Latest / Whisky Stories Podcast / Ten Days’ Notice, A Few Drams Later: Scotland’s World Cup Story in India

Transcript

Ten Days’ Notice, A Few Drams Later: Scotland’s World Cup Story in India · Whisky Stories Podcast

0:01
Welcome to the Whiskey Stories podcast and.
0:03
This person said to me, by the way, Bangladesh might pull out
0:07
the World Cup. And I went, aye, right.
0:08
That's not going to happen. Yeah.
0:10
Yeah, on the field I did turn around and I went that's a
0:12
Scotland flag, a warm up game behind closed doors.
0:15
I was like that's an unbelievable.
0:17
But I am admiring the bottle of whiskey which has quite a good
0:20
few nips, so it must have been quite and that must be a fresh
0:23
bottle. There was another two.
0:24
There was another 2, so it. Must have been a good they had
0:26
by. All comes in.
0:28
I'm very frantic, she goes. You're not meant to be in here.
0:30
You're not the Mexican investor. Welcome to the Whiskey Stories
0:35
podcast. Myself crab together and well,
0:37
we're definitely not in the backroom of the Athletic Arms
0:40
Diggers in Edinburgh. We're in the Palace, we're in
0:43
the Lila, we're in the Lila Hotel in Bangalore.
0:45
And I'm joined by, well, I'm out my depth here.
0:47
I'm talking about cricket. I'm joined by Charles Patterson,
0:51
who's head of comms for Cricket Scotland.
0:52
And we've got Michael Leisk, an all rounder.
0:54
How are we doing, lads? Very good.
0:57
Yeah. Glad to be here.
0:58
Extremely happy to be talking about someone other than cricket
1:01
for a change and then a second passion about whiskey, which is
1:05
lovely. Yeah, well, I mean, I'm going to
1:07
ask me fielding you. Sorry about the fun.
1:09
A few questions. It's been a long, a long hour.
1:13
But right, first of all, let's just get to the very beginning.
1:17
How in health have I managed to find myself in a hotel in
1:20
Bangalore with a couple of guys with Cricket Scotland tops on
1:22
what? What's going on?
1:24
Charles, do you want me to give you right?
1:25
So here we are sitting just before the start of a World Cup
1:29
campaign, which we only found out about 10 days ago.
1:31
Yes. So the guys have been in
1:34
training since start of January, is that right?
1:38
That's yeah. Preparing for a tour in Namibia
1:41
at the end of March and I get a call first week of January about
1:49
someone tipping me off within the cricket world suggesting oh,
1:51
there might be a problem here with the World Cup because
1:54
Bangladesh had withdrawn a player from the IPL.
1:59
And the Premier. League, yeah, the Indian Premier
2:00
League, which is the biggest franchise league in the world.
2:03
And of course I was like, oh, this is interesting.
2:05
And this person that said to me, by the way, Bangladesh might
2:08
pull out the World Cup. And I went, aye, right, That's
2:10
not going to happen. And I remember speaking to her,
2:12
I had a performance and you went, Nah, that's not going to
2:14
happen. And of course, we watched this
2:16
through January. And I'm my background is as a
2:18
journalist, I was quite interested in the geopolitics.
2:21
And then it was just rumbling away and the ICC, who run global
2:25
cricket and we run this World Cup, hadn't resolved it.
2:28
And it gets to the end of January and suddenly one day it
2:31
kind of turned on the six points and suddenly it was like, this
2:33
is viable and Bangladesh are probably going to pull out here.
2:37
So what happens next? And then there was all this
2:39
discussion about, well, are they going to play the World Cup
2:42
without him, without Bangladesh and just a team that doesn't
2:45
exist and all the other teams are going to get points or do
2:47
they call up a replacement team? And then these I started getting
2:51
media calls from people in India saying you do realise that
2:54
you're going to get called up. And I said, well, we've not
2:56
heard anything. And the ICC eventually decided
3:01
when Bangladesh board refused to agree to play the schedule that
3:07
was required, they wanted their games moved to Sri Lanka.
3:11
The Bangladesh board decided with the decision of the
3:13
government above them, that they didn't want to participate in
3:15
the tournament. And the ICC contacted Cricket
3:18
Scotland 10 days ago from the reset to say, would you like to
3:22
replace Bangladesh in the tournament?
3:24
And so operationally, we had been aware that there was
3:27
something going on, but we weren't sure what the rules were
3:30
and how the ICC would go about it.
3:31
But we, we, we did not know until they asked us 10 days ago.
3:36
And then of course, you've got the players hearing media
3:38
stories as well. So I mean, Michael could tell
3:41
you where he was when you find out the news.
3:42
Well, it's. Been it's mad, It's been mad.
3:44
Because right now we're we're recording as the 3rd of
3:46
February. Yes right.
3:47
Yesterday the 2nd of February played a warm up match, which I
3:50
enjoyed watching from outside the ground.
3:57
But so you, you played a you played a warm up match
3:58
yesterday. So that was the 2nd of February.
4:01
But you, you, you guys were 10 back in a minute.
4:04
I'm still working 10 minutes ago, Michael, you were you.
4:08
You weren't sure whether or not hold on to a SEC, we're going to
4:11
have you weren't sure whether or not you were going to actually
4:15
be taking part of the world. So what were?
4:16
You doing? Yeah, Firstly, obviously it's
4:20
feel for Bangladesh players and fans who firstly are not able to
4:26
watch their team at a major event.
4:29
I can only think what what's going on there from.
4:32
But from my point of view, I was sitting on the sofa with my wife
4:35
and two kids and I think I'd been stressing her out with the
4:39
amount of media releases that we'd seen that might happen,
4:41
might not happen. And I think I'd been glued to my
4:44
phone for two days and not really helping with the kids.
4:47
So that probably wasn't a great start.
4:50
But then the news broke from the head, from the director of
4:53
cricket that firstly we were going and that I'd been
4:58
selected. So a multitude of emotions,
5:03
worry, delight, a little bit of probably angst, I guess in, in
5:11
terms of your going to the biggest cricketing nation in the
5:13
world to partake in probably the biggest World Cup.
5:19
The after probably disappointing summer for ourselves last year.
5:23
But everything happens for a reason.
5:25
And we've we've been given a hell of an opportunity by the
5:28
ICC to to come and show what we're about.
5:32
And that's the that's the main thing and and come and show why
5:35
we deserve to be at this World Cup.
5:37
Yeah. And I think that's.
5:39
How long did you have, right? I mean, first of all, you know
5:43
we're here. Your wife and two kids must be
5:45
having a great time while you're sitting in this set.
5:48
Lovely hotel, there's been a few awkward conversations with a
5:51
few. Wives and girlfriends, Yeah.
5:53
What's the scramble period? Are you just literally going?
5:55
I'm away 2. Days the scramble period for me
5:58
was packed Waller not there. Packed Waller at nursery so they
6:02
don't see bags being packed, which was the same day.
6:06
That was a bit of a scramble. But yeah, like my wife's lucky.
6:10
I'm lucky with my wife because her father is originally from
6:13
British Ghana, right? Knew a lot about cricket.
6:16
So she was always aware that cricket might be a large thing
6:20
in my life and from from 12 years now that we've been
6:23
together. But she.
6:25
Yeah, lucky that she's managed to make it the last one in
6:28
Barbados. And my daughter loved that trip
6:31
and she asked to go back all the time to Barbados.
6:34
But there is obviously it's difficult with that side of
6:36
things. But their awareness that this is
6:39
still my profession and my job and an awareness that this is
6:42
how we're in. We were in the position we're
6:44
in, which is a very fortunate position in Aberdeen with.
6:47
'Cause you're, you're based, you're.
6:48
Based back in Scotland. I'm based in Scotland.
6:50
But not every player Chris was based in.
6:53
Scotland. So no, no.
6:54
So yeah. So Charles will be.
6:56
Able to guys in Australia who winter yeah down in Australia
7:01
and they you know they played club cricket down there so you
7:03
got so Tom Bruce yeah has phoned in today from Auckland he's been
7:07
playing in the in the Auckland. T25 Super Slam over there in the
7:11
summer. Down there, so he's been playing
7:13
loads of cricket so he's fine. Some of our guys hadn't played
7:15
cricket on turf, I think Michael included, since September.
7:19
Yeah, yeah, I showed yesterday. You might.
7:23
Have been fighting back. Yeah.
7:24
Look, I think, I think, I think no, no, I think on that point, I
7:27
think we put our best foot forward and look at there was a
7:30
bit of rust. And I think that's a given,
7:34
given the fact that we played Afghanistan aside, who
7:37
ultimately have been together for eight weeks, their coaches
7:40
saying, and they've been preparing for this for 8 to 10
7:43
weeks and we've had 10 days, so. And how how soon was it since
7:46
landing in India to being out there on the on the on the
7:51
pitch? Yeah, we've had three, three
7:53
training days. So I've had three training days.
