You lucky, lucky cricketers

'CHANNEL Island cricketers just don't realise how lucky they are,' said the man who has overseen, in Jersey, the massive strides the game has made since joining the ICC.

And as a noted Jersey cricketer himself when most of the current side had not even been born, Chris Minty, has reason to feel a tad jealous.

'I tell them not to take it for granted,' said the sister isle's director of cricket in a rain break during yesterday's game against France.

But it is ICC's funding of such events that make it all possible, as he recognises.

'Seventeen of us staying in a hotel like St Pierre Park – and it costs nothing.

'It's a lifestyle you would never imagined 20 years ago.'

Minty is as Jersey as Jersey gets and loves to put one over the enemy over the water.

But he is wise enough to recognise that the two islands are very much in this relatively worldly exercise together.

We need each other is one of his messages.

'We have been in it together since forming the Channel Islands Cricket Board.

'We talk a lot and help each other. It is important we continue that.'