We All need to be a Bit More like the Isle of Man Cricket Team

The Isle of Man’s men’s cricket team has been making the headlines across the globe this week after the weekend’s record-breaking defeat at the hands of Spain.

Even those who don’t know their fine leg from their silly mid-off will probably have seen the reports on the BBC and Sky Sports among a host of others detailing Sunday’s result, which saw the island bowled out for only 10 runs, prior to the hosts knocking off their reply in only two balls.

The defeat set a new world record with the previous lowest men’s international T20 score recorded by Turkey against Czech Republic in 2019, when they scrambled to 21.

The result capped a tough weekend for coach Greig Wright and his 14-man island squad as the talented hosts won the pair’s six-game series at the La Manga resort 5-0 (the other game was abandoned because of the weather).

It would have been easy for Wright and his players to hide away after such a result, but far from it, they’ve come out and talked candidly, and often humorously, about what must have been a painful defeat.

In a lengthy interview with the Telegraph’s Simon Briggs on Tuesday, Wright, who is also the island’s cricket development officer said: ‘There was some emotion straight after the game, as you can imagine, but you can laugh it off.

‘I told the boys it’s something they won’t experience again. One of the lads is learning Spanish, so I said “In 70 years time, you can tell your grandkids you played in that game. You don’t have to the them which side you played on!”’

‘Normally we have a no-drinking policy when we’re away, but in this instance I thought that maybe the best medicine comes in a pint glass.’

The Isle of Man’s opening bowler Joe Burrows, who also top scored with four in the total of 10, has also greeted his new-found infamy with equal good humour.

Appearing on the 5 Live Sport cricket coverage with Mark Chapman and ex-England international Phil Tuffnell he said: ‘It was just one of those days.

‘We were sat in a gazebo – Spain in February is not as hot as you’d imagine – it was absolutely Baltic.

‘None of us were out there long enough to get warm.

‘At the end of the game someone said: “I think we were a few runs short there boys”, and that sort of broke the tension.

‘We’re a tight knit bunch and we’ll get through it together.’

In an era when teams and sports people blame their defeats on a litany of excuses, Wright was refreshingly honest when he said about Spain: ‘really nice lads who played well, played hard, and were considerably better than us.’

Burrows added: ‘We came up against a Spain side that was better than us in all departments. Hands up they were fantastic. We can only learn from this. A few of our lads are back at school this week – it will be a good story for them to tell. We’ll only get better playing in matches like these.’

Often it’s easy to blame others when things don’t go your way. Maybe we should take a leaf out of our cricketers’ book instead, by taking the situation on the chin and moving on with the aid of humour and honesty.

Perhaps then we can all turn those proverbial dot balls into boundaries.