7:56
Some guys have had one training day.
7:58
Just with the way that the visa systems worked and also been
8:02
when the visas were granted to flying has meant that some flew
8:08
a certain way and I was lucky that I've had three days.
8:10
Prep and so I've had my visa rejected.
8:13
Yeah, someone obviously didn't like me, so I had to go to the
8:17
Indian embassy last Thursday. Was that the VFS office down to
8:20
lease? Yeah, there's one, there's one
8:22
in Fountain Park. And then I had to pop down to
8:24
the embassy in Rutland Square and I have to say everybody, the
8:27
BSF office and the embassy were absolutely brilliant.
8:30
They were delightful and they got it processed.
8:33
But the operational side of things, I think that's, I think
8:36
when you look at sport from the outside, you don't necessarily
8:40
realise the complete chaos that goes on on the inside.
8:43
And, and I think the players get it because in the tour they know
8:48
that they've got a team manager and they've got a couple of
8:50
people behind the scenes who are working overtime to do it.
8:52
And it's even ramped up more at World Cups and we are helped
8:56
because we've got liaison officers here.
8:57
But operationally Cricket Scotland's got about 30 staff
9:01
and that's right across the organization in terms of
9:03
development staff and administration, commercial
9:06
finance and stuff. And so when the other thing
9:11
we've had is we've just had an under nineteens World Cup team
9:13
down in Zimbabwe through most of January and our physio Gary has
9:18
flown directly from Harare to here.
9:21
And our assistant coach Gordon Drummond flew home to spend a
9:25
bit of time with his family and then came out and he arrived
9:27
this morning. And then we've also had the
9:29
women's on the women's team at the World Cup qualifier in
9:32
Nepal, which is just up the road really.
9:35
And our team manager Fiona flew in yesterday or today, I can't
9:40
remember what day it. Is yeah, yeah, yesterday
9:41
evening. And they qualified on Sunday
9:44
World Cup this summer in in in England, which is an amazing
9:47
achievement. Yeah.
9:48
So we've basically gone from zero World Cups two in a week.
9:52
Wow. Absolutely.
9:53
Fantastic. Which as an organization for
9:55
ourselves, that is, you know, trying to breakthrough the glass
9:57
ceiling, to be on the global stage all the time with limited
10:02
funding, to have two World Cups in a year.
10:04
It's it's like a jackpot. And, and see the world seeing
10:07
Scotland at cricket as well, because that's the thing where
10:10
you, you mentioned earlier, Michael, you know, we're, we're
10:13
in India. It's like that's they let they,
10:15
they live cricket. Have you guys been to India
10:17
before? I'm lucky to have been in India
10:20
in 2010 on a developmental tour with.
10:23
So the ICC used to do a, a pathway thing where you'd
10:26
Ireland, Holland ourselves and then just a few from the
10:30
emerging countries back then. So like Italy, there was a
10:32
gentleman from Italy, there was a couple from Gibraltar that you
10:36
would come in as a young, a young man or that point.
10:40
The women weren't involved in that, but you were there just to
10:45
develop your cricket and your social skills and get away and
10:48
just learn about yourself. And then 2016, I was here for
10:52
the World Cup in Nagpur, which was my Second World Cup at that
10:57
point was the biggest eye opener.
10:58
So the Australia 1 was is huge in terms of how big it is there.
11:02
But the I1 just opens your eyes to the global scale of how just
11:08
not just passionate, but just everything this country is about
11:11
cricket. I mean, I've been lucky myself
11:12
to be in Pakistan, Nepal, India, some of the biggest global
11:18
nations, small even Sri Lanka of how passionate cricket is.
11:21
And it's just, it's just, it's you, you mentioned cricket in a
11:26
taxi in a hotel in a somewhere. And you can be in an hour
11:29
conversation, like, I mean, or we're talking whiskey.
11:33
But I mean, it's, I mean, you're, you're even something
11:35
like that. You're in a country which is
11:36
just lives and breathes that you can be on the TV and I guarantee
11:41
it's on 24/7. There was, I went to Mangalore a
11:45
couple of weeks ago and there was like a car garage place
11:49
where was like underneath the hotel or like in the next street
11:53
across from the hotel from my balcony.
11:55
And I got up at 7:30 in the morning and went out for a
11:59
coffee in the balcony. And there was guys like
12:02
mechanics having a game of cricket at 7:30 in the morning
12:05
before I'm assuming before they started work or whatever it was.
12:08
And you really don't appreciate just how much it is.
12:10
But from that point of view, then Charles will be yourself
12:15
visited India. I've never been here before.
12:17
I've been to Sri Lanka many years ago with my wife, but
12:20
never been to India and it was always a bucket list thing to
12:24
do. I mean last, when we went to the
12:25
World Cup 2 years ago and I was the media manager and we went to
12:28
the Caribbean, I thought that was just phenomenal.
12:30
Because. As a little boy, I mean I played
12:33
a lot of cricket very when I was younger and I was never, I never
12:35
got to the level the Michael of the guys are at.
12:37
But I mean, I watched, watched it incessantly as a kid.
12:41
And to watch cricket in Bridgetown, yeah, or the MCG or
12:44
Eden Gardens, you'd watch. Well, that would be that's
12:47
amazing, important experience. And then, of course, there's a
12:50
it's a lot more accessible to watch cricket on the television
12:52
now from India with the IPL. Yeah.
12:54
Yeah. And the crowds are fantastic.
12:55
So personally, everyone was disappointed when the team
12:59
didn't qualify last summer. From personal point of view, I
13:02
thought, damn, I was really looking forward to going and
13:05
media managing the team in India because I would have probably,
13:08
you know, been able to sort of say, well, I've done it now I
13:10
don't think any of the people get better than that.
13:11
So to be here is great. But you know, from my point of
13:15
view, working in the backroom team, everyone here is all our
13:20
job is to make the guys have as good an opportunity to play as
13:23
well as they can on the pitch. So that it's the job is first
13:27
and foremost the priority. But you're on tour for two, 3-4
13:31
weeks sometimes and you do get a chance at some point to switch
13:35
off. And it will be nice to just get
13:36
a little bit of culture. And I'm looking forward to
13:38
Kolkata because we're there for 10 days.
13:39
Yeah, yeah. To get a little bit of culture
13:41
there and meet people. And everyone that we've met so
13:44
far has been Uber. Friendly and really also on that
13:47
you're talking about St. cricket.
13:49
So 2016, I remember it was myself, Callum McLeod and two
13:54
others. I can't remember the other two.
13:55
I think it might mean Gavin Maine and, and one of them were
13:58
just walking the streets of Nagpur and there was fellas
14:01
playing cricket like you mentioned.
14:03
And they were like, we were like, Nah, this can't be
14:04
happening. We got invited to play in a game
14:06
of cricket. Really.
14:07
Yeah, so we're just on the street.
14:09
So there was the car was the wickets and plastic ball and
14:13
this we're just doing maybe for 20 minutes with.
14:16
I've actually still got the video of Callum and us just
14:20
playing and interacting with it. And it was just a surreal going.
14:24
We're in India playing St. cricket like it was.
14:26
It was almost that moment of when I was a kid.
14:29
And I remember going on my tour to South Africa with my parents,
14:33
with the club back in 1997 with my first ever experience of a
14:39
cricket tour and watching again, South African culture, just
14:43
being in in the the rural areas there, just playing St. cricket
14:48
as a kid. And just that took me back to
14:51
that moment of just just being a kid playing cricket in the
14:54
street, just unbelievable fun. That they.
14:57
Get out of it. Yeah, just a totally different
14:58
way. I mean, no pressure of
14:59
international cricket. You're in a street just.
15:02
And they were far too good for me even on.
15:04
The street, let alone I had my stag do here in Bangalore.
15:09
I got married here, really. So one of the places that we
15:12
went to during the day, we'd had a few beers at this point was
15:16
the Karnataka state centre of cricket, not the place where you
15:20
were playing. They have another place in in
15:23
Bangor. So we paid, I think it cost us
15:25
like £20 and they literally took some boys pants and a helmet off
15:29
them. We got a bat and we got a net.
15:32
And Co host of the podcast. I'll give them a shout out here
15:34
because it's probably the worst sporting moment I've ever had in
15:36
my life. For anyone who, if you don't
15:39
watch the podcast, you won't have seen it, but Angus isn't
15:41
probably defined as an athlete at the best of times and his
15:45
cricket progress probably isn't. He bowled me out.
15:48
He bowled me out in the first bowl when I was standing with
15:50
pads. But it was these they must have
15:53
been under like your equivalent of under eighteens, under
15:57
nineteens. Indian lads chest hammering
16:00
balls at each other on the on the wicket.
