Corey Rutgers has enjoyed the privilege of playing and coaching across much of the cricketing world, and in our “This is McChat” hour for the European Cricket Studio, the up-and-coming coach gave an entertaining insight into his cricketing journey.
In a lively cricketing conversation, both serious and light-hearted, Rutgers revealed how he pretended to be South African all-rounder Colin Ingram after a food fight went wrong during his stint with Islamabad United in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
An Islamabad United fielding coach across the last two seasons of the Pakistan Super League, Rutgers, 30, revealed how a rare chance to let off some steam led to good-natured chaos and a lot of mess.
“There was a red velvet cake that happened to be produced when a few players and coaching staff got together for a quiet drink one evening. Let’s just say that by the end of the night that red velvet cake, that was brought into us to try and be eaten and enjoyed, ended up all over the room,” Rutgers said.
Commenting on the hijinks: “I might have been a little bit of the instigator of that. A bit of a ruckus - you need some of that when on a trip like that.”
Reflecting on the incident with a guilty smile that mirrors his cheeky-chappy persona, Rutgers is certainly more familiar than most with life on the road, winning the T10 tournament in Qatar as Head Coach of the Falcon Hunters amongst various exploits.
When asked to elaborate on how *exactly* this particular story started, Rutgers was happy to confess his guilt.
“It’s not an easy topic to keep clean, but let’s just say one of the players and I got a bit lippy with each other in a good way, in good spirits. I was dared to throw the cake, and yes, I threw the cake!”
That started an almighty food fight, which soon escalated to Rutgers’ hotel room, leaving the man himself, aware that he had started the carnage, concocting an ingenious plan to resolve the situation.
“Unfortunately, at about 3am once everyone else had vacated, my room was left quite messy. We got a couple of cleaners to come up and I felt very, very guilty. It was 3am and the room was not looking great.
“I may have told a little white lie and produced three Islamabad shirts for the cleaners and said my name was Colin Ingram, and signed them as Colin Ingram. They were very excited at the time and the room was clean at 6am. It’s not my proudest moment - but it was a moment!”
Rutgers is currently the head coach and a player for current European Cricket League Champions V.O.C. Rotterdam, and recently was installed as head coach of the Belgium national side.
When it was put to Rutgers that at future European Cricket events it might be best to leave him on a table by himself: “Obviously it depends on the time, but I think self-isolation might be the best thing for me sometimes,” he joked.
For more stories and fun join me on the European Cricket Studio on Instagram Live next Monday at 17h00 Central European Time. ECL Founder Dan Weston will make an exclusive announcement about ECL21. We’ll also be joined by Joe Gatting, former first-class cricketer with Sussex and Hampshire, and captain of English Champions Swardeston.
Tune into the European Cricket Studio LIVE four times a week on @europeancricket Instagram, Monday to Thursday at 17h00 Central European Time.
