, we'll see you, then. Bye for now.