The Triumphs and Trials of Peter Trego: Lessons from a Sporting Legend

So welcome back to the podcast.

It's always a privilege and honor to have guests that join me on the show and one of the things that I love to do is to talk to them about their career, their life, their story, and what they've done to achieve things.

And I've got no greater pleasure than welcome my good friend Peter Trigo to the show.

Peter, how are you?

How are you, James?

I'm very well, thanks, mate.

I'm good, I'm good.

So, look, we're going to talk through for the next half hour or so about everything about your life, what you've achieved, how you've achieved, what you did over a long sporting career across multiple.

You are the modern day Ian Botham.

You were a footballer as well as a cricketer, but and also now a golfer.

So you're very talented man.

But talk to us a little bit about those that, you know, I'm going to sort of share your story.

You played cricket for how many years?

20.

20.

About 20.

24 seasons.

24 seasons.

And you were one of Somerset's greatest ever players.

I think in terms of the amount of runs you think you were certainly in the top 10.

If I reckon, correct me, you'll know the stats better than I. Yeah, well.

I think being an all rounder, I think you're all exactly that.

You take your wickets, you score your runs.

So probably not in the higher echelon of either category, but hopefully contributed to a few wins in my time.

You definitely contributed and now you're the voice.

One of the things you do now alongside some other business stuff we'll talk about is the voice of Somerset cricket on the YouTube channel, which is very popular.

And as I was just walking into the building, there was someone shaking your hand.

So you.

Probably wonder, but let's talk about, did you always know?

I want to talk today about, like, your life, what you've done in, in sport and achieving things.

Because I think in business there's a huge amount of similarities by, by dealing things under pressure.

But did you always know you wanted to be in, you know, did you always.

Were you always very good as a sportsman and when you were younger?

Yeah, I think quite early on, I mean, I have, you know, sons now and a daughter, but the sons in particular have an interest in sport.

One my youngest is doing quite well and he's currently starting to Gloucester.

And we have a lot of, you know, conversations now about, you know, how he thinks about his, you know, path into professional sport.

And.

I think nowadays, like, young sportsmen are so sort of aware of the, the fruits of what a sports career can, can give you.

But, you know, when I really sort of sit down and think about what I felt like or thought about when I was a kid, it never really dawned on me that it would ever become a job.

I just loved playing sport.

Like, you know, jack of all trades is probably, you know, master and none probably sums me up quite well because I just like to play everything, you know, hockey, you know, I didn't play a great deal of hockey, but anything to do with whacking a ball around and, and really just like raw competition, I just absolutely adored it.

And I think early on, um, you know, it's probably appropriate to say that my PE teachers saw a natural gift in me and were always pushing me forward with my sport, but I didn't really need much pushing in fairness.

But.

I suppose the only thing I would say I definitely had was a.

It's just self belief and not necessarily always in sport, you know, and, and I know this is probably one of the things that I think culture is, culturally in the UK is quite difficult for other people to be faced with someone that's confident about what they do.

You know, you get put into like, he's arrogant, he's cocky, or whatever slur they attribute to someone who's just comfortable in their own skin and back themselves.

I think, I think we in the UK have a real issue with people like that.

It certainly looks that way when people have success and how the media treat them.

But, you know, from a youngster I can remember being in, in Mrs.

Bond's office, my Head of Year at the time, and you know, Pete, you're quite talented academically, you really need to focus.

And I was like, don't worry, Miss, I'm going to be a sport.

And like, yeah, yeah, super arrogant thing to say, but I genuinely believe that if I put my mind to something, I could achieve it.

What age were you where you thought or what age were you like scouted and was it, was it because obviously you were a very good footballer but also you were a very good cricketer, obviously which way where you made most of your career and you're probably a good golfer as well.

But the point is, what age were you when you sort of thought someone's sort of going to scout your.

Did you know that there was that pathway to moving into professional sport?

Well, everything happened to me like really early, so I didn't have that sort of becoming a man stage in my life and then aspire to play professional sport.

I played my first senior game for Somerset when I was 15.

So it happened by accident, happened very quickly.

