Foy sees the funny side
Nathan Foy combines his cricket and working life with writing new material for his stand-up routine
Have you heard the one about the blind cricketer who moonlights as a stand-up comedian?
That is no cheap gag, and Nathan Foy admits he is the first to poke fun at himself when he takes to the mic.
His comedy career may be on hold at the moment - work and cricket have seen to that in recent years - but Foy, England’s pre-eminent blind cricketer, is planning a comeback.
He has just become the first winner of the ECB's Disability Player of the Year award, which he collected during a glittering ceremony at Lord’s in front of the great and good of the English game - and he could be forgiven for basking in a moment of glory all too rare for those involved in minority sport.
Not Foy. The 28-year-old has been practising every day since he was honoured alongside fellow recipients Andrew Strauss and Claire Taylor, and, between shifts for the Wales Council for the Blind, has even found time to work on his script as he prepares for a return to the stand-up stage.
“I used to do stand-up when I was at university; there were a couple of comedy clubs,” he tells ecb.co.uk.
“You might think it’s tough, but I’ve never actually had that hard a time from the audience - it’s hard to laugh at a blind guy when he’s already taking the mickey out of himself.
“There are so many funny things that happen to a blind guy on a normal day-to-day basis - you just sort of tell people what you’ve been up to.”
This - minus the jokes - is what Foy has been up to: partially sighted since birth, he lost his sight completely at the age of 17. That did not prevent him excelling as an athlete - long jump and triple jump were his forté - but an ankle injury put paid to his chances of taking part in the 2000 Paralympics.
Blind cricketer Heindrich Swanepoel convinced Foy to turn his hand to a new sport at the age of 19. Two years later he was making his England debut. In the same year he hit 232 in the World Cup against Pakistan, a record for a blind player. Last year he was the central figures in England’s Ashes triumph in Australia. And he is now widely regarded as the finest blind player in the world.
Foy and Kevin Shine, the ECB's lead bowling coach, get their heads together at the National Performance Centre
It is a remarkable rise for a man who freely admits there are many players blessed with much more talent. “My technique is rubbish,” says Foy. “I’m a big hacker; I just try to hit the ball as hard as I can."
However ugly he may claim to be - one senses there is a hint of modesty in Foy’s self-analysis - it clearly works for him. Australia will testify to that after he smashed 200 off just 79 balls in a one-day international during England’s 3-0 Ashes triumph before Christmas.
That success was soured slightly by suggestions in the Australian media that Foy, who is classed as a B1 player because he has no sight beyond making out shadows, could, in fact, see.
The truth behind Foy’s phenomenal success is rather less Machiavellian: a fierce work ethic and burning desire to better himself, traits which pervade the whole conversation.
“My athletics training is the single most important reason why I got good so quickly - athletes are just so committed to what they’re doing,” he adds.
“When I do something, I want to do it well; I don’t mess about with it. I decided I was going to play cricket, but I thought, ‘I can’t just turn up at the club’. So when I went for my first practice session, I’d been training for two or three weeks already at home.”
That training now consists of throwing a blind cricket ball - plastic, slightly larger than a normal cricket ball, and full of ball bearings - at a biscuit tin hung on his garden fence; turning the volume up on the stereo or television while rolling the ball around the living room; and hitting the ball around a field. Foy’s guide dog does the fetching.
They may not sound the most hi-tech of methods in a sporting world filled with scientists, nutritionists and physiologists, but they mark Foy apart from his contemporaries, according to Ian Martin, the ECB’s national disability cricket manager, who is adamant that Foy is "the best at what he does".
“It’s all about noise perception,” says Foy. “It’s just about listening to the ball. If you can hear a ball when the TV is on really loud, then it’s so much easier when you’re actually playing a game. Luckily for me, my neighbours have been pretty understanding.”
Foy emerged as one of the heroes behind England's thrilling Ashes triumph Down Under towards the end of last year
Foy has taken three catches in international cricket - unheard of for a B1 player - and his performances in recent years have made a mockery of the suggestion that B1s - of which there must be four in every team - cannot contribute.
Personable, good-humoured and hugely knowledgeable about the sport, Foy neither expects nor seeks sympathy for his blindness. Indeed, he is adamant that he has grown so used to living without sight that he rarely contemplates it any other way.
One exception was during the ceremony at Lord’s last week. “We were in the Long Room and Ian Martin was describing the pictures on the wall. I really wished I could see what it was like in there.
“There are times when we have been invited to events for the sake of it, and asked to sit in the corner out of the way, almost so people don’t trip over you. But we were made to feel so welcome by MCC, the ECB and the players there. I was sat next to Paul Collingwood and he was so nice - a great guy.”
This was the same evening that Foy met his hero, Nasser Hussain. And the same evening that Foy quipped to England's new team director Andy Flower, ‘If you’re still looking for a number three, you know where I am’.
It offered a glimpse into Foy’s ability to raise a smile in others, and suggests those who stumble across a blind comic at an open mic night in Cardiff any time soon may be pleasantly surprised.
So what about these new jokes? “I don’t want to give away my material, but let’s just say I’ve got a few stories from cricket tours.”
