Rick Liston and Josh Ogilvie leave Mongrel Downs next week on a two-man cricket ambassadorship ending at Lords.By Kath Gannaway
A SPIRIT of adventure and passion for sport have landed Healesville mates Rick Liston and Josh Ogilvie a gig which will take them from Mongrel Downs in Badger Creek to Lords – the long way!
Rick, 24, and Josh, 28, were selected from 300 entrants for a global cricketing adventure as the Johnnie Walker Local to Lord’s ambassadors.
The paddock pitch at Mongrel Downs, a friend’s property in Badger Creek, is their home ground, but they have played impromptu cricket matches from Goa in India on Australia Day to France where even the cricket-deprived locals were drawn in by their Aussie charm and the yellow cricket bat they carry with them everywhere.
Their spirit of adventure and love of cricket is not the only thing that impressed the Johnnie Walker judges.
Judge and Fox sports presenter Brendon Julian was also charmed.
“Their creativity and charisma topped of the decision that these were the guys for this adventure,” he said. The adventure involves travelling through nine countries in 80 days pitching an informal game of cricket to anyone cares to join in.
It’s not something they haven’t done before. They have been on two major overseas trips since 2005 including through Asia, India and spending nine months in Europe.
This trip will take them through South East Asia, China, Mongolia and Russia before they fly to London in time for the Ashes at Lords.
The ‘boys’ met when they teamed up as members of the Healesville Tennis Club as teenagers and have already had more than a few adventures – both at home and overseas.
Just in case anyone has forgotten, Rick says a notable claim to fame is their status as reigning Gateway Festival Wheelbarrow Race champions.
“I’ve never applied for a job that I was so completely suitable for as this one,” Rick said. “I feel I have been making that application for the past four years.”
Josh runs the restaurant at Innocent Bystander Winery in Healesville and Rick is an accountancy graduate who Josh jokes has made not working a profession in itself.
“He’s very creative … very frugal, and he’s managed an amazing international lifestyle,” he gibes.
For Rick, that’s a compliment. He is yet, he says, to use a day of his degree. “I can’t think of anybody in my demographic who has had such a favourable work-holiday ratio.”
In fact, they have managed to combine world travel and work which has included modelling in Morocco.
The opportunity to do what they love … and have somebody else pick up the tab, is awesome.
“In India they just love the game but this will be something different because we will be taking cricket to countries which don’t play the game,” Josh said.
Rick said the appeal of cricket was simple. “It’s a game that has survived for 400 years, perhaps longer. Shepherds and farmers used to play – you throw the ball, hit it and score runs … people just pick it up,” he said.