So I never really had that, that period in my sort of young sport in life where there was a. I want to get there, you know, and, and do everything I can to achieve that goal.

It kind of just happened quite quickly.

And at 15, you know, what, what do you remember doing when you were 15 years old age?

I was, I was, I was trying.

Well, I was, I was, I was traveling, you know, up the motorway to play my first game for Somerset's men's second 11 team against Derbyshire at 15.

I mean, it's crazy.

And who had spotted you?

Can you remember actually though, can you remember that conversation where they were like, yeah, we wanted to come and must have felt quite either being confident in your own skit.

That's quite a big jump for a 15 year old to do there.

Yeah, I think, I think the reason was I scoring, I was scoring a lot of runs, I was taking a lot of wickets and, you know, the level I was playing at, you know, Somerset junior levels or local cricket here in Western Super Mare.

And so difficult for me to say because you probably have to ask the coaches, but I know there was one sort of quite poignant moment very early on when I got invited to train with the first team.

And I don't ever remember feeling daunted by that.

It was just like, oh, this is.

Going to be cool.

And my first net session, I had the bowlers that were, you know, chosen to bowl against me in this particular net taken into account.

I was 15 years old, was Graham Rose, genuine Somerset legend, phenomenal cricketer, someone I idolized.

Andy Caddick, one of England's best seam bowlers, who was, you know, 6 foot 7 and a bold, serious pace.

And Andre Van Troost, who didn't have the career that he should have had, but was touted as the quickest bowler to have ever, ever bowled.

So at 15 years of age, I was facing those guys in a net.

And I remember the feedback from the coaches like it was a torrid net.

I mean, Andre Van Trusel didn't have great control, but he bowled in the high 90 miles an hour.

And I can remember, you know, fighting for my life in this.

Now, I didn't play particularly great, but the coach was like, at your age, to not back back away, shy away from the challenge.

They were super impressed.

The next week I was, you know, driving up the motorway with Pierren Holloway to make my second team debut.

And I just think for me personally, one of the things I suppose I would pat myself on the back is even when I'm in an uncomfortable environment, sport wise, I don't think I've ever backed away from the challeng and, and I think for those who know cricket in particular, you know, if you make an error of judgment against bowlers of that speed you this, you're going to break bones.

So there's an element of sort of bravery.

I don't perceive myself as brave but I was always willing to get hurt to succeed.

And I think there are, they are, they are, they are two different things.

I don't, like I said, I don't think I'm a brave guy but if I was in a tackle in football or rugby or I was facing someone that made me feel uncomfortable, I was happy to take one for the team and try and succeed.

What you just talked about there though is a real time for life in many cases have actually been able to be.

Not supposed to be brave but also take some pain to accept that you've got to get somewhere and go back to what you talked about.

And I know, you know, when we talk for you there's a lot of people sometimes nowadays that don't want to do that, right.

They prefer to take that the easy, the easy route sometimes.

And we've all got to go through pain to achieve what we want to.

But as you developed your career and you went through your career, I mean you, there were some difficult times for you.

You know, I always remember the thing with, you know, you wouldn't, you would never play for England and you should have been because at the time when it was in that period of your peak part of your career where you, you were just the best all rounder in the country and did, and going back to that, how did that feel?

Because that must have felt a bit.

Did it make you feel frustrated or annoyed.

That I came to peace that it wasn't going to happen but I also was pretty confident I couldn't have done much more.

So I was, I was statistically the best cricketer in the country.

I played for England A. I think my last game I got 80 odd off 50 balls and 5 for 40 was man of the match and was never picked again.

And there were a number of times where I did things on the field that I was like.

I'd struggle to have like replayed that and done any better.

I think I'm, I think I have two sort of like, I suppose joint records for Somerset in That period, most sixes in a season, which I think was 47.

And the only players to score a thousand one day runs for Somerset.

And I share that record with Viv Richards and that's, that's kind of cool.

And when I look back, I think I'll, I'll never get over not being able to have tested my ability against the top teams.

But then in that time we also played in a competition called the Champions League where we played against all the IPL teams and the IPL teams you could arguably say are probably better limited overs teams than any international team because you've got the combination of the best Indian players and four of the, the world superstars at the time.