16:01
Of course, we've got a few beers in that one of my past.
16:06
Go and get my fast. Go and get my fast lag.
16:08
You know and. It isn't until you know, yeah,
16:10
it's like these things. If you don't know the sport, you
16:13
know, sometimes you'll sit there and watch the darts.
16:16
Sometimes you'll sit and watch the snooker and you go.
16:18
These guys just make it look so easy.
16:19
When you're watching on the television and you're seeing
16:22
somebody throwing the ball at somebody and a guy standing
16:25
there with a bat load of pads and whacking it, that must be
16:28
easy and it isn't weird. I've got a 16 year old Indian
16:31
lad who's state level cricket Chuck so God knows what it's
16:34
like probably. Rapid as well.
16:36
It's. Probably, it's probably one of
16:38
the more underrated sports is how hard it can actually be
16:40
because everyone thinks, well, it's it's just a ball and it
16:45
comes very slowly. But I can guarantee you, even
16:48
how hard you have to work to be a cricketer, it's still not very
16:51
easy. And you?
16:52
Guys. Yesterday you were coming up
16:54
against the second best bowler in the world, effectively.
16:57
I would probably put that down as the best spin bowling attack
17:00
there is in world cricket right now.
17:01
And we've had that after, after three days of, of training in,
17:05
in, in four months. But no, that we've, as I say,
17:08
the boys had been physically prepped and there was a lot of,
17:11
a lot of hard work in the physical side of things, cricket
17:13
side of things. That's where the, the, the
17:15
upkeep was. We just started getting into as,
17:18
as Charles said, into the Namibia series and we started
17:20
upping our cricket levels. But it was the fitness levels
17:22
for four months that we really worked on.
17:25
Whereas physically we were absolutely super yesterday.
17:27
It was just the the cricket upskill where we've got, we've
17:30
got again, we've got four or five days now until we the first
17:34
official main game, which again is going to be an unbelievable
17:40
event at Eden Gardens, which I know up against some tough
17:43
opposition. But opposition we've beat the
17:45
last twice we've played against it, which is is we know there's
17:49
a target on our back from them given we gave them a drubbing in
17:54
West Indies, sorry in Australia, the last T20 World Cup and in
17:58
the 50 over qualifiers we we also beat them.
18:01
But we are going to have a target on our back from them and
18:04
knowing that we have done that. But that's exciting.
18:07
Exactly. But that is exciting.
18:08
And I think there's a. Lot about the development of
18:10
Scottish cricket in recent years that the West Indies are
18:12
targeting Scotland. Well, I was just going to say,
18:14
so you're you're. Not having said that, 20 years.
18:15
Ago no, it's not something I would say very lightly either,
18:18
given how how talented that and how unbelievably good that West
18:22
Indian side is. But that just also shows that
18:25
the talent we've got in this group here and I think that's
18:27
the exciting things for for fans in Scotland or fans of people
18:31
who like cricket that we are. We are a very good side as well.
18:34
Well, I mean, we've got in front of us, but you're playing a warm
18:37
up game tomorrow and the rules are no booze.
18:40
For that, unfortunately, as much as those are staring at me
18:43
saying drink me right now, yes, I don't.
18:47
I've been misguided because here's me thinking all all
18:51
cricketers when they're on tour are just that's just one big
18:53
stag do. There's there's nights where
18:56
you're allowed to let your hair down and I'm not going to lie,
18:58
there are nights where that is correct to do.
19:01
But given how unbelievably hard cricket is at the best of times,
19:05
trying to do it with the beveraging, your system makes it
19:07
10 times harder. And this?
19:08
Heat as well I'd. Imagine, but the heats.
19:10
Not too bad to be quite honest, but it's not been too much of A
19:14
shock. The heat, it could have been
19:16
places where worst one was a man we had where it went from we
19:19
went from the freezing temperatures to 45°.
19:22
That was the biggest shock I've had.
19:23
Because it was almost been about 30 odd degrees yesterday.
19:26
Yesterday didn't feel too. There's a nice breeze though,
19:28
which just keeps you, keeps you honest.
19:30
So our our whiskey story here, basically, as I was saying
19:33
earlier on, I'm at Bangalore doing a little bit of holiday
19:39
with the family, seeing the seeing the wife's mother and
19:44
father-in-law. And we've got a wee one with us
19:46
and she's enjoying being being next year, her Gran and
19:49
granddad. And suddenly then I see in the
19:51
news, BBC News, that Scotland have qualified for.
19:53
The TGI world. Cup in India and I'm thinking,
19:56
oh, brilliant. And I'm looking at the dates and
19:57
things like that and then I see it's called Qatar.
19:59
And for the geography, the guys who don't know the geography of
20:02
India, it's quite a wee bit away from where we are at the moment.
20:05
But then I saw the a warm up match in Bangalore and I
20:09
thought, oh this is fantastic. And good pal of the podcast,
20:12
Fraser Morrison, who's Glenn Livet and Aberlower brand
20:15
ambassador for Perno and Shivas Valentine as well.
20:19
He's up in Delhi. So we were always meant to be
20:21
meeting up while we're out here. I said, well, listen, what a
20:23
better opportunity then we'll go to Scotland versus, we'll go to
20:26
Afghanistan versus Scotland and Mangalore now closed door game.
20:33
Well, first of all, I didn't know it was a close to our game.
20:35
Rather than we really, to be honest.
20:37
What I knew was it was a World Cup warm up match and I'm
20:39
thinking, right, how hard can it be?
20:41
I looked where it was being played, about an hour outside
20:44
the town. No problem at all.
20:46
Yeah, there. But we, we also decided, well,
20:48
we might as well make a day of it.
20:50
So we got our little tuk tuk or our rickshaw as they're called
20:52
over here. We got our our Saltire flag.
20:55
We sat in the back of that and whirled around Bangalore and
20:58
joined a few drums before we headed off to the to the cricket
21:02
expecting we have to be fine. Piece of cake, we've got some
21:06
time. That was basically.
21:07
I'm afraid to burst your bubble. Welcome to security of the World
21:12
Cup, I'm afraid. So we've got 2 security liaison
21:15
officers who are lovely. They're introducing themselves
21:18
to the guys earlier on today and they're ex Indian Army, right?
21:21
And we're both majors in the Army, served more than 10 years,
21:24
retired. And yeah, on a serious note, we
21:27
have inherited Bangladesh's security detail, right.
21:30
And given that until last, just over last week, Bangladesh were
21:34
still coming to the World Cup. And given the sensitivities
21:37
around that, you can imagine that their security detail was
21:39
pretty tight. Yeah.
21:40
So we're sitting here in the hotel.
21:42
It's gated. Yeah.
21:45
You couldn't get in yesterday to the game.
21:47
You did get in here. We'll have to find out how, but
21:50
these guys are on it. And so Michael and the players,
21:54
if they want to go to the shopping mall just down there,
21:56
they have to let the guys know where they are.
21:57
Oh. No very much so, but I I will
22:00
say it's. That's the right thing.
22:02
It's a good thing, yeah, because this is a World Cup.
22:04
I mean, if there's going to be anywhere where you're at risk as
22:08
an international athlete, it's probably at a high profile.
22:11
Oh, I mean, if you're going to get stopped by some Daphne with
22:13
a camera and two bottles I must get in his bag, you need to.
22:16
Make sure if there's one person that wants to stop me, that is
22:18
the person that wants to stop me.
22:19
But on the field I did turn around and I went that's a
22:22
Scotland flag, a warm up game behind closed doors.
22:25
I was like that's an unbelievable.
22:27
But I am admiring the bottle of whiskey which has quite a good
22:30
few nips. So it must have been quite and
22:32
that must be a fresh bottle. There was another.
22:33
Two there were other two we had so it.
22:35
Must have been a good day had by all.
22:37
So basically we get, we get to the place.
22:39
I'm thinking right now, the first thing that really
22:41
surprised me was when we were getting there, we're going,
22:44
who's going to be here, right? Because you're trying to work it
22:46
in your head and I'd say, well, you'd probably have maybe
22:50
friends and family or family of the, of the players will
22:53
probably be there. But then you suddenly go and
22:55
well, wait a minute, These guys only knew about 8 or 9 days ago
22:57
whether they're coming. So how many families can
22:59
actually just drop everything, come out and watch their sons or
23:02
grandsons or you know, nephews, uncles, husbands, whatever,
23:05
playing at World Cup. So we're like, right, Well,
23:07
maybe not that, but I'll say what I didn't expect to see was
23:12
Afghanistan fans standing with their flags and their face
23:14
painted at the front. So we were at the gate for a
23:17
little while and I've got a vlog for, for, for people who are
23:19
listening to us, maybe want to watch and see what our
23:21
experience was like standing the gate, working out whether we're
23:25
going to get in or not. Then we decided, well, let's go
23:27
in. But what we also saw was just, I
23:29
would say by the end of it, there was about 45 to 50 Indian
23:34
people just standing, watching. Over a couple of guys in the
23:37
trees. A couple of yeah in the treble
23:38
bands in trees I did. Spot this and they were so
23:41
excited and I've actually got it on video where I'm going.
