There tends to be two options when it comes to pastimes away from the football season – tennis or cricket.
MK Dons captain Dean Lewington will fall into the ‘cricket’ category as he, along with thousands of others, will join the Barmy Army in supporting England this summer when they take on Australia for The Ashes.
Tomorrow (Thursday) England will begin a two-match test series against New Zealand as they warm up for the battle against their fiercest rivals Australia in mid-July.
With a strong cricket connection running through his family, Lewington plans to soak up as much of the willow and leather sport as he can before he returns for the hard work of pre-season, which coincides with The Ashes.
Speaking to mkdons.com Lewington said: “My uncle used to run his own cricket team, my old man used to play for him so on a nice day on a Sunday the family would go down to watch it and have a picnic and stuff. As you do, my brother and I would pick up the bat and we’d fancy ourselves as cricketers.
“I’m not a batsman or a bowler; I’m more of a fielder! I’m not great at anything when it comes to cricket. I’ll give it ago but that ball is rock hard, it does scare you a little bit. I played for my school, I think my highest score was 14 but it is something I prefer watching than playing.
“I will put the cricket on at 10.30am and it will stay on all day. People think you have to watch every ball but you don’t you can read the paper, cook your breakfast and come back to it. When the cricket is on my dad will watch it quite religiously and he’ll shout out if there’s a wicket and we’ll all run into the living room.”
As a keen watcher of the sport, does Lewington think England can retain the little urn this year?
“I think we’re going to batter Australia, I think we’ll beat them 2-0 or 3-0. They have had a lot of trouble in their camp over recent months so I can’t see them doing that well. England will be a little bit too strong for them.
“I’ve not been to an Ashes test match because the latter part of the series tends to fall in pre-season so it’s difficult. If I can, I normally go and watch Surrey at the Oval and I might venture to the Broughton cricket pavilion a few times this summer too.”