And we played Calcutta Knight Riders, who were the IPL champions in Hyderabad around that same sort of time.

And Brett Lee, one of the greatest fast bowlers of the modern era, was steaming in with the new ball.

And an hour and a half later on 70 odd knot out, Somerset win the game.

And.

I think probably the question that I, that sort, I suppose burns me a little bit is was I good enough?

But then I have experience like playing against players like that and I, and I did the job.

So I kind of feel like, yeah, I feel like I was good enough.

And also Somerset, you know, it's a very famous thing in the England calendar, English calendar, where the, where Somerset play the tourist teams.

And I think we've played against the West Indies, South Africa and India during my career.

And I scored, I think my, I scored two hundreds, 100 against the West Indies, 100 against South Africa and 80 something not out against India gives me an inclination I probably could have done quite well.

But I will say on the flip side of that is in during the peak of my career, England did have two very fine scene bowl rounders and that was Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood.

So.

And they're brilliant cricketers.

So if I was pitted up against those guys, probably don't have many complaints.

Right, because around that same time you also played and maybe cover this, go back to the other stuff after you played with a guy that.

I was listening to a podcast last week which Michael Vaughan and Alistair Cook was talking about one of the greatest batters never to play for England, that was James Hildreth and he never got into.

Do you think being back.

When you look back, do you think there was a bit of a, I wouldn't call it a bias, but an element.

Oh, they're rural, they're over there.

We don't need to worry about sort of Even though the performances were warranting those cord ups.

Do you think, did you and Hildy ever feel like come on, what do we have to do?

I, I think it's fair to say that certainly for a very long period that if you played for certain counties your, your, your chances of playing for England were a lot higher.

I mean I, I think the hyper example of this was a, a great first class batsman and did pretty well when he played for England was Mark Stoneman.

He played for Durham for many years, opened the batting in very challenging conditions, did okay, signed for Surrey, was never even talked about when he played for Durham for, for an England call up.

Played for Surrey, started the season okay, which is pretty much what he did for the eight previous seasons and was picked straight into the England team because he was now under the, the Surrey banner and.

But you know that, that will only ever sound like sort of sour grapes but I think it's fair to say that I think if me and Hildy played for Lancashire, Yorkshire or Surrey we would have, I personally believe that we would have played quite a few games for England between us.

Talk a little bit about your, you know, your cricket career and obviously some of the things you did, you were known as this sort of like fearless swashbuckling guy that came in because you know you were, what was it the tattoo talker people used to call you and this, this sort of.

But, but go back to what you just said a minute ago.

You, you always have had him and you've had this fearless attitude to approach him.

Talk about how people approach linked to business and what made that feel was it you said about you have that self confidence but, but to develop that, to generate that, you know, do you know sometimes you wish you could bottle that and take it into putting some people, don't you?

I think changing, if I'm honest James, I think it's just changing language and mentality because I think a lot of people that don't do things or don't perform as well as they could potentially do out of, let's call it fear focus too much on like fear of outcome.

Whereas I don't really understand or know where this came from.

I undoubtedly would have heard it from someone that I had respect for or had an interest in.

I was always like way more, way more fearful of.

Of.

Of not doing the work than the outcome.

I was.

I, I think it's certainly a Michael Jordan thing about how many buzzer shots he'd missed, how many games he lost in his career.

But he's the goat in all sports.

From my point of view.

I want, I was happy with failing, like happy to make myself look stupid, to risk success.

And I think there's, there's, you know, if you, I think if, you know, on the, on the, on the retired, you know, thinking about, you know, being somewhat entrepreneurial, you know, the risks are financial, aren't they?

You know, you put money and time into a new business and, and you have that decision, right?

I'm going to press the green light to go on this business but it's going to cost me X and that is at risk.

A lot of people don't press the green button.

But also all, all, everyone that has any success does press the green button.

What is that?

What is that handbrake that you can take off in your head?

There's that absolutely.

You shouldn't be reckless, especially comes to your finances.

But also you don't really get too far in life without taking a few punts along the way.