23:46
I I know there's people out here that know their cricket right,
23:48
but how far does Scotland actually go in the world?
23:51
And there was one guy and I've got him on video and he's going
23:54
through four or five of the Scotland players because it was
23:56
actually just at the point where now again, my cricket knowledge
24:01
here, you're not swapping ends, but basically Afghanistan had
24:04
finished batting it. You were about to come on and
24:06
I'm sort of saying on the camera what the anchor Scotland are
24:08
going to do that, aren't they? We're going to do these guys.
24:12
I'm sure that's what they were thinking in the trading room.
24:15
Well, and the the Indian guy who was watching, I said, what do
24:19
you think? And he sort of said, oh,
24:22
diplomatically he was trying to say you've got a chance.
24:25
But he was also sort of say, but what he then did was he rattled
24:28
through four or five Scotland players to say, you've got this
24:31
guy, you've got, I can't remember.
24:32
I've got it on the video and you're suddenly going, wait a
24:35
minute, you know, you know the Scotland players names and do.
24:38
You know, this is as somebody who worked in Scottish sport for
24:42
the 20 plus years and as a journalist, this is the thing
24:46
that now being inside the machine and trying to lift the
24:49
brand and the promotion of the of the sport.
24:52
This frustrates me because I think in Scotland, for one
24:56
reason or another, the game has not been publicized now in the
25:00
last 10-15 years for whatever reason.
25:01
And I will never speak I'll of those who came before me.
25:04
And I wouldn't speak I'll of the media or the Scottish public in
25:07
terms of their interest in cricket.
25:08
But there's a perception that cricket is not a Scottish sport.
25:11
Yeah, Crick has been around in Scotland for 200 plus years.
25:13
Yeah, we've been producing world class cricketers for decades and
25:17
decades and. Cricket.
25:19
Cricket. The freaky stories.
25:20
One of the greatest stories ever told and you've got this
25:23
scenario whereby because perhaps because a lack of funding, lack
25:26
of investment and maybe infrastructure in Scotland, it's
25:29
just not had the profile it deserves, certainly maybe until
25:32
the last 1015. Years.
25:34
Well, you're on a West Coast podcast now, guys.
25:35
Exactly. I know well.
25:37
There's different ways of doing it.
25:38
And so you look at the women's team.
25:40
Women's team have catapulted themselves into label
25:42
recognition last two or three years.
25:43
Yeah. Michael and the guys beat
25:45
England in 2018. Yeah.
25:46
And that was a massive spike moment.
25:48
Yeah. And then it all kind of just
25:50
faded away because we have, we live in a nation that's obsessed
25:52
with football. Yeah, which is fine.
25:53
Yeah, that's great. But and like our football team
25:55
are going to the World Cup and the whole nation is getting very
25:58
excited about going to the United States.
26:00
We're at a. World Cup.
26:01
Well, we're. Here, right here.
26:03
And what's more, this team has to qualify for a World Cup
26:06
through a brutal cutthroat process every two years.
26:09
And the women have to do that too.
26:11
Yeah. And I just personally, I don't
26:13
feel that the the cricketers in the last decade have had the
26:17
recognition. Well, I was.
26:18
I was guilty of it myself. I'm now being really biased
26:22
because I work for the organization but.
26:24
I mean I was, I was guilty of myself.
26:26
I went into there's a wee video I went in a very interesting
26:31
establishment in Mangalore on a Friday night by myself and it
26:35
was the kind of place because I'd heard they sell petrol
26:40
packed cartoons of whiskey or about 30 pence and I wanted to
26:45
try one of these tension cards whiskey.
26:46
And so can I give you the bag for all right, Yep, sorry.
26:52
Well, actually we. Don't have the?
26:54
License for the. We're not drinking it.
26:55
It's just for sure. Yeah, but OK, No problem.
26:57
I'll take it. Excuse me, Take it off.
27:00
That's the end of that. That's what happens when you're
27:02
here. This is this is live.
27:04
Welcome. Welcome to the good stuff being
27:06
unfortunately taken away in this current moment.
27:09
Have you got any ball drawing on the bar?
27:11
Can I get a poll drawn ball please?
27:14
And that is also how then you, you, you make a good thing out
27:18
of a situation by the gentleman. A Graham order and a whiskey.
27:21
But yeah, so from my point of view.
27:23
Sorry, just sorry about just. Keep that in though.
27:25
Yeah, I will. I told you any editing so, but
27:29
basically I'm standing in this bar a very, very, I mean, it
27:33
wasn't like this, but this way quite a might be a feet on the
27:37
way out kind of bar. And there's a bunch of Indian
27:41
guys. They're all fishermen because
27:44
there's a fishing town, Mangalore.
27:46
And they've all finished Friday evening, 7:30 and everyone's
27:49
drinking these 30 pence cartoons of whiskey, tiny little like
27:52
like a Mungo ones and stuff like that.
27:54
And and well, he's brought the bottle.
27:58
Yeah. Can I get a glass?
27:59
Can I get a glass of it please? Like a drink of the biscuit
28:02
please, if that's OK so. I'll.
28:06
Get a two no. No, no, no, no, no, no.
28:08
We've got a game tomorrow. One or two waters please.
28:10
Yeah. Can we get some water as well
28:11
for the table? Thank you.
28:13
This one. Yes, please.
28:15
That's it. Thank you.
28:16
Anyway, So and these guys said to me, so I said where are you
28:21
from? And I said Scotland and they
28:23
went World Cup and I went aye, Scott McDonald, John McGinn and
28:28
I went no, Bangladesh. And then I went well.
28:32
And then I went qualified, qualified and I went, OK, hang
28:36
on a minute. And then it wasn't until I got
28:37
back in a taxi, I stuck it in and I was suddenly seeing like
28:41
that was before it actually happened.
28:43
But I've been guilty of that, Charles, We are.
28:45
Yeah. We are very centric towards that
28:48
football, rugby and. Look, it's not about knowing
28:50
your place in the 2nd order, it's about every Scottish
28:53
sporting team should be celebrated.
28:56
Equally, it's a it's a difficult thing because the I can see if I
29:00
say this is now my, my 6th World Cup as a Scottish international
29:03
cricketer, which would probably make it one of the more higher
29:09
in terms of people who've been to World Cups within Scotland.
29:12
Our captain's been to seven and we've and that that I mean, but
29:17
yet football is still and I've had people go that's cricket.
29:20
I could never see it. But in how are you making that
29:22
career? And you go, well, it's something
29:24
that I've done from I've now been 13 years a Scottish
29:28
cricketer, which is, is I've seen the highs, I've seen the,
29:32
the lows and I've been and everything in between and we're
29:34
now. World Cup.
29:35
And anything in any capacity, and as this is now sitting with
29:38
yourself in in my 6th and probably towards the back end of
29:41
my career, I can safely say it's it's it's still one of my
29:44
proudest things are done is every time I pull on that
29:47
Thistle or a Scotland jersey, you don't get anything like it.
29:52
I mean, again, it'll be the same for rugby, it'll be the same for
29:55
pocket, whatever sporting. Represent your country and
29:57
you're always going. To be.
29:58
But definitely I'd love it just if people just inherited cricket
30:03
a little bit more in terms of how much good stuff and how many
30:08
World Cups we actually have achieved.
30:10
And I know that football's never going to be overtaken.
30:12
Don't get me wrong, it's going to be impossible to do and
30:15
rugby, how well they've done, it's impossible to do.
30:19
But just how, how much hard work and how, how good cricket and
30:23
and, and how much we do for the global game is like.
30:27
Like you said, the women qualified for yet another World
30:30
Cup yesterday. We've qualified for our 6th and
30:34
10 years, which again is not something that is done very
30:37
often by a side who've been to many opportunities in it.
30:42
And that is something I just want to keep promoting how all
30:44
the good things in Scotland. And that is again that's
30:47
Charles's job as, as media and my job as a no.
30:50
But my job no. Your job is media and my job as
30:52
a player to to try and promote Scotland every way which way we
30:55
can. And and pro like and this is
30:57
where like. Oh, that smells unbelievable.
30:59
Sorry, I'm just getting the I'm getting the down breeze of of
31:02
well, we are sorry, we are talking about whiskey.
31:04
I'm just getting, I'm getting a down breeze of that absolutely
31:07
unbelievable nectar, which it's making me a very, very, very.
31:14
That's a Paul John Bold there. So that is an Indian single.
