Alex Narey speaks to Phil Defreitas, the former England seamer who is embarking on a new coaching project which aims to bring more cricket into state schools, following the passing of his cricketing mentor and former games master, Elis Williams, last month.
Phillip ‘Daffy’ Defreitas knows what it’s like to meet your heroes. As England headed off for the 1986/87 Ashes Tour, the young Leicestershire seamer was set to spend the next three months living in the shadows of Messrs Botham, Gower and Gatting – three men who five years earlier had all played a major hand in England’s memorable 1981 destruction of the Old Enemy when Defreitas was still a teenager, forging an early path in the game as a blossoming all-rounder.
For Defreitas, that debut tour – as a 20-year-old – would prove to be the pinnacle of his career. “It was all downhill after that,” he jokes. “Going on a cricket tour to play Australia and being part of a victorious team that brought back the Ashes – it was the stuff of dreams. I was a kid playing cricket and socialising with players who I totally admired. I had grown up watching these guys play. It was a bit surreal.”
Sporting heroes come in all shapes and guises, and we hold them close to our hearts for different reasons. In cricket, perhaps more than any other sport, the runs and the wickets are often secondary to the main narrative of a person’s character, because it is the character of someone that ultimately wins our hearts. Gooch or Gower?
Emburey or Edmonds? The statistics are relevant for the debate, but it’s the personal touches that make people take note, and which stay with us for a lifetime.
The name Elis Williams may not resonate with many. But for Defreitas, this was a man who would play a lead role in his career, perhaps even more so than those A-list stars who he dreamt of being and who later he would share a dressing room with in the earliest stages of his career.
Williams, a keen rugby player who represented London Welsh over seven seasons, was Defreitas’ games master at Willesden High – a state school in north-west London. He sadly passed away last month at the age of 66, but his legend lives on and, as Defreitas is quick to point out, he was the man responsible for launching his career as a cricketer.
“I owe Elis so much,” says Defreitas. “At school I was very shy and reserved. I found it very difficult to communicate with the teachers, but that was never the case with Elis. He was a real support and he guided me along. I can say this now – without Elis Williams there would not have been a Phillip Defreitas who played for England.
“People don’t realise just what Elis did for me. After I made my Test debut on the winter tour of Australia in 1986/87, I went back to my school to see Elis to thank him. I will always be grateful. In fact, I would always go and see Elis after playing for England, and he would often come and see me play.”
Along with Defreitas, Chris Lewis attended Willesden High. Two years Phil’s junior, Lewis would also fall under the wing of Williams, and go on to represent his country at cricket, making his debut in the summer of 1990, almost four years after Phil. Between them, they played 76 Tests and took 233 wickets.
Both were superb athletes; outstanding fieldsmen who breathed life and exuberance into any side they played in.
On his day, Lewis was arguably the more dashing all-rounder. But Defreitas was England’s spearhead with the ball throughout the late Eighties and early Nineties. The squinting grimace as he approached the crease and a skipping leap with both arms flung skywards; it was an action that would not have been scripted in many coaching manuals, but under the right conditions – especially on home shores – few England bowlers have been so effective. During the 1991 home series against the West Indies, Defreitas’ metronomic accuracy and teasing away swing brought him 22 wickets. It is testament to his skills that he was arguably the best bowler that summer on either side – an impressive feat considering the opposing line-up of Curtly Ambrose, Patrick Patterson, Courtney Walsh and Malcolm Marshall.
But it’s quite baffling to think that these two men from the same school would go on to represent their country. Baffling not because they went to the same school, but because of the school they went to.
“Willesden High is an inner-city state school, and there were no cricketing facilities there apart from an old artificial wicket and some old concrete nets,” says Defreitas. “For two lads to have played in the same England team from the same state school, it was unheard of. It had never been done before and it was down to Elis that we made it.
“I never really played or considered playing cricket, but Elis took us to winter nets at Finchley and he got us to play on proper pitches. Cricket got me excited about school; it gave me more freedom and sprit.”
Inspired by Elis’ encouragement in those early years, Defreitas is now looking to give something back in memory of his mentor. Taking cricket into state schools and giving youngsters the opportunity that so many don’t get is his way of delivering the message Elis was so keen to do with his protégés.
“There is a sense that if you don’t go to the right school, then some cricketing doors will not open for you,” says Defreitas. “Elis gave me the opportunity to play cricket, but so many kids in inner-city schools won’t get the same chance.
“Cricket is a game that teaches you so much about life; the skills you learn playing cricket don’t simply apply to what you need to do on the field.
“Yes, it is a team sport and you mix and work together with your teammates, but the thinking and individual character traits needed really help you develop in life.”
The coaching project was kicked off at Babington Community College in Leicester in January, with the objective of getting more schools on the programme in Leicestershire and then the wider areas. Defreitas aims to head all the coaching himself from school to school, so enthused was he following its launch.
Passionate and dedicated to the cause, he admits that funding will be a hurdle for its success, but his determination will not diminish; if government support is not forthcoming, Defreitas will look for private funding. And, he is adamant that talent will come through, just as he did all those years ago.
“The talent is there, and I believe we can find the talent and develop it,” he adds. “Why can’t we find another Phil Defreitas or Chris Lewis? So many good kids slip through the cricket net because they are not encouraged and, in even worse cases, they don’t play because the school doesn’t promote the sport. I don’t want to see that happen.
“I am very passionate about this. The programme will provide opportunities for kids both during and after school. We need to try and find talent and push it forward. Cricket can easily get ignored in state schools. It’s such a shame that kids don’t play more of it.
“The difficult thing is funding; you need funding which I am trying to get, and you need the facilities but I am so determined to make it work with my cricketing contacts.
“Whether I get help with funding from the government or I have to look for private backing, I won’t give up!
“I want to give something back. I want to give something back for Elis. When I last met him a couple of years ago we spoke about the lack of facilities and coaching in state schools for cricket.
“This project will carry his determination on because he was a teacher who succeeded against all the odds where others would have given up.”
This piece originally featured in The Cricket Paper, Friday February 12 2016
