Turku Indoor Tournament (or ?How we learned to stop losing and finally win at cricket!? by Turku CC)
To play a correct off drive to a half volley you need to give your bat high backswing, then your head and shoulders move, as one, to the line of the delivery. Next your front leg lands bent while your back leg stays straight, although the back foot is raised slightly towards the inside. The bat accelerates through the swing down to meet the ball and you crack the ball for four (well?theoretically). Elegant and simple! Well not so simple if you're Finnish and you've learnt to play from ex-pats who've forgotten all they learnt as kids except for bludgeoning the ball! Thus, with cricket in new cricketing nations, coaching is needed to rectify that. And coaching is what this success story is about?.
In November 2003, Turku Cricket Club (TCC) in Finland decided that they wanted to set up a junior team. Juniors need coaching though. Step forward the Finnish Cricket Association (FCA) and the ICC's EDP run though the Europe Office based at Lords, which provides assistance to those taking the game into schools in new territories. Hence, five months after TCC's junior team idea was conceived, a coach from the UK arrived via Lord's to run an Introductory Coaching course. The coach, Stuart Welch, arrived with the aim of teaching TCC and some local sports teachers how to teach youngsters the basics of cricket. Twelve hugely enjoyable hours of coaching later, everyone has learnt something new and most have learnt more than they have in their previous cricketing lives combined!
Although the aim was to take that knowledge and pass it on to the children being taught, for the next two weeks the players not only teach kids, they apply what they have learnt in their own practice. Importantly for TCC's player development there's the"Lord's Driving Game", games based on an underarm throw from a single saving position, games that teach different aspects of batting, bowling and running. All the games represent one skill and each skill is turned into a fun easy game for kids - or in this case adults. The adults improve rapidly. Practice becomes even more fun because of the structure and organisation.
The new knowledge had arrived at just the right time, as two weeks later TCC hosted the annual Finnish indoor tournament. Turku were rank outsiders for the tournament, having never won anything in their 11 year existence, but had gained a reputation for losing gracefully and serving elk curries or nothing at all for lunch. The tournament hall is 30m by 40m and there are some local rules such as 4 for a wide, or no ball ? not to be rebowled, an innings is only 4 overs, 8 a-side, all boundary shots count as 4, hit the roof and you're out. Otherwise it's cricket!
The tournament is limited to 10 teams from 8 clubs, and approximately a third of the players are Finnish. Three of the clubs have juniors playing for them. Women also play in one team and take deserved wickets. All are treated equally. In other words no one holds back and the playing is passionate and committed. There is gamesmanship but there's also generosity and acceptance of the umpires decision no matter what! There is also music, support, noise and colour. There are celebratory pitch invasions, air horns blaring and dancing on the pitch as teams gain unexpected victories. Old rivalries are re-ignited and new ones made!
Certain things stand out from the play. Empire CC are at their first tournamen, but their mixture of young and old is shown in a brilliant full length diving catch taken by a middle aged West Indian off the spin bowling of a Finn who hasn't started shaving yet! The all Finnish clubs MTS and MKK have obviously improved and plunder runs where last year they would have played air shots. Their bowling is more accurate and respect is given where once those teams would have been dismissed ? the MKK quarter final place is deserved. Yet what amazes most is the progress of TCC players ? we really do owe a debt to Stuart Welch. Timo of TCC A, who has spent only a short time playing, goes to the wicket with 10 needed off three deliveries: he plays off drives to win the game. He also opens the bowling of TCC A in their quarter-final. TCC A fielding astonishes: there is only one misfield and the rest of the time every run out attempt works ? 7 in 16 overs, all of them underarm throws from a single saving position! That should make Mr. Welch proud!
TCC 1 (which has TCC's best players) also field brilliantly; Nasim an Iranian by birth but now a Finn, actually bats with his head up and his eyes level. Not only that, he makes a long barrier instead of using his feet. Both those basic skills were taught two weeks prior ? honestly, we couldn't convince him to do otherwise for 10 years! At the quarter-final stage 5 teams stand out - TCC 1, Vantaa, Helsinki, Espoo & Stadi 1 - but it is the Finnish, Iranian, Australian, Pakistani, English, Indian combination of TCC 1 that is gathering momentum. Their progress is based on the type of self-belief that comes from knowing you're doing the right thing the right way.
In the quarters they beat Stadi - the reigning Finnish league champions, then the powerful Helsinki CC in the semis. In the final they meet Espoo and bowl, as taught by Stuart Welch, straight and true by making sure they get their head steady, looking forward, eyes looking slightly to the left of their leading left arm as they are in the delivery stride. They stifle Espoo restricting them to 48 runs ? a low total on that pitch. TCC 1 surpasses that total in just over three overs. Cue Punjabi MC on the PA system and let's have another pitch invasion. So after 10 hours of play, 2,328 runs & 104 wickets, Turku wins the tournament and finally gains a trophy 11 years after the club was formed. The progress seems remarkable - light years away from the time when its players used to use beer bottles to mark their fielding positions (a tactical ploy to teach fielding positions, no longer needed).
As you must undoubtedly realise by now this is not classic cricket ? one of our players has just worked out what the long barrier is - but there's a spirit involved which mixes good humour with dedication. Equally important, both ex-pats and Finns alike are improving and as the game grows in Finland it is being spread to a new generation and population of children. Of those who attended the first training session, four players will be invited to take the ECB Level I coaching course to be organised by FCA and the Europe Office later this summer. With that they can teach children in schools and they will also be able to spread their knowledge to TCC. We really look forward to our future coaching weekends!