31:17
As someone who I can, I will, I will admit to you whiskey was
31:23
revolting until about 10 years ago for me and that there was a
31:26
breakthrough moment with a whiskey where it was an old
31:30
poultney blend, which is the honey, the honey whiskey, which
31:34
gets you started on it. I think it's it's like a like a
31:37
liquor, a whiskey liquor which starts you off very honey, very,
31:40
very, very, very little whiskey. And this is the wheel started
31:44
getting in motion. And I'm not going to lie that
31:46
the wheels are very much in terrible motion with whiskey,
31:49
even to the fact that to the Indian market.
31:52
I had a bottle of and dryer last I said to yourself, an Indian
31:57
chap was part of a team who had played in in Dallas in October
32:00
and he said you must try this. Went home instantly, bought a
32:03
bottle for my birthday. Safe to say it's gone.
32:07
It was that good. Sorry to the S&C, it's
32:11
officially been finished before I came out here.
32:13
Responsibly. It was responsibly.
32:15
That's why they were in the first week of January doing.
32:17
Lots of responsibly, responsibly, but it was it was
32:21
the IT was the finished. Training.
32:23
No, like I say, responsibly obviously, but yeah.
32:28
Just I mean. It's someone that's taken.
32:31
It isn't until it isn't till you come out here.
32:33
We talked about the love of, of, of cricket out here, but we're,
32:39
we're very, we can be very centric ourselves where we look
32:45
at Scotch and we look at the Scotch industry and the in the
32:48
world of Scotch and what we see in Scotland versus what other
32:51
people in the world see. And a lot of people will first
32:54
of all go India. I didn't think that they were
32:58
any of their whiskies. They're the biggest, well, the
33:01
biggest emerging whiskey market in the world.
33:02
And they love their whiskey out here, absolutely love it.
33:05
And there's people who have, there's brands of whiskey that
33:09
you can get out here that you can't, Scotch whiskey that you
33:12
wouldn't be able to get back home.
33:13
And you see how far whiskey travels around the country.
33:16
And bearing in mind as well, you know, you've got billions of
33:18
people out here and Scotch travels the world as well.
33:23
Yeah. We were talking before we
33:24
started recording here about how we are very bad at talking
33:28
ourselves up. And I mentioned it when we were
33:29
interviewing, when we were chatting Fraser and myself in
33:32
the last episode that we did who's he works out here as a
33:34
brand ambassador. His job is literally to travel.
33:36
He's been to what is it 1717 cities, 15 States and 18 months
33:42
whilst he's been out here. And his job, his job is to punt
33:45
whiskey. His job is to talk to people
33:46
about whiskey. But he said that doesn't matter
33:49
where he goes. People just absolutely fall in
33:52
love with Scotch. And I tell you, you mentioned
33:54
about your, your security guys if you asked about Valentine's
33:58
whiskey, because Valentine's whiskey was one of the only
34:00
Scotch whiskies that the military could get in the
34:03
officer's mess around the whole of India.
34:05
So I bet you if you want to sneak out for a night or two if
34:07
the movie Valentine's and they'll be happy to turn a blind
34:10
eye. It's something that wherever
34:13
I've gone, I've managed to find myself in a situation talking
34:16
about whiskey. So 2015, lucky enough to get to
34:20
the World Cup in Australia, we got invited to a whiskey event.
34:23
That was where my, my love of whiskey started speaking to Jana
34:26
when I was speaking to yourself about Robbie Gilligan who worked
34:28
with Lark and it just catapulted into of being even talked about
34:35
working abroad in that industry, which something that I, I very
34:39
much, I could talk the hind legs off a donkey myself.
34:41
And that's something I get laughed at by the team for.
34:45
But just I find I've been again went back to Australia in 2022
34:49
and got invited to another event, but just by myself and to
34:53
openly talk about and speak more about the whiskey that I enjoy
34:57
now and things that just. Was a DRAM for you?
35:02
What do you like? What have you got?
35:03
For me, I'm a very much a PT whiskey.
35:05
So a very much an hard beg. Kill Coleman Really.
35:12
My mom and dad, they're very much more McAllen drinkers,
35:15
whereas I've never tried Lefroig yet I've that mother and father
35:19
are very much they don't like that one.
35:20
So I've kind of always avoided that one.
35:22
But more myself. I like I like the flavour.
35:24
I went from someone who's never never liked it to now almost the
35:29
prettier the better to actually get the flavour of it because I
35:32
find that they almost have McAllen too smooth and.
35:35
Yeah, you like you like the smokiness?
35:36
Whereas I actually enjoy the smokiness to actually give it a
35:40
bit of depth and actually give me that like, yeah, because I've
35:42
actually got called Coleman Lock Gorm, which I've, which I've got
35:48
told by Robbie, you must buy this one.
35:51
And then a certain ARD beg, which I the ARD beg is one that
35:57
so I like to have at home. I like to have one that's a very
36:00
nice whiskey special occasion and then a drinking whiskey,
36:03
which is a house drum, which will be once or twice a week.
36:06
I'll very much just before or after the kids are in bed, a wee
36:10
drink with my wife just to settle and just come as you do
36:14
not as you say, one or two a week.
36:16
And that's exactly all it is. And it's something that just you
36:19
find just relaxes you and just you enjoy just to get away from
36:24
the stresses that there sometimes can be or not even a
36:26
stress, a good thing like getting when told for this.
36:29
I had a glass of whiskey to celebrate almost going something
36:34
you never expect. Then you do that.
36:36
And that's I find that as something that's now helped in a
36:40
way of just get you away from things.
36:42
A little one just opens conversation and this is exactly
36:45
what it's doing and. It takes, I mean, the amount of
36:48
people that we've had on the podcast, people that I've gone
36:50
on to have very serious and major roles within the whiskey
36:53
industry. One of the things that really
36:55
sparked them was it was either travelling the world and when
36:59
people go, where are you from, Scotland, how many people would
37:03
actually go like Scotch whisk, Oh, whiskey.
37:05
And when you're on the other side of the world and you're
37:07
hearing somebody like we were talking about just the other day
37:10
there I was in the liquor store near me where I'm staying in
37:15
Bangalore. And the guy just is like, I
37:17
can't believe you've, you've been to a distillery in
37:20
Scotland. Like what was the distillery we
37:22
were talking about? I can't remember one of the top
37:23
of my head, but he was like, I've not got a passport, but I
37:26
sell this every day and I love whiskey.
37:29
And I can't believe that you get.
37:31
We we take it for. I mean, where's home for you?
37:33
Yeah. Home Home for me is Aberdeen.
37:35
So you'll have distilleries. But my wife is Inverness.
37:37
So the beautiful thing for me is I get to drive the Coastal Rd.
37:40
yeah, to Inverness, which is where there's, well, funnily
37:44
enough, I took my my wife and the kids when we were on our off
37:47
period to. It was in between Inverness and
37:52
Aberdeen. And there was 20 different
37:54
distilleries. Yeah, yeah.
37:55
In the period of 10 minute drive.
37:57
And we ended up talking about what we want to do for our 40th
38:00
birthdays and do something together and ended up saying,
38:02
well, why don't we try and plump on like a little whiskey tour
38:06
and a lot of things like that and ended up on the doorstep.
38:08
It is on the doorstep. It's.
38:10
Just. Incredible.
38:11
When you go to another country and you hear people, you know,
38:14
like I say yesterday, watching you guys and seeing 40 people
38:19
standing on their tip toes holding on to barbed wire
38:22
friends just to watch you guys play cricket.
38:24
But then you can go in any place around here and there'll be a
38:28
guy that would say Scotland's whiskey.
38:31
I love it and things like that. Charles, what about yourself?
38:32
What's what's your whiskey? Yeah, my.
38:34
Whiskey journeys, I think so that started 20 odd years ago
38:38
when I was just graduating from university and, and yeah, you
38:44
come out of university and you're probably relatively well
38:47
oiled anyway. Your liver is, is mature, shall
38:51
they say. And the first whiskey that I
38:54
really drank and liked. And it's funny you say you've
38:56
not tried Lefroy. Lefroy on the rocks.
38:58
Really. Yeah, OK.
39:00
Probably after quite a few other things before that.
39:02
And then so I've gone from that extreme and I've gone backwards
39:07
in terms of my appreciation of it and I've been fortunate to
39:11
have some really fun, fun experiences.
39:13
I've opened my eyes to different whiskeys, such as being given a
39:18
private tour with Macallan this day when I was on a on a weekend
39:21
with some pals. I was at the Isle of Whiskey
39:23
Festival last year. Really.
39:24
So you had. We went.
39:25
We had we had a rather chaotic weekend. 88 of us went over and
39:32
there was a storm which knocked out.
39:34
We had this idea to get a boat from Crennan and because one of
39:37
our guys on the his mate, his best mate runs the Cronin Hotel,
39:42
right? And he's got a little wooden
39:43
boat and he's sailing out to Iowa.
