While most of us are suffering through winter, young Wellington cricketer Jakob Bhula is having his first experience of a summer playing in England.
The former Wellington College 1st XI captain shone for the New Zealand U19 team at last summer's ICC U19 Cricket World Cup sharing a special stand with fellow Wellingtonian Rachin Ravindra.
Bhula made a tournament record 180 as New Zealand amassed 436 against Kenya. He and Ravindra putting on a record stand of 245 for the first wicket.
Away from home now the member of the Firebirds’ Rookie programme is getting all he can from being a member of the MCC Young Cricketers Programme based at Lord's in London.
We checked in with the 18-year-old to find out more about his time in the English capital with MCC YC and the Twickenham Cricket Club.
What’s been the highlight of your time with MCC YC and Twickenham so far?
Highlight of the MCC YCs so far has been our away day games. Being with the lads away, travelling around the UK has been awesome so far and we are competing against some very strong northern teams which is quite a good challenge. With Twickenham, we have had an unlucky start to the season but I’ve really enjoyed the clubs culture and the boys have been really welcoming too.
How have you found living in London?
I’ve visited London before so I sort of knew what to expect, but living in London has been an awesome experience. There is always something to do and I am very central so get to experience the busy lifestyle. It is very different to NZ, but I am loving it.
Other players I’ve spoken to about MCC YC talk about what it’s like learning from the other players and meeting other cricketers with different backgrounds, how have you found that?
There are so many different personalities within the YCs, but everyone is really respectful of each other. Every county we play usually has a couple of first class players in which I take good lessons from. I was lucky to spend a couple of hours at the crease against Yorkshire who had a couple of first class bowlers with 300 first-class wickets between them and I learnt a lot from that experience.
Favourite ground you’ve played at so far?
Edgbaston
You’ve got plenty of time in the UK left, do you have any cricket goals you want to tick off before the end of the season?
We still have the T20 campaign to go, so it would be awesome to go all the way in that. Personally I just want to enjoy my cricket over here. It’s a good time to learn a lot about myself as a player - what works and what doesn’t work for me.
