Friday August 17th 2007: Thanks, epilogue and the future

A thousand people to thank!!
It would be impossible to thank everyone who helped us with the tour but I’ve attempted to pick out a few of those who deserve special praise.

Thanks must go to the hospitality of our hosts in all the countries. We received a warm welcome in all the places we went. A meal between innings was always heartily received, as well as often being our only hot meal of the day.

Specific thanks must go to, in no particular order, Mohanjit Singh and Anil (Moscow, Russia), Lanson George (St Petersburg, Russia), Jason Barry and Tim Heath (Tallinn, Estonia), Sumit Chakravarty and Janis Polis (Riga, Latvia) as well as Stephen Law (Helsinki, Finland) for opposition, pitches, grounds and general organisational efforts. Without any of you guys it wouldn’t have been possible!!

Thanks also to the late Harry Thompson (Penguins Stop Play) and Angus Bell (Slogging the Slavs) for the inspiration. Also to Owen Amos for not letting me on his football tour to Sri Lanka and forcing me to sort out my own.

Thanks to our sponsor Charlie Bass and the ITC for his support for idea from the off and providing us with the cash for the shirts and caps to make us at least look like an international cricket team.

Huge thanks to my brother Andy "junior" Abraham for being the reliable second in command when I was knackered, tired, couldn’t be bothered, and fed up of organising people. Also for sorting out hotels and for paying for a lot of stuff up front. Big thanks to my mother Mrs Doris Abraham for her efforts with the sewing machine for the shirts and our Carmel flag.

Final thanks to all the lads who came on the tour. If the 12 of you didn’t share in this madcap ridiculous idea (Haz Reekie thought from the first e-mail I was actually joking…) it would never have got off the ground in the first place. Cheers boys!

Epilogue
It was a ball-ache to organise, a lot of travelling, not much sleep, irregular eating times but hell was it all worth it!!! Every single player thoroughly enjoyed the experience, the banter and the chance to play international cricket….

The victory at the Helsinki Sixes and the win over Latvia will both live long in the memory as will playing in a fantastic stadium in Moscow.

Turning up to play a regular club game will never be the same. The thrill of a new ground in Eastern Europe against opposition you know nothing about on a pitch which could be almost anything is what makes touring in some of cricket’s lesser-known outposts a fantastic experience.

Three full international appearances to my name and the honour of skippering the team to two pieces of silverware isn’t bad for the first ever international tour…But hell, I still want that fifty or five wickets!!!

The future...
Hopefully an international cricket festival in North Wales to give some of the teams we played a chance to play on grass wickets, defence of the Helsinki Sixes and as for the next tour….watch this space for who knows where!!!