39:45
It's great. Oh, have a great time anchor and
39:49
you can just well, take your shore and you can go and like
39:51
get involved in the festival. Anyway, that that blew up
39:54
because the weather came in. So we ended up having to get a
39:56
ferry over and we spent a pretty wild day and a very wild night
40:00
on Isla and we went to Lagavoulin and the Lagavoulin
40:03
day is just. Unbelievable.
40:06
And they've got the music going and all the whiskey cocktails,
40:08
and we took two guys who hated whiskey, had never touched it
40:12
before, and by the time they go back on the boat they were like,
40:14
that stuff's amazing. So the thing that I've learned
40:17
in the last five years is all the different things you can do
40:19
with whiskey. Because I went through a little
40:20
period of being a bit of a snob and just wanted to drink single
40:23
mall. And I'm not drinking that
40:25
because it's not from Scotland. And now I'm all for whiskey
40:28
cocktails and highballs. And.
40:31
All and all sorts of interesting things, but in terms of, you
40:35
know, I've got a nice little collection in the house and I'm
40:38
on and off. I'm a member of the Whiskey
40:40
Society. It depends on how busy I am and
40:42
if I've got an opportunity to kind of maybe look after guests
40:46
or you've got visitors coming over.
40:48
I'll join for a year and stuff like that and I think I probably
40:51
will Join Now because we've got quite an exciting summer coming
40:54
up work wise. Yeah, we could have quite a lot
40:56
of interest from overseas coming into Scottish cricket.
40:59
Yeah, it might be very beneficial to be able to have a
41:01
membership of the Whiskey Society and take well onto
41:03
Queen. Street and I play, yeah, because
41:04
we've got the two, I mean the Queen St.
41:06
One, fantastic, but also the Balls.
41:07
Balls is beautiful and it's been just been redone.
41:09
We were in there. I've not been in for a.
41:11
Few years fantastic and the wall of whiskey.
41:13
But I think I think you're right.
41:16
We you're mentioning Lagoville and I put a post up on our
41:19
Instagram a couple of weeks ago and it was from an episode last
41:23
summer and it was the Smokey Cokey invention, which was
41:26
Lagoville in 16 in Coke. And it shouldn't work.
41:30
And there's so many people like you can't do that.
41:32
You can't put Lagoville in 16 in Coke.
41:33
But listen, two things #1 the whiskey industry just wants
41:37
people drinking whiskey, right? And it doesn't matter whether
41:40
they're putting something in it. And what it does is it starts a
41:42
journey like yourself. Yeah.
41:43
If it's a sweeter thing that gets you going, if it's on the
41:45
rocks, if it's ice and water, if it's water, if it's soda,
41:47
whatever, you're drinking whiskey.
41:49
And that's the most important thing.
41:50
And over time, and it's funny talking about now, two weeks ago
41:54
we did an episode with Cody Reynolds, who's a brand
41:57
ambassador for Angus and Dundee, which is like Adam Tom and Tell
42:00
and he he's said this, he's got the whiskey drinkers cycle that
42:04
you go on where you start you. Start.
42:06
Very sweet and it's different because everyone was.
42:09
But what happens is you have a bold flavour moment and it goes
42:13
two ways. Number one, it's either Sherry
42:15
and you go down the Sherry bomb route or it's Pete.
42:18
And what you tend to find is and what's great about when we do
42:20
the podcast is Angus, who is my best pal, who we do the podcast
42:23
with. When we were really going
42:25
through our our starting point of the journey, he went down.
42:28
His bold flavour was Pete and I went Sherry and I couldn't go.
42:31
Pete and he could go. He was OK with Sherry but he
42:33
loved Kilhoman was a big, big one for him as well.
42:36
The Seneg was was was one of his favourites.
42:39
That's. One of mine, it's fascinating
42:40
and then you become more open and it's like as the journey
42:43
goes on. So I would say I'm drinking the
42:46
Paul John. I'm biased.
42:47
I'd said this in the last episode.
42:49
I'm very impressionable. I'm a marketer's wet dreams.
42:52
So it's basically if it's got a good story, I absolutely love
42:55
it. But what's happening right now
42:57
is any time we visit a distillery, I walk out there
42:59
going that is my new favorite whiskey because I absolutely
43:02
love it. And my last distiller that was
43:03
Paul Drawn and Gore Indian whiskey, Indian single malt.
43:06
And it's absolutely cracking. What's great for you guys as
43:08
well as they do they they, they do peated whiskey as well.
43:11
And they import the peak directly from the Scottish
43:15
Highlands. It's Highland Peak, really.
43:16
Scotland I can safely say after the the, the second game that
43:21
we've got during the, the the tournament on the 9th after the
43:24
Italy day, I will be trying a Paul John if if I will be a
43:29
sample. You've talked up enough.
43:31
Honestly, it's a crack and drop but but right, so a little bit
43:34
of whiskey there. Now let's go back.
43:36
You've talked about the game W Indies the first.
43:37
Game W Indies on Saturday. Yeah, Italy on the Monday.
43:40
On the Monday, but there's one that's really sticking out.
43:43
There's one that I'm looking at going now.
43:45
What I'll say is one of the things I really struggle with
43:49
when I'm out here, if Saturdays are a very, very long day right
43:53
for me out here because football, rugby, whatever, it's
43:57
a 3 o'clock kick off back home, which means it's a 8:30 kick off
44:01
out here because the time difference.
44:02
So normally if there's a rugby day or a sports day, I'm
44:06
thinking we'll go to the pub around 12:00, have a couple of
44:08
drinks, settle in, bite to eat, football comes on.
44:12
If I go for a couple of pints at 12:00 in the afternoon here and
44:14
have to wait till 8:30 for the football to start, I'm not.
44:17
It's a long. I'm not going to be in a
44:18
condition for that. But what's great is we play
44:22
England, we do in in the cricket on the 14th September.
44:27
Now what time? What time's?
44:29
It's what? I.
44:31
Think it's a day? Night I think it's a 3 O'clock
44:33
start it's a 3. I believe it's a 3:00 PM start,
44:36
that one, I think 3 PM, 3:00 PM local time, which is.
44:39
Which is 10. Yeah, 10. 930 back in the UK.
44:43
So I will apologise to all wives, all girlfriends for that
44:47
one. It's Valentine's Day and it's
44:49
Rugby Day and it's and now it's Scotland V England and the
44:53
Cricket day which. I'm really sorry.
44:55
Because it's it's the right day and, and right.
44:58
So, so Scotland, there's England 3:00 PM in the time, 10 AM UK
45:02
time, or 10:30 I think it might be or 10. 30.
45:04
Yeah, right, Scotland. There's England in the cricket
45:07
T20 World Cup. Big, big game.
45:09
But then in the afternoon, Scotland versus England in the
45:12
Rugby Calcutta Cup for the Six Nations and you're playing
45:17
England. In Calcutta, yeah.
45:20
So when I realized that this is all happening, I've reached out
45:24
already to the Scottish Rugby Union because the Calcutta Cup
45:28
most famous trophy in world rugby and originated from the
45:32
Calcutta Sports Club, which will be not too far from where we're
45:35
staying and from Eden Gardens. So there's a bit of work to be
45:39
done at my end. I've got we've got 10 days or
45:41
so, but we're going to try and do a little bit of a bit of a
45:43
cute tie up there because this, you know, again, things happen
45:49
for a reason. This will never happen again.
45:51
You'll never get that happening on the same day.
45:53
And the fact that we're in the city here, the Calcutta Cup is
45:55
fun because the Calcutta Cup was essentially it was silver that
45:59
came from India to make the trophy.
46:01
That's right. It's got the, it's got the
46:02
Cobra. And it's got, it's got, yeah,
46:03
it's got the elephant on the top.
46:05
Yeah. So there's something there that
46:07
we need to do between ourselves and Scottish rugby.
46:10
There's a, there's a kind of storytelling piece there.
46:12
And if I can get my head out of my, you know, the air fryer that
46:16
it's living in at the moment, we'll do something there.
46:17
Because I mean, wouldn't it be great to have a double funny?
46:20
We've got a bit, we've got a few English guys in the backroom
46:23
staff and they already started cranking up here.
46:25
Yeah, I mean, I mean, look, if, if the last game against England
46:28
in the last World Cup's anything to go by, it's going to be
46:30
another cracking event. And we, I think we we really
46:34
ruffled some feathers that day. And I think ultimately we and
46:38
even the couple of the English backroom staff had actually said
46:40
to us that you had us on the ropes and you really put us in a
46:44
sticky situation. Ultimately rain one that day.
46:50
If you actually spoke to the England fans, they thought they
46:52
were winning. Yeah, not very comfortably.
