We all dreamt of playing sports as kids—whether it was cricket, football, basketball, or tennis. Bat in hand, the sun shining & wind blowing, crowd roaring. You know the feeling.

But then…life happens. We can all relate.

Five years ago, I asked a simple question on Twitter: “What was your broken cricket dream?”

Since then, replies have kept coming in. Stories of talent that never got a chance. Coaches who looked the other way. Family duties that took priority, and injuries that refused to heal. Some stories might be hilarious. Others cut deep.

This is a space for them. For the dreamers who almost made it. For the ones who never got their shot.

Who knows, maybe by sharing these stories and looking back, some deep down wounds can be healed. We can find a little closure or at least remind each other that we weren’t alone.

In any case, sit back, enjoy, and comment below on your broken dreams stories!

Tweets About Broken Dreams

1. My Broken Cricket Dream Story (@cricket_broken):

“Was in my 4th grade cricket team.

In our first knockout tournament, I was guaranteed a spot in the 2nd game if we won the first match.

Our team lost a thriller, we moved to the United States, and that was it. I never played a sport officially in my life again.” #BrokenDreams

2. Catch Cricket Podcast (@catch_cricket):

“I think bowling an 11-ball opening over in county cricket under-15s was the beginning of the end!”

3. CricBlog (@cric_blog):

“Made 3rd grade as an 18-year old, despite a shortened season due to a stress fracture in my foot. So, was looking forward to the next season, until a badly torn hamstring and regular injuries resulted in me having to stop playing.” #BrokenDreams

4. JustCricket (@justcricketblog):

“It was during the first year in college. After training hard for 6 months, didn’t get picked in the squad due to politics and favoritism.” #Brokendreams

5. Jamo (@FinallyJamous):

“Didn’t realize my love for basketball until later in high school. Missed playing on team and missed watching so much of 2000s Lakers/Spurs/Celtics. Missed out on prime AI, Kobe, KG, Tim, Shaq, Yao, Nash, and T-Mac.” #Brokendreams

6. M. Borrie

“My broken dream in cricket, can’t bat, bowl, or field! Just sticking to the spectator seat for the summer of cricket! NZ playing continue to play great cricket. Test matches, ODIs, T20s – now good at all of them!”

Broken Dreams Life Stories from Facebook

Responses are from the facebook group, “We Don’t Like Cricket We Love It.”

7. Marlon Potter

“Giving up a team and club I loved to work in the mines so I could afford to pay for my education. By the time I came back to the game, my youthful talents were gone.”

8. Michael Higgitt

“As along in the tooth player now. Remember back in 1984 batting in a league match and racing along to 73 with many overs to spare then the opposition opening bowler bowled be a bouncer which got big on me and I holed out to midwicket. That was my best score never got a ton in many years playing. That ball haunts me to this day. Ha ha.”

“…watching that Hamphire team that came to visit us in 76 or 77 and being in awe of how good of the likes of Richards, Greenidge and Marshall and the even the lesser mortals were – then figured out that this 10 yr old wasn’t likely to play cricket for a living after all …I’m still trying to figure out what I am going to do when I grow up nearly 50 years later.”

9. Elliot Roberts

“98 and getting out to worst ball of the innings.”

10. Phil Hayes

“Too many to mention. One particularly galling moment was being put on to bowl, and watching my captain drop the easiest catch in cricketing history. Then he took me of!!!”

11. Jamie Gibbons

“I took 8 wickets. It was only after the match someone pointed out to me that the 2 I didn’t get were both dropped off my bowling. Another dropped catch a year or two later cost me a second hat-trick in 3 weeks. I hate fielders, usually second slip in my case.”

12. Anwar Rizwi

“After a few successful seasons at club level as a leg spinning all rounder I had aspirations to move up to county level. Had trials with a county 2nd XI and the coach said I had a suspect bowling action. Aside from the disappointment of not getting through the trials it had a massive knock on effect on my confidence and I was never the same bowler again.”

13. Berkshire Stags VI Cricket Club (Club Page)

“For me it was being selected for the county first team, then the game being rained off without a ball being bowled, and not selected again…“

14. Mark Bury

“Too many to mention, I probably need a mentor or a senior player or coach in my days in grade cricket, but still playing and enjoying it in my 60s.”

“Ironically enough, now I am 62 years of age, and I open the batting for a different county’s disabled cricketing team – the Berkshire Stags. Strange considering I always used to be a bowler rather than a batsman.”

15. Ubaid Shaikh

“Losing the semi to Australia in 1987. I started taking interest back then at a tender age. I cried like anything.”

