Opportunity KNOCKS

COMP LEGEND ON BRADMAN, BUTLINS... AND WHY HE LOVES THE HUNDRED

- By TOM EVANS Cricket Writer

LIVERPOOL Competition legend Tony Shillinglaw believes opportunity is the key to unearthing the next Bradman - possibly right here on Merseyside.

The Birkenhead Park great and Bradman scholar says some of the game’s all-time greats started off without coaching, equipment or even a field to play in.

And he believes initiatives like next week’s T10 Tape Ball World Cup, being held in Liverpool, can help show the way forward.

Eight sides made up from the various international communities in and around the city will face off in the shortest format at Liverpool College.

The beauty of tape ball cricket - as played by countless thousands on the streets of the Subcontinent - is that it can be played anywhere, indoors or out, with minimal equipment.

All you need is a bat, a ball and the desire to hit one with the other.

Shillinglaw, still as keen to talk cricket as at any point in his 88 years, says: “Opportunity is the magic word, isn’t it?

“What I feel is more important than ever, and more important than your technique, is the ability to compete.

“T count myself very, very lucky, because I was born 1937 and went to Woodchurch Road Primary School, and we had two wonderful teachers who came back from the war and they gave us everything.

“And then I went on to Park High School and there was a structure of cricket, competitive cricket.

“Then, when I'd just left school, my friends and I went to Butlins like nearly all kids did.

“To my amazement, there was a cricket net there - and there was a man standing there named Charlie Hallows, a former Lancashire batsman who is one of three men ever to have scored 1,000 runs in May.