46:56
If you spoke to the Scottish fans, it was hands down
46:58
Scotland. Ultimately it was a rain
47:00
affected game which we were doing really well.
47:06
And in my heart, a heart. So I think we'd have, we'd have
47:09
really missed twice. We'd have played England in the
47:12
last two attempts. We'd have, we'd have won.
47:15
Obviously 2018 was a longer format and then 20/20/24 we in
47:20
Barbados, it was, it was a lovely, lovely occasion.
47:23
But like you say again, we've got another opportunity to do to
47:26
just, we do exactly what we did in Bridgetown.
47:30
And of course, the big thing is, as we've seen on this podcast,
47:32
is the Scotland players don't drink before games.
47:34
So it's, it's it's we've got. That I'm I'm I'm I'm.
47:39
I'm not commenting. On that professional, I also
47:42
want to say I'll shout out to Bob Cutting.
47:45
So Bob Cutting, a big English rugby fan, he's got Whiskey Shed
47:51
TM that he calls it. He's got the shed in his garden
47:53
down South in England and every year he makes a Six Nations
47:57
blind and what he does, he does his great videos for us where he
48:00
gets all his rugby pals together and they just shut the door, get
48:04
the rugby on and they, yeah, we get an update, we get a pre
48:08
video from. Him where he says this is.
48:10
What the line up's going to be because he'll say right, France
48:12
are playing Italy. So we've got a single malt from
48:14
France, a single malt from Italy, Scotland, they're playing
48:17
Ireland. So we've got this from Glenn
48:19
Murray and a gym or whatever it is.
48:21
And he'll so he does all it goes to that level.
48:23
Plus he's got his whiskey shed TM blind that he's created him
48:26
and his pals have created for every year from 60s.
48:29
But I'm just saying, well, listen, by the way, Bob, you've
48:32
got to get up extra early now because you've got, sorry.
48:36
It's a sports lover's dream that day.
48:38
I mean cricket in the morning, rugby in the afternoon.
48:41
Honestly, it's it's. I don't know.
48:42
And then obviously you know in your favorite with your partner.
48:45
And your favorite? Well, and your favorite,
48:46
favorite football team probably at some point during the
48:48
afternoon as well. So I'd like I have already said
48:51
sorry two girlfriends, wives and partners as I'm afraid it's it's
48:54
not the dream day for you. Fantastic.
48:56
So that that's going to be really excited now.
48:59
Well, that game, that game, that's their second last group
49:02
stage and. It'll be pretty crucial, yeah.
49:04
I mean, all games are, of course, to get through to the
49:07
the Super Eights. I think everybody knows here
49:09
that the guys probably need to win at least two games and maybe
49:13
3. Yeah.
49:14
We'll see. Who knows?
49:16
Like I've already said today in an interview, look, why not play
49:20
India in the final? Yeah, why not?
49:22
Why not? Why not dare to dream?
49:25
We're not here to make up numbers.
49:27
We are not here. Yes, we had a disappointing
49:29
summer. I will say that again.
49:32
Why not? The ultimately the statement
49:34
could be why not? Because Scotland like to do
49:38
things a difficult way. We've got in the hard way, yes,
49:41
we've been putting in the hard yards behind the scenes.
49:43
We've had time to reflect. The boys know that.
49:46
But what I've seen in the group now in the last couple hours,
49:50
the boys are fizzing man. And I can tell you now come,
49:53
come that W Indies Day, the levels will get ramped up and
49:57
then come the 14th when it's England day, I can again.
50:00
It is, it's butterflies. It's already hitting butterflies
50:04
in the stomach stage now just talking about it, so it's good.
50:06
That's absolutely fantastic. I'm really, really, I mean, for
50:08
me as well, that's great because it'll be, I can actually enjoy
50:11
it. 3:00 PM. Not responsible drink.
50:14
I see a sociable time. I can get that and then watch
50:17
Scotland romp to victory over in English and then.
50:20
That would be that would be delightful.
50:21
In Scotland versus England, in the in the Six Nations and
50:24
watchers do the double over them, that would be absolutely.
50:26
I'll tell you what, there'll be a few there'll.
50:28
Be a few disappointed. That that evening if there's a
50:31
AA double I. Think I'd hate to see my
50:33
father's whiskey cupboard that night if that transpires.
50:36
But yeah, I'd hate to see a few people's whiskey cupboards that
50:39
night if that transpires. I'll tell you.
50:41
No, we are sort of fast approaching the time of the
50:44
podcast where what I do ask our guests is or what 3 DRAM.
50:47
So any 3 whiskeys that have any sort of meaning, story or
50:50
anything associated with them for yourselves so I'll.
50:54
Go first as well to go and do some work and I'll.
50:57
Leave you can. Save up the good answers.
51:00
So no, probably the if I had to take a whiskey to a desert
51:04
island, I always do the desert island.
51:05
This piece. Yeah.
51:06
What music would you take? Would you take?
51:08
Would you take a whiskey? It would probably be pound for
51:10
pound, the Lefroy Pedro Jimenez cask that you can get.
51:16
Yeah, in the, it's the Travel Retail 1.
51:18
Yeah, that's which. Are you plumping for like a
51:21
travel retail exclusive here, Charles Fabulous because if you
51:24
are, you're doing the right thing.
51:26
Sponsorship. It's.
51:28
Fantastic, It's fantastic, fantastic.
51:30
Just love it. I mean it's.
51:31
Just because it's, it's gorgeous, it's interesting.
51:33
Like the the the Pete and the Sherry mix.
51:36
That is an intense whiskey for it is I think it is a drum where
51:42
you're all in with a drama like that or you're it's a hard one
51:46
to be on the peripheries of you know if there's a smoky whiskey
51:50
that I'm going to I'm still there early my peated journey as
51:53
such, I'd beg absolutely love. That was a bit they got me on
51:56
the peak home and I can go to. I like the softer mainland
52:00
peated whiskeys. I have a fry against sometimes
52:02
just that step too far. But what you do technifying is
52:05
if you get somebody that loves it, they.
52:07
Love it. Yeah, I do.
52:09
I do love the frog and I think because I started there.
52:11
But actually I find that that sherried one just to be that.
52:14
It's so smooth. Yeah, so smooth and I've got
52:19
great memories of drinking it with friends and at weddings and
52:21
things like that. And it's, it's a go to.
52:23
And I haven't, I haven't been in an airport for quite a while
52:26
before this trip. So I might possibly pick
52:29
something up from the way home. The two other two.
52:32
So I've mentioned the trip that we took, and I was fortunate
52:36
enough to be given a tour of the McAllen distillery and the one
52:41
that jumped out. And this was probably 10-12
52:43
years ago, and I don't think they do it anymore.
52:44
It was a Sienna by McAllen. All right, OK.
52:47
It's one of the. They had this four.
52:49
There was four of them that were released at the same time.
52:52
And it was a Ruby and a amber I didn't even remember a decade
52:55
ago. And the Sienna just hit the spot
52:58
and it was like drinking orange marmalade.
53:00
Yeah. Yeah.
53:01
That was the only way to describe it.
53:02
And it was just beautiful. And I think it was one of the,
53:06
it was the fact that I'd had that experience at the
53:07
distillery behind the scenes, see things that you wouldn't
53:10
necessarily normally get the opportunity to see how the whole
53:12
production works. And they'd had, I think they'd
53:15
had a refit at that. Yeah, there were.
53:16
Yeah, it would have been 20. 15 or 2016 and it yeah, but you
53:22
can't get it anymore and at the time it was around, I think it
53:26
was around about 8 or £90 a bottle and I saw one.
53:30
Oh, I'll be. I'll be probably.
53:31
Be well into the high hundreds now, it's not very much left.
53:35
So that that for me, I always remember that and there's been a
53:38
few others. I got gifted an Astar Glen
53:41
Moringy. Alright, yeah, for my birthday
53:43
about 4-5 years ago. And that was terrific.
53:46
But just to find the one that I want to kind of touch on.
53:50
I've only had it once and I'll probably never have it again.
53:53
And I've mentioned this story before we started recording, but
53:56
I think it's probably worth repeating again.
53:59
So on the same trip, when we went to the account, we were
54:01
invited to a whiskey cocktails and art night, the Glenfiddich
54:05
Distillery. And there's six of us on this
54:07
little weekend away. And so we end up going along and
54:11
we we find the entrance and we're like, what's going on
54:13
here? And it was about 6:00 in the
54:14
evening in May or something light was dipping away and
54:18
where's the entrance to this art exhibition?
54:20
And then someone was waving at us and said, you need to come
54:22
here. So we followed them across the
54:24
courtyard at the car park and they took us in the side door
54:27
and they in up the stairs. And we're in this room.
54:29
There's only us and this person working for Glenfiddich, and
54:34
they said wait there, wait there, wait there.