16. Tony Amos

“1995 I was Snaresbrook 2nd XI Captain. My best season with the bat but we ultimately lost out on the league title by one point to Ilford Catholics. Tough to take.“

17. Neil Matthews

“Many years ago when I realised that I’d never be a fast bowler. Opening bowler for my club, got to play at a reasonable league level, always trained hard, and could be quite sharp at times. A 16 year old lad joined our club, no coaching, ambled in to bowl and was at least a yard quicker than me without looking like he was trying! Beautiful natural action, that ‘whip’ in his wrist. I often look back and think if he’d had my work ethic (I desperately wanted to be quick) or I’d had his talent/fast twitch muscle fibres one of us could have gone further. But that we it for me, I realised at that moment that you can’t put in what god left out!”

18. Craig Lawn

“Run out for 99 after only one fielder appealed. My so called teammate thought it would be funny to give me out.”

19. Dan Trace

“Tapped my bat in an innings where I was seeing the ball like a beach ball, coming off a season where I’d averaged 50+ (regional cricket, so nothing special but good for me) the previous season, but had injured myself in the off season (badly, but not surgery badly). I tapped my bat and my shoulder dislocated again, it literally fell out of the joint.

That was the end of me basically being any sort if influential cricketer at any level. Took 4 years to get back into it and was never the same, but enjoyed a few more seasons before focusing on other pursuits “

20. Scott Strain

“Waiting for my first Ashes in Sydney. Being caught up in traffic and arriving at my seat in the SCG half an hour late to find England 23-5. Day ruined before it started!”

21. Alistair Robson

“Losing the semifinal in Barclays national school tournament, 1980’s, after becoming area and regional winners. A certain Gary Palmer, son of umpire Ken, did for us. I’m quite proud he didn’t get me out, but that’s partly because I was bowled by a grass cutter for 4 at the other end. Still, great memories.”

22. Cameron Hall

“Churchie 3rds 1982 v Toowoomba Grammar. Probably field 2 or 3 on the top of the mountain. To win for the blue & grey, Catch goes up and down at cow corner. Long trip back to oaklands parade!!”

23. Steve Carrington

“Given out lbw last ball of the innings after batting for 30 overs to save match. Padding up to a poor ball which was pitching a good ft outside leg stump. Even their keeper admitted it wasn’t out.”

24. Jamie Mcdonald

“When I realised at 30 that my knees were hurting so bad after every match, I couldn’t play anymore.”

25. Nickolas Marko Cindric

“48 no against the sheep violators at Wangary, boys failed to notify me,as I wailed my mates suburb SS Jumbo like a thrashing machine, been demoted by the skipper to number 9, had to flex the levers.”

26. Steve Rogerson

“Going to Old Trafford in 1983 to watch England v India in the World Cup semi final. I was 13 and we got hammered.”

27. Andrew Wilkinson

“Day 5 of the Ashes at Old Trafford in 2023, and my 58th birthday. England hot favourites to win and a very good chance we would have then gone onto win the Ashes. In true Manchester fashion, it rained all day!”

And Luke sums it up perfectly.

27. Luke Grogan

“For many, there’s a million heartbreaks in cricket at different times.

It only lasts a short time. Then the next season, you’re straight back on that pitch; ground or with your clubmates – getting geared up for another crack!

A negative moment in cricket never breaks you. It just puts you on the back foot, to reassess where you’re at – and move forward.”

Gaurav Trivedi: “…cricket over the weekends is something that gives me sanity and keeps me away from breaking down under difficult situations. Cricket is love.”

If you have such stories you want to share, send them in!

You can reach us at: Twitter , Facebook, Substack, Medium (or Email us at bcd@brokencricketdreams.com)

What Can We Learn?

I hope you had a laugh or even a tear drop. Maybe we all could not become professional sports players. Maybe just a random cricket blogger or a fan (me). Or chose another profession-engineer and artists, or doctors and musicians, or started our own business.

But that is completely okay! We should not have regrets.

Everyone has his or her own journey, and we should appreciate life just as it is. Just look back, smile, and enjoy the small moments.

Anyway, send in your stories, and we will publish it on your next iteration of Twitter Specials: Broken Dreams. Follow us on twitter, please subscribe below to our blog, and share along!

Also Read:

Here are a couple of sequels to this post:

• Twitter Special II: # First Memory
• Twitter Special III: Dreams Lived

Other articles on life lessons and sports you may enjoy:

• Jimmy Anderson Made Me Fall in Love with Swing Bowling
• Cricket’s Reflections of Passion
• 22 Unlucky Cricketers Wasted Talents
• 200th Article Special: 5 Things I have Learned From My Journey of Cricket Writing
• Top 10 Life Lessons From IPL: Beauty of Cricket
• 101 Ways How Not to Treat a Professional Athlete Feat David Willey
• What Rahul Dravid Taught Me

If you like this content and want to support the author, please consider buying Power Play: 10 Life Lessons from the Sport of Cricket: Border Gavaskar Trophy 2020-21.