Though most known for voicing his opinion on all things Liverpool FC, Sam Walker is just as passionate about cricket as he is football – and it’s all thanks to his dad.
Sam can often be found talking about his beloved Liverpool on YouTube channel The Redmen TV, as well as Twitter, but what you probably don’t know about him is that he has been involved in the local cricket scene since the age of nine, mostly at Wavertree Cricket Club. His father, David Goodall, is a former Lancashire County Cricket coach and sits on the Barbados Cricket Board.
“My dad is a cricket coach and always has been,” Sam told Fen Regis Trophies. “He worked for Lancashire full-time as a coach and he works for the Barbados cricket board now, even though he’s retired.”
“He took me to the cricket club when I was nine,” he added. “When I was playing, he was just working his normal job and then he got into being a coach at the club.
“When he retired in his 50s, he took a job with Lancashire as one of their coaches both at Old Trafford and within the community.
“As he got older and him just being around coaching, he said to me to go and get myself qualified. He got me into it and inspired me into it.”
“It’s not even the game…it’s being around people”
While Sam’s favourite place to be may well be sat in The Kop at Anfield, the cricket field is a close second and, as he says, it’s not even about the game itself.
“It’s not even the game [that I love about cricket], it’s being around people and talking about everything other than cricket. It’s the social side that I think is great.
“Standing in a cold field at times can be frustrating, but those little bits of banter that you have make the game as opposed to the game itself.”
Of course, with a father that is as well-connected within the game as he is, Sam has been fortunate with encountering plenty of professional cricketers. One, though, he admits had a bigger personality than most.
“I got to meet Freddie (Andrew) Flintoff when my dad did a game at Liverpool Cricket Club – it was Lancashire XI versus Barbados Cricket Association and Freddie played for Lancashire.
“I would probably say that he was the biggest personality around cricket that drew me and others in.”
Wavertree Cricket Club
While his father had played for various clubs around the country, Sam has only ever known Wavertree Cricket Club aside from coaching with Lancashire County Cricket. Sam’s passion for his club radiates through and he explains that part of that is due to his close friendship with former chairman Phil O’Brien, who continues to help out as junior coordinator at the Liverpool club.
“He’s always been someone that if we need support he’s always there,” Sam said. “He always asks ‘what can we do for you?’ and is willing to help out. He’s on our team.
“Sporting institutions can be political at times and it can be difficult with money, but with Phill running the junior sections for the last 10 years it’s been really helpful – particularly for me.”
Supporting Women and Girls Cricket
Having grown up watching his dad play and coach, Sam now coaches Wavertree’s four girls teams alongside David. Despite the growth of the women and girls game, Sam admits that to some it remains a “shock to the system” to some, but believes that it is the passion and dedication of the women and girls, more than any organisation, that has put the game on the map.
“In our club, we have an Under-11s/10s girls team, we have an Under-15s girls team, and hard ball and soft ball women’s teams – between me and my dad, we coach all four teams.
“There is more opportunity and more growth in girls cricket. My daughter plays so that obviously helps me justifying the time. It’s an area of the game where it’s not easy to address.
“We all know that cricket is stereotypically a middle-class white man’s sport, so girls playing the game is still a shock to the system for a lot of people still, believe it or not. It’s just something that we’ve taken on and grown.
“The women’s and girls’ game has improved. I don’t think it’s come from the top, though, I think it’s come from the girls themselves. Girls are empowering themselves to play and have a go.
“I live in Liverpool, which is very much a working-class city, we’re not bold enough or have the opportunity that afford us to be sexist. I think girls have just taken the opportunity themselves and it’s just snowballed.
“This is something that has happened organically from women and girls just wanting to play and their own success has come off the back of that.
“When my dad was a community coach, he ran an after-school girls’ session and there was a group of girls who were 15 and they had nowhere else to go. It was the only girls after-school cricket session going on in Merseyside and that grew.”
