Chris Munn, as well as being a very talented curling coach and player, just so happens to be a very good cricket player too. However, due to his curling commitments he does not play as much as he used to. Although, whenever he has some spare time, he does his best to go watch England play. It was their win at the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup that convinced him to start coaching cricket as well as curling.
He Watched England Become World Champions
When the 2019 ICC cricket world cup started, Munn was extremely happy that he had managed to get a ticket to watch England take on South Africa in the opening game of the tournament. England scored 311 from their 50 overs thanks to a 50 from Eoin Morgan and an 89 from Ben Stokes. Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes then helped to bowl out South Africa for 207 with 61 balls remaining. However, the highlight of the game was Stokes’ spectacular one-handed catch above his head when he was fielding on the boundary. Needless to say, due to his contribution with the bat, with the ball, and while fielding, Stokes was named as Man of the Match as predicted by today match prediction.
Munn had no tickets for England’s other cricket matches, but he would have struggled to get to another game due to his other commitments anyway. The only other game that he would have been able to get to would have been the final, but he doubted England would have made it anyway, and he definitely was not going to watch two other teams fight it out for world glory.
However, as it turned out, England did make it to the final (after humiliating Australia in the semi-final). Therefore, he knew he had to get a ticket and he found someone selling one at 300 pounds. He knew this was a hefty price to pay, but he really wanted to see so, he bit the bullet as they say, and bought the ticket.
It Was Money Well Spent
Those who were lucky enough to watch the final between England and New Zealand will definitely agree that it was money well spent. It turned out to be one of the best finals in the history of sports.
New Zealand won the toss and chose to bat first on what looked to be a pretty decent wicket. England restricted them to 241 from their 50 overs, which looked like it would be enough to see them comfortably lift their first ODI trophy. However, New Zealand were not going to give up without a fight and their bowlers, as well as the fact that the wicket started to slow up, restricted England. The home team went into their final over needing 15 runs to win.
The first two balls were dot balls, but Stokes (it is always Stokes) smashed the third into the stand. Then, on the 4th ball, something miraculous happened; Stokes hit a full toss into the deep and came back for 2 runs. On his way back, he dived to make sure that he would make his ground and then watched as the ball, which was thrown in from the deep by Martin Guptill, struck his bat and raced away for another 4 runs.
England now needed 3 runs from the remaining 2 balls, but they could only manage 2 singles, meaning that the scores were tied. This meant that the match would have to be decided by a Super Over. England batted first and scored 15 off their 6 balls, meaning New Zealand needed 16 to take the trophy home with them. Amazingly, they scored 15 runs as well. England were crowned World Champions due to the fact that they scored more boundaries in the match.
This final was such a fitting way to end a highly entertaining tournament.
He Decided He Would Like to Become a Cricket Coach
On his way out of Lord’s he saw the joy on the faces of all of the young England supporters and he thought that he would like to be able to use his own cricket talent to coach kids.
So, when he got back home, he headed to his local cricket club and asked if they were in need of another cricket coach. He sat down with the man in charge for a good few hours and they talked about all things cricket and how the Cricket World Cup final was one of the best games that they had ever seen. He also spoke about how he has experience coaching and interacting with youngsters as he coaches curling.
When they were finished talking, he was accepted as another coach at the club. However, he was told that he would have to have some training with the current coaches before he can coach by himself. Just so he knows what they are looking for when it comes to coaching kids how to play cricket.
Munn was fine by this as he is the type of person that is always open to learning more. He believes that nobody is perfect and that even the best athletes have some area for improvement in their game. It is this mentality that makes him such a good coach.
He did his training with the current coaches and they were really impressed by his eagerness to learn as well as his ability to play cricket. He passed the initiation with flying colors and he now coaches there three times a week with different age groups.