The light bulb moment occurred at 2.00am on Day 2 of the Second Test of the 2019 Ashes Series. Staying up to the wee hours watching the pulsating cricket on offer, I realised how much I missed the game and came up with an idea…
Ten games for ten different clubs across Australia during the 2019/20 season. I climbed into bed at the end of play (3.00am local time) and tapped Mrs D on the shoulder to tell her my brilliant idea. Not particularly thrilled at being woken at such an hour, she simply replied, ‘You’re having a mid-life-crisis, go to sleep.’
Looking back, I think it was just my way of clinging onto that boyish dream of playing cricket - the thrill of hitting one in the middle; the adulation of ten teammates slapping you on the back after taking a wicket; a cold beer in the sheds after taking 2/72 off 28 overs, figures that can only excite an off-spinner.
At 41, life was great – beautiful wife, gorgeous kids, steady job, nice house etc. With all that, there was something nagging at me. A desire to have one last crack at doing something I used to love.
It would be too self-indulgent to make this just about me. I went through a very rough patch with depression in my early 30s. In a short period of time I lost my job and then broke up with my partner. It seemed like the end of the world.
I shut myself off. Life was excruciating for a period of six months. I was going nowhere fast.
Over the course of time, and with the help of many important people I recovered.
Life is now great, however, I have never forgotten those dark days, so it was a natural consequence to want to support a mental health charity.
If I couldn’t convince ten clubs across Australia to give up a playing sport to a balding 41-year-old cricketer well past his prime, then the project would be over before it started.
Having played cricket for twenty years, I had a great network of mates spread across the country could ask a favour and hopefully turn out for their clubs.
Every club I approached said yes. All up, it was about 10,000 kilometres of travel to navigate Australia via planes, trains and automobiles!
Over the next 6 months the games ticked by and it was the ultimate cricketing and lifetime adventure. With the exception of getting married and having kids it was the best thing I have ever done. In total, we raised $9,000 for mental health.
I will be forever grateful that I had a crack at this great cricketing adventure.

I also wrote a book – A View of Australia from Fine Leg