Whatever job we might do, and whatever rewards we work for, whether they be financial, ethical or sporting success, we all need the occasional holiday. No more so than the professional cricketer, the athlete performing in the glare of attention from the press and public, the lone individual in the team endeavour, forever just a few games away from career failure.Last week Nick Compton, a batsman previously tipped as a future England star, put away his kit bag and announced an indefinite break from cricket.I wont say I know how he feels, because I dont. My grandfather drove steam trains; Denis Compton scored hundreds at Lords. I played a handful of games for Leicestershire CCC Under-17s, quickly realised I wasnt good enough to go any further, while Nick was burdened - if talent can be a burden - with both ability and a stellar family name to live up to from day one.What we do have in common is a retreat from cricket.From the moment I could walk, I had a bat in my hand. In the summer I hit balls in back gardens, school playgrounds and on the park. In the winter I netted or played against factory walls under streetlights. While other kids got chickenpox, I caught cricket fever. Aged 11 I joined Barkby United CC, and whenever I could, I rode my BMX to their beautiful hills and furrows ground, which had seven trees inside the boundary. When I made it into Leicestershire Schools aged 15, I remember looking at my fixture card and realising that with a combination of junior and senior cricket I had the whole month of July in whites.It was cricket heaven. For that season and the next. And the next. Week in, week out. Then the same fixtures, the same away games against the same teams. The viscous sledging in the pressure cooker of senior league cricket. Making it into the Leicestershire side, and then being dropped from the Leicestershire side.I cant remember the exact day I quit, but I was in my early twenties and my kit bag had been stolen from my girlfriends house. Not that losing my favourite Duncan Fearnley was a reason to give up - I was barely using it, considering the form I was in. I quit because I was burnt out after years of non-stop cricket. Suddenly I felt bored on the pitch. And Id found out that turning up to play still drunk after a night out clubbing didnt help me take wickets or score runs. I was dropped into the second team and didnt care.For the next 12 years I never donned a pair of whites. I barely watched the game, either, which was good timing considering it was the 1990s, a decade, as historian Tom Holland wrote in the Guardian, of unprecedented darkness and despair for England cricket fans.Id fallen out of love with the game Id spent most of life obsessed with. I had no kit, and I travelled for most of my twenties, living on a ship, or in the semi-cricketless nations of Japan and the USA. Although there were flings with ad hoc cricket, including a detailed living-room Test series with armchair fielders in an East London squat, and frenetic games on beaches and streets while backpacking through India, the formalities of the sport held no attraction. Yet perhaps a return to cricket was inevitable. All those hours invested into the skills of such a complex game, and the memories formed on bus journeys to Grace Road to watch my heroes, or playing with my dad in the back garden, can hardly be erased.Still, an indoor tennis school in Chiba, a city just downwind of the leaking Fukushima nuclear reactor, was the surprise venue to bring me back to cricket. I was researching my third novel, Tokyo, and was looking for a social sport to play that was easier on my body than rugby, and joined a thriving indoor league - more for the excuse to have a beer than to hit a ball.And I did wonder if I was even capable of turning my arm over when asked to bowl. But I got it down to the other end at a decent pace and on a decent length. What made me realise the joy I was missing was the shot played. The opening bat for the Japan Ladies team stroked an immaculate straight drive into the netting. Style and technique. A moment of flow that I felt glad to be a part of, as if I were an actor in a performance rather than a competing foe.Back in England I bought whites, a bat, and all the accoutrements that a fully fledged cricketer needs. Id fallen back in love. I played league cricket, friendlies, and helped revive the Authors CC. Six years on, my resurgence continues. There might be days, trudging back to the pavilion after a bad decision or a low score, or playing in one of those matches where dropped catches skittle across the outfield, or I simply watch my best deliveries sail over the boundary rope, that I grumble and wonder at the point of standing in a field. Then a ball cannons from the middle of the bat - the bat that Im holding. Or a leggie grips and takes the off stump, and the bails tinkle.Form helps a cricketer enjoy the game. But enjoying the game helps form. I hope Compton feels invigorated by the holiday. I hope he knows nothing about the series played in his absence. I hope he forgets about the County Championship and the IPL and puts his kit bag in the garage and locks the door. And I hope he comes back to the sport he once must have loved. Nike Sb Shoes For Sale . The No. 1-ranked Nadal tweaked his back warming up for the Australian Open final, which he lost almost four weeks ago in a major upset against Stanislas Wawrinka. 