And I think the best, the best way to, to take those punts with your time and effort, not necessarily with finances and money because I know that can put pressures on elsewhere.

But you know, for me like now retired, I probably have five sort of part time elements of my life and actually two or three of them are quite full time.

But I'm, my, my mind is on 247 and I like that.

But that doesn't fit everyone.

I can still live a happy life and you know, go out for walks with the, the dogs and the, you know, going for lunch with the Mrs. And all that sort of stuff.

But there's always a little bit of my gray matter that's, that's switched on to the next thing, the next thing, the next thing.

And I don't mind that.

It's not for everyone, I guess but you know, like I said, I'm, I've always been happy to put my time into an effort, into success.

I never feared making a up or a mistake or look stupid.

You know, a lot of people throughout my career would have looked at me doing something or challenging myself and going, what an idiot.

What is he doing?

Who does he think he is?

You know, words like that.

But I'm like, okay, I'll show you.

And that's really been again, you know, that's why I wanted you on the podcast because there's a lot of things that you talked about today that I think obviously were very relevant for you in professional sport but are just so relevant in life and in business and in, you know, I Get a lot of people saying, oh, I don't want to make a phone call because I'm worried about, oh, I'm, what's the other person going to say?

And I was like, what's the worst that can happen?

Right, well they're going to put the phone down on you or they're going to say to you, no, so what?

But it's that like you say there is a lot of people that have this fear that they can't do things and, but, but I also think what you said there is about the ethic and I've always known you, your work ethic has just been quite phenomenal in terms of what you do, in terms of you everything golf in, you know, the business that you've got now, you've got that real like I'm not going to get there unless I do the graft.

And I guess that's come from professional sport and knowing that you have to just graft and grind it out in order to be able to get results.

Yeah, I think, I think there's a number of like decisions that I've made about how I operate that bleed into my personal and work life, sport life and you know, I do a little bit of coaching as well and I've head coached at professional level a number of times in franchise competitions.

So I, I see a lot of people across the spectrum in, you know, you know, business owners or in sport that they're happy to have what I would call superficial relationships with people where say the right thing, you never say anything to ruffle any feathers because every time you sort of create a little bit of friction, there's a chance of the person opposite you.

This guy's not for me or this person's not for me and you lose that for me.

If I, I mean this is like quite arbitrary, but if I come into contact with a hundred people in a year, I want to be myself.

If I feel like there's a challenging conversation to have, I have it.

And you might lose 90.

But you, you will find 10 that appreciate your openness, your honesty.

Because I'm all about trying to a perform but also help other people perform.

And I'm not always right.

But I'm also not happy to have those sort of like what I would call like tippy tappy interactions with people because I think the people that you can sit in front of say something that you know, they might not like and still have a beer with you or still phone you the next day, they're the people you want in your Life, not these like I said, superficial relationships.

We can all have those.

But I think the real sort of like the, the honey out there, whether, whether it be a business life, personal life, is to have people around you that you can make cough and, and.

And choke good for our podcast if it feel good.

But so in terms of, you know, just come back a little bit on your cricket career, you had that time but you also, you were a footballer, right.

And you played football.

What was it like to be able to.

Because obviously people would look at it and go, how the hell can you do do both?

Was that just because you were also, you were sportingly talented but there, there are differences in.

Yeah, well I played, I played, I played non league football so it's, I had a, what's called a semi, a semi professional.

Have a drink James.

You know, down it.

Not a good deal for podcast.

If you carry on you have.

I had a 39 week contract playing non league football for, for a number, number of teams.

It was a pretty tidy footballer.

And.

I had my cricket contract as well and it was almost like the end of a season finished.

Everyone had the, you know, all the other cricket is not saying all of them had the ability to play multi sports but they'd shut down their whole sort of athletic lives for a month.

The, I would be in football training as soon as the last cricket ball was bowled or hit, I'm straight into the football and I, I love that.

Yeah, did some pretty cool things at non league level.

Could I have made it into league football potentially If I was 100% focused.

You know him, you know us again having one of those conversations where he told me something I didn't want to hear.

Time to park the football.

This is, this is what you need to do.

And that decision was brilliant for me in terms of like what I've done in my cricket career.

