大象传媒

There are many things I am not good at.

I am a terrible guitarist.聽聽I cannot draw.聽聽I am barely numerate.

But of all the things I do badly, the one at which I suck the most is undoubtedly cricket.

Now, I grew up watching my Dad play cricket and I longed to be good at the game.聽聽Dad was good, and my brother Bill inherited his hand-eye coordination.

I did not.

At Hatch End under-15s, my player biography might have read, 鈥淐an鈥檛 bat, can鈥檛 bowl, can鈥檛 catch鈥�.

Despite this, my friends Michael and Andy, who have been running a team every summer since we were students, have never ceased to be generous in offering a chance to play.聽聽So this year I finally plucked up the courage and joined the International Rescue Cricket Club.

And what have I discovered?

Have the years of hibernation produced a fluent attacking batsman and a penetrating medium-pace bowler? Not even close.

On the other hand, I have had the infinite pleasure of being in a team again.

Now, like most of us, I鈥檓 in lots of teams - at work, at home, at church - but in each of them, I play to my strengths: I do what I鈥檓 good at, whether that鈥檚 teaching or laundry.聽聽I know my place in the batting order.

On the cricket pitch, though, I have no strengths 鈥� but, unlike most teams where only the most able are welcome, I am included anyway.

It鈥檚 an approach to team-building that was familiar to Jesus.聽聽With his disciples, he put together an extremely unlikely squad: fishermen, a tax collector, a political activist.聽聽They bickered and failed, but out of a bunch of misfits Jesus forged something that changed their world.

Which is, really, the potential of a team: not necessarily to change the whole world, but to change the world of every member, whether the team is successful or not.

My friend Michael wrote after a recent loss that our team is about 鈥渢he love of the game, of turning up and playing it with a bunch of friends - a mixture of camaraderie and competition which make defeat bearable鈥�.

I reckon that being accepted in a team lifts us beyond our individual limitations and makes almost anything bearable.

Even the complete and tragic absence of actual, cricketing talent.