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Two days ago, New Zealand celebrated victory in the second Test against Pakistan in Hamilton, a win that meant a 2-0 triumph in the series. At least, they celebrated inasmuch as they could: the next day eight of their Test XI were flying to Australia to defend the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. Australias players thought they had a quick format switch after the Adelaide Test, but New Zealand are two days and one international flight worse off.New Zealand also arrive with no Ross Taylor, who is recovering from eye surgery. They have no Adam Milne, Mitchell McClenaghan, or Corey Anderson, who are all out injured. Surprisingly, they have no Ish Sodhi, the legspinner who only once has faced Australia in an ODI earlier this year, and was Man of the Match, yet has been left out now. And of course, there is no Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori, Grant Elliott, Nathan McCullum, or Kyle Mills, all retired since the World Cup.We are missing some key players, New Zealand coach Mike Hesson said in Sydney on Thursday. Weve lost over 1000 one-day international games since the World Cup. To replace those is a challenge. But weve also got some exciting players that you guys wont know a lot about. Hopefully you will in a week or 10 days. Thats important for us to give them this sort of exposure, and find out which ones we want to keep backing and supporting.Among the new faces are legspinner Todd Astle, preferred in this series to Sodhi, and yet to make his ODI debut. Then there is Colin de Grandhomme, the seam bowler, who made a stunning Test debut against Pakistan last month but has only one ODI to his name, nearly five years ago. And then there is the 25-year-old fast bowler Lockie Ferguson, uncapped for New Zealand in any format, but a man who at his best can break the 150kph mark.With Adam Milne missing, Lockie gives us that point of difference in our attack, Hesson said. He hasnt played a huge amount up until that last two seasons. Hes got over a lot of injuries. Hes got to an age where those major issues tend to dissipate a bit, once you get to 24, 25. Hes a strong bowler, hes certainly quick. Id be very surprised if hee doesnt play at some point in this series.ddddddddddddes like Adam Milne, theyve both bowled over 150 at times ... Lockie is at the early stage of his career, but we know that hes capable of bowling at pace at times. Its difficult, your first series theres obviously going to be some nerves. But hes a confident character. When he gets his opportunity, Im sure hell give us a point of difference in our attack, which is important.Not that Australias ODI side is without change. Batting allrounder Hilton Cartwright is hoping for a debut in this series, and Australias leading ODI wicket taker in 2016 - John Hastings - has been left out due to the return of frontline fast men Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. And, like New Zealand, Australia have lost much ODI experience since the teams met in the 2015 World Cup final, with Michael Clarke, Mitchell Johnson, Brad Haddin and Shane Watson all retired.Since then, the teams have met once in a Chappell-Hadlee Series, when New Zealand won 2-1 at home earlier this year. And despite Australias 5-0 thrashing in a one-day series in South Africa in October, when they took an under-strength attack and rested Starc and Hazlewood, they will enter this series as No.1 in the world, as compared to New Zealand at No.3.Their one-day side is a heck of a lot more settled than their Test side, Hesson said of Australia. Their one-day side has been incredibly consistent, bar the South African series theyve been very good for a number of years. Currently ranked No.1 in the world, so I dont think the unsettled nature of the Test side will lead into the one-day side.We want to hang on to the Chappell-Hadlee. Weve won it the last couple of times and its really important for us. Australia are our big brothers and to win a bilateral series against them is important