Michael Powell by Matthew Hoggard
When Michael asked me to write a benefit article for him I thought I would do the usual thing and get somebody else to write it for me, then I thought no I would do it myself hence this been the last article to be sent to this year’s Warwickshire beneficiary. Sorry Michael! Even the England captain sent his article off three weeks before me!
Now comes the tricky bit, thinking of what to write about one of the best friends I have made in the cricketing world. We do share a lot of things in common.
First and foremost our love of the best drink in the world Guinness and it was on one of our drinking binges that Michael’s true character shone through. It was on my stag do three years ago that I dragged Michael kicking and screaming to Cork in Ireland, in a vain attempt to drink Ireland dry.
It was on the first night after a steady days drinking when Chris Silverwood my best man held our first fines meeting, now my father in law to be was on that trip and to say he was fined heavily would be an understatement, hence half an hour later “Badger” as the in-law is known was nowhere to be seen. Now as you can imagine the boys were just moving into 4th gear and nobody missed Badger except Michael. He searched the bar and the toilet and couldn’t find him anywhere so he moved his search outside where he found Badger pulling himself out the gutter by a no entry sign right in front of Bertie Aherne the Irish prime minister! Instead of leaving Badger or bringing him back inside Michael carried Badger back to the hotel tucked him up in bed and read him a bed time story before rejoining us at the pub leaving us none the wiser - a true caring individual.
Secondly our ability to play every shot in the book!
Thirdly our inability to hit it off the square!
Fourthly our desire to do well against each other. With the two divisions having been introduced and my ability to miss a large part of the county season our little battles have been few and far between. But one such occasion happened last season in Scarborough, when the mighty white rose took on the bears on a fairly bowling friendly wicket. Now to say I was a little nervous would be an understatement not because It was my first game back after my back injury or because the likes of Darren Maddy and Kumar Sangakarra were in the top three of the bears batting line up, no it was because Michael was opening the batting and I couldn’t bear the thought of him getting runs and owning the bragging rights for the foreseeable future. At this point in time all I would like to say to Michael is snick snick snick snick snick.
Michael you have been a fantastic servant, not only to the game of cricket, but to your beloved bears and I hope you get the recognition you thoroughly deserve. You have been a fantastic friend to me over the years and I hope everybody that reads my article puts £10 into your year to send you off with enough money to keep you in hair dye in your aging years.
Have a great year!
love Hoggy xx
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