An uplifting tale of cricket - but not as you know it - making a
difference in far-flung parts of the world. For six years Tom Rodwell
ran cricketing programmes from Cuba to Zimbabwe, attempting to soothe
the world's ills with the curiously English balm known as cricket.
Touching, amusing and imbued with a deep love of the game, Third Man in
Havana documents the characters and experiences Rodwell encountered,
such as Guantanamo Cricket Club opening bowler, Stalin, who perhaps
unsurprisingly didn't take kindly to his LBW appeal being rejected in
Cuba's first ever match against an England X1. From Beersheva Cricket
Club pavilion in Israel - a converted nuclear bomb shelter, useful in
the face of Hamas' regular rocket attacks - to a game of 'tapeball'
cricket with ex-Tamil Tiger child soldiers behind barbed wire in Sri
Lanka, Rodwell discovers that the heart of the game is beating fast in
countries more used to conflict than cricket. Watch a video on our
website:
http://bit. ly/thirdman
Tom Rodwell ran the charity Cricket for Change for eight years, and is
now a Lord Taverner's Trustee.