Graham Napier to take part in the Big Bike Ride 2 Essex all-rounder Graham Napier will be getting on his bike next month to raise money for the PCA Professional Cricketers’ Trust and the Tom Maynard Trust. Napier has been a dedicated fund-raiser for the PCA Professional Cricketers’ Trust for many years, taking part in a cricket match at Everest Base Camp in 2007, the Three Peaks Challenge in 2009 and the first Big Bike Ride in 2013. Napier will be back in the saddle in October when he will be one of 60 riders who will cycle from Truro in Cornwall to the Kia Oval over five days in the 400-mile Big Bike Ride 2. ” The Professional Cricketers’ Trust helps players out and at some point you never know who is going to require the needs of the fund whether it’s players I have played with or myself one day. It’s putting something back in really,” Napier says. ” Most current cricketers are going to cover the fitness side of it although you can’t prepare your backside for hours on the road sitting on a razor blade of a seat. ” But the fund-raising aspect is probably the hardest part, going back to the same people and finding new ways to raise money for the charities. ” It’s hard work. On the first bike ride we had three of us from Essex and we managed to work it between us to try and build up the fund-raising. It gets tougher and tougher every time to go back to people and ask them to support. ” But they are willing to do that because they understand that the Professional Cricketers’ Trust is such a good cause for cricketers. With Big Bike Ride 2 also supporting the Tom Maynard Trust it’s two good causes in one which is a good selling point for people when you are looking for sponsorship.” Napier will be joined on Big Bike Ride 2 by three members of England’s 2005 Ashes-winning side in Marcus Trescothick, Geraint Jones and Steve Harmison. Other riders include Mark Wallace, the PCA chairman and Glamorgan wicketkeeper, Middlesex’s England Lions seamer James Harris, Gloucestershire’s former New Zealand batsman Hamish Marshall, Surrey pair Gareth Batty and Stuart Meaker – both England internationals – Somerset director of cricket Matthew Maynard, the father of the late Tom Maynard, and Jason Ratcliffe, the PCA assistant chief executive. The first Big Bike Ride in 2013 raised more than £ 200,000 for the PCA Professional Cricketers’ Trust and Tom Maynard Trust, and another six-figure sum in sponsorship is the target for this year’s event. The first leg of Big Bike Ride 2 will be from Truro to Instow in Devon on October 9. The following day the riders will cycle from Instow to Somerset CCC’s headquarters at Taunton followed by legs from Taunton to Hampshire’s Ageas Bowl on October 11, the Ageas Bowl to Sussex’s TheBrightonandHoveJobs.com County Ground at Hove on October 12 ending with the final leg from Hove to the Kia Oval on October 13. The PCA Professional Cricketers’ Trust is part of the Association’s commitment to helping current and former players and their dependants in times of hardship and upheaval to readjust to the world beyond the game. The Fund also supports players and their dependants who might be in need of a helping hand with medical advice, a much-needed operation or those who require specialist advice, care or assistance. The Tom Maynard Trust was set up in the summer of 2012 following Tom’s tragic death. Its initial objectives were to try to provide low level financial support for young cricketers making their way in the game. This has now been expanded to include grants for aspiring young sports people looking for support with different aspects of their career development, education and awareness programmes, the Tom Maynard Academy at the Desert Springs complex in Southern Spain where up to 14 emerging county cricketers will benefit from specialist technical and conditioning work, and a scholarship at his old school, Millfield School. You can donate to Big Bike Ride 2 here: https://www.thepca.co.uk/big-bike-ride2-fundraising.html {{ak_sharing}}