54:36
Mr. Grant will be here soon, OK? And we look around and this room
54:40
is above the stills and there's a whole table set out for
54:43
dinner. That's an exclusive experience.
54:45
And we're thinking this is not the art, we're good with it.
54:50
And the guy walks, as he walks out the door, he says help
54:52
yourself, help yourself. And every time I say this story,
54:55
people leave me, go this is rubbish.
54:56
This is absolutely category there true.
54:59
So 6 Scots of them standing there.
55:01
All right, OK And there's a wee cabinet at the back of the room
55:05
and you've got going for the ten. 12/15/2020 5:30 40-50 I'm
55:12
like, well I'm going to start that.
55:16
Shock the tight Scotsman always goes at the expensive end, but
55:19
it's great. Start on the 30 and so we're
55:23
standing for about 5 minutes going on this is pretty good.
55:26
Where's the art? And then suddenly someone else
55:29
comes in who was the person who we had been invited to, who who
55:34
was organising his hearts. But she comes in looking very
55:37
frantic. She goes, you're not meant to be
55:38
in here. You're not the Mexican investor.
55:40
Of course we're not the Mexican investor.
55:46
So we had been confused with a bunch of people who were
55:49
obviously into put some money into the distillery.
55:52
And she leads us down another staircase across the court or
55:55
the other side, just as we see these six rather large men in
55:58
suits who are clearly from Central America walking back
56:01
across. So I will always remember the
56:04
glide for the 50 purely for the fact that I wasn't meant to
56:06
drink it and I'll never get to. Drink it.
56:08
That's. What it's all about standard.
56:09
Yeah, well done. And when did you get rid of your
56:11
handlebar mustache? No, there's a few, no.
56:15
Floating around in this team, I'll tell.
56:16
You so. Yeah, that's absolutely a great
56:19
story, Michael. Go with yourself then.
56:22
Yeah, I'll probably lead off with a little shout out to a
56:26
friend who owns a distillery in Australia, A gentleman by Robbie
56:29
Gilligan, who now owns Darwin Whiskeys.
56:32
Met him in 2015, which probably started the whiskey journey.
56:36
We were invited to a whiskey evening with Scotland where I
56:40
probably started tasting a few that I actually quite enjoyed
56:42
and went back in 2022. And Robbie now set up his own
56:46
company and he let me taste a taste of his own whiskey that
56:50
evening. And it was Derwent, Derwent
56:53
whiskey. And he wanted to leave me a
56:56
bottle that night. But unfortunately he said, look,
56:59
can I take that bottle back off? And I was quite, I was like, Oh
57:02
no, Robbie, please don't. And he actually went on to say
57:05
this is we want to give it to the, the Melbourne governing
57:09
body to put within the the mayoral room so that whenever
57:13
they're having an event, they take out his whiskey.
57:16
And I said, look, that's a lot more important than I am.
57:17
So please get your whiskey out there in Australia and, and it
57:21
really kind of, and then the next day I said, look, I'll get
57:24
you 2 tickets to the, the Scotland game and appeared back
57:27
at my hotel that night. It's a bottle of Derwent
57:30
whiskey, which is in pride of place in my, my cupboard.
57:33
So yeah, thank you for that one. And the second one would
57:38
probably be a little bit more towards my parents where I went
57:42
through that phase of really, really hating whiskey.
57:45
Every time they had one, I'd try one and fine.
57:47
And it went on to so eventually liking it, but they didn't know
57:52
this at that point. My mum is honestly Glenn live at
57:54
15 is her ultimate favorite whiskey.
57:57
And if you're struggling at Christmas, it's a it's a go to.
58:00
So mum opens up the Glenn Live at 15 and pours me one.
58:04
She goes, Are you sure you want this?
58:05
And I was like, please, you and dad and I just sitting and I
58:09
think my wife was was there at the time and we all poured once
58:13
you're not going to like this. And I was like, it's OK, please.
58:15
And then they actually looked at my face when I was sitting
58:17
drinking and they go, you enjoy whiskey now.
58:19
And the elation on the face of my parents when they actually
58:23
realized I enjoyed someone that's so passionate to them
58:27
because my my auntie and uncle who owned the Jigger had given
58:30
a. Jigger in Saint Andrews, yeah.
58:32
Yeah, so obviously that my auntie and uncle who used to own
58:36
the Jigger Bar gave my parents quite a few bottles as well,
58:38
which they probably shouldn't have done, but hey ho.
58:41
That's by the by. And my third one will be quite a
58:45
recent whiskey. It's the Isle of Harris
58:47
hierarchy. Yeah, however you say it.
58:52
So it was. It was September the 29th.
58:56
Yeah. 2023 son is born. Oh brilliant.
59:01
Get a message from my father-in-law saying
59:04
congratulations on your son. What have you called him?
59:06
And I said Harris and they went Bardon.
59:08
Yeah. He says the distillery in the
59:11
Isle of Harris has just released a whiskey yesterday.
59:15
And I went, no they haven't. They went yes they have.
59:18
They've released 8 new batches of their first ever whiskey.
59:23
Have you looked at it? And I went, have I looked at it?
59:25
I've not even told you the name of my son yet.
59:27
And he goes well. And I within 5 minutes I'd
59:30
bought myself 3 bottles, two from the same cask and one from
59:35
a different number of my. Eyes.
59:37
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I opened one to toast my
59:40
son's head like you do and and then I've got, I've now actually
59:43
got 5. So I've now got I think it's
59:45
6789 and then the newest. Try to get them.
59:49
All yeah and the newest one of the new batch of a different
59:54
Sherry cast 1 so and I've tried to reach out to them actually
59:57
that day and say look I've just had a.
1:00:00
We won, named Harris obviously the same day and bloody blah.
1:00:03
Is there any chance of whatever it didn't?
1:00:05
Quite we'll get. It's not right now do.
1:00:07
You didn't quite transpire. But anyone, anyone.
1:00:10
Isla Harris's listeners get the guy a free ball.
1:00:12
Come on. 2/1 for me and one for her.
1:00:14
Come on. But is that a World Cup for
1:00:16
credit? But the amazing, the amazing
1:00:18
thing was just the the the now obviously being in my small
1:00:24
journey of being a whiskey collector to having none to now
1:00:28
even having 5 bottles of the same whiskey with different
1:00:31
numbers. And my daughter unfortunately
1:00:33
turned around that Dad, where's my 1:00?
1:00:36
So I had to scope the earths of whiskeys to try and find one
1:00:42
with my daughter's name. And I have found one and is an
1:00:45
18 year old, which was not cheap, but it's a one I've
1:00:48
managed to find with Ivy and love in it as well, which I do
1:00:51
not know which distiller makes that one, but I managed to.
1:00:54
I've, I've sourced that. So when they're 18, I'm going to
1:00:57
be able to go look. We can sit together as a family
1:01:00
and and enjoy it, which is something that is very, very
1:01:03
close to heart. Yeah, and if you have another
1:01:05
wee boy just called Paul John. And then try that number.
1:01:10
Yeah. I mean, look, yeah, absolutely.
1:01:12
But that's absolutely. That's what I do.
1:01:17
We get from the Whiskey Stories podcast.
1:01:18
You guys like. No, enjoy it.
1:01:20
Whiskey used to be enjoyed with pals on a tour.
1:01:24
Crack that, crack that for us live.
1:01:26
Thank you ever so much. I've really, really enjoyed.
1:01:28
Yeah. You guys well.
1:01:29
Thank you for supporting the team and.
1:01:32
It's been great. I mean, I lost my voice because
1:01:34
every time we got a four or a six, I've been shouting easy.
1:01:38
Yeah, I can only, I can only. But thank you ever so much
1:01:41
please on that. Five year old blind by rare
1:01:44
fire. Mark that date, I will toast one
1:01:47
of them for you. Yeah, absolutely.
1:01:49
Please. We can only.
1:01:49
But thank you. Don't have it before a game.
1:01:51
Whatever you do, I don't want to get into trouble for.
1:01:53
That no, no, no and I can only but thank you for your time and.
1:01:56
Thank you. It's been absolutely fantastic
1:01:58
and all the best. And you know what?
1:01:59
Just just for Bob Cutting's whiskey shade.
1:02:02
Absolutely do them. Bob, I'm sorry, it's going to be
1:02:09
a long day. Thanks, Thanks again for having
1:02:12
us guys. Thank you very much.
1:02:13
You've also Whiskey Stories podcast in Bangalore with the
1:02:15
Scottish national cricket team before they get into the World
1:02:18
Cup. It's absolutely fantastic.
1:02:20
Thank you so much, Charles. Thank you so much, Michael.
1:02:21
It's been absolutely great meeting you and and hearing your
1:02:23
stories. All the very best.
1:02:24
Thank you very much. Slang Jamaa.
1:02:26
Slang cheers.