Ever dreamed of opening the batting for the England cricket team at the World Cup? That’s just what Ocean Telecom Sales Director Giles Ecclestone will achieve when he marches to the crease to face the Indian pace bowlers at the opening match of the Over-50s Cricket World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa on March 11th.
Left hander Ecclestone is no stranger to big match pressure, having played first class cricket for Essex before retiring and joining Fenfones in Newmarket. A few years later he joined Business Partners Steven and Lisa Bradford to set up Bury St Edmunds based Ocean. Last summer was his first season in competitive Over50’s cricket and playing for Essex in a match against Hertfordshire he hit a new world Over50s cricket record score of 213 off just 128 balls with eight sixes and 19 fours. Essex went on to defeat Yorkshire in the final and Ecclestone was the leading scorer in the competition with 681 runs at an average of 97 with two further hundreds.
Speaking at Pragma’s partner conference recently, he was in a confident frame of mind as he dwelled on the biggest challenge of his cricketing career.
“It will be an amazing experience and I can’t wait to get started. I hit the ball hard and I’m confident of giving the team a good foundation to build on. This is a massive tournament with big sponsors, live streaming and hopefully some big crowds. The format is two groups of six teams who play each other followed by semi-finals and the finals. We then play Australia in two Ashes matches at the end of March – so I could possibly be playing nine matches in 18 days!
“We have a good squad of players and I think we’re good enough to get to the final, which would be an incredible experience as it is being played at the famous Newlands Cricket Ground with the Iconic Table Mountain in the background. But whatever happens it will be an amazing experience.”
You can follow Ecclestone’s World Cup progress here https://www.over50scricket.com/world-cup-2020-cape-town