You're not a fast bowler's dodgy lower back if you don't love taking wickets. At age 43, Troy "Sandman" Sands has been proving his bona fides as a top-grade paceman longer than most.
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But dismissing batsmen is not the main reason he plans to play cricket for as long as his body permits: he loves the social side of the game more than anything.
It is an attraction rooted in his distant past, when playing cricket in Gunnedah as a young boy provided a welcome interaction with a lot of kids his own age. At the time, he lived on his family's farm some 60 kilometres outside Gunnedah, and attended school in Maleny, where he had only a handful of classmates.
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"I grew up on the farm, so it was really good to come into town and, you know, hang out with other sides at that age ... It was pretty good to get in there and socialise with a lot of people I otherwise wouldn't of got to meet or see," he said.
"The social part is probably the main thing [I love about cricket]. I do love taking wickets. I still get a kick out of that, of course. But I guess if it wasn't a social sport, I wouldn't play, or I wouldn't play nearly as much, anyway."
Sands will look to add to his eight wickets this year when Old Boys play South Tamworth at Riverside 2 on Saturday. He is second on the bowling standings behind City United quick Tait Jordan, with a best of 4-25 in the round-one defeat of West Tamworth.
Sands believes he has bowled with more luck than skill this season, as he searches for more consistency.
Elsewhere this weekend, Norths and Wests clash at Riverside 1, while City and Bective-East meet at No 1 Oval.