And he's still a great friend of mine now.

So what I want to talk about when you know, because you play, you know, sport in front of, you know, especially in those, those Champions League games in front of thousands of people and again just talking about pressure and handling pressure and you know, you know people always say pressures for tires and all this sort of stuff and, but I always think, you know, it can make or break people.

And I remember, I think it was Just before.

But you know there's a critical Scott Boswell who, you know, if anyone wants to search for him on YouTube, you know, sad actually what happened to him because I think he basically lost it complet a big final when Somerset were playing Leicestershire.

I think it was.

And he never recovered.

I don't think he.

I don't think he ever got back into the game.

But that.

That ability to.

To withstand pressure is something you all sort of seem to thrive on.

Was there anything in particular was just, you know when you're in front of like thousands of people watching you and you know you was your ticker up.

I mean we talk to that feeling about how and how did you cope and deal with those moments.

I think you have a sense of occasion like big games, semi finals.

Finals.

Yeah, I. I've always thought the semi finals are more pressurized than finals because everyone's desperate to get to the final and there's a.

There's something in the achievement of making a final.

Semi finals are like.

Feels like it's all on the line.

I had a really sort of organic relationship with the supporters home and away.

You know, if I was around the boundary edge walking out to bat happily have a.

Have a chat, a bit of banter.

It's.

It's a weird thing unless you.

I suppose unless you've experienced it.

You know we.

We've played you know in some.

In, you know, I think In Hyderabad we had 45, 50, 000 people watching that particular game against the IPL champions.

And it's the weirdest thing when you're in the action.

You know you've got a.

Or become hit you at quite a rate or not so you can't really take your eye off the ball.

It's like the cr.

The.

The.

If you watch a replay of you taking a high catch in a cricket match, there's so much noise from the periphery when the ball's up in the air, you know whatever noise are being made but when you're under it, it's just nothing.

It's.

For me, I can't speak for any other cricketer but it's nothing.

You're just.

It's the ball and you.

And making that catch you just don't.

And the same facing the ball.

You can have, you know, show her back to our Brett Lee running to bowl with you and all the crowd are up and clapping and cheering and shouting and nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Can't hear a thing.

It's just the ball because you just blocked it out.

It's Nothing.

I'm trained to do it.

It's just someone says, you know, if I watch a replay of me facing a ball from Brett Lee, first ball of a massive game, it's like hundred, like I don't know what, decibels aren't great, but it's loud.

But my memory of that moment is silence.

And it's, it's a strange thing.

So in terms of like pressure, I don't think you can put pressure down to like finite moments of facing a ball or taking a catch because that for me is you're so focused on what you're doing at that elite level that everything else is just a blur.

I think it's all the silly things like trying to get to sleep the night before, you know, when you know you've got a big moment in front of you, whether it be in business, a big meeting or a big moment in sport.

I think it's how you manage yourself leading up to the first ball.

Being bold that's most important.

Being as a sportsman, being physically in the best shape you can be in, being prepared, being fed, having good sleep, waking, you know, get into the ground, you know, so you're not rushing around so you can unpack your kit and get into the right headspace.

I think those are the things like that pre, you know, that was it the 5p, some weird piss poor preparation or something like that.

Yeah, I subscribe to that.

I think the better I became as a sportsman.

I was, I was just locked in before a game, whether it be football, cricket or now, you know, a game of golf.

And I'm trying to scrap my way onto like making cuts at the clutch door level.

It's just about get into the moment of executing and I've just ticked all my boxes and.

But I guess again I go that goes back to your professionalism because a lot of people, especially maybe the area where you pay quickie, didn't do that, did they?

There were a lot of people that would be on the, on the bevies the night, the night before and you know, and whereas you always struck me that was, you know, you'd enjoy yourself when, when you'd won a game or won a tournament, but you were very professional before that.

And I guess that goes back down to like you say, the business.

There's a lot of people in business that will, that will, you know, eat badly or you know, train, you know, not train or not look after themselves and then wonder why they're not performing.

And I guess it comes down to that doesn't it, it's that element of you are what you've programmed yourself to be.

Right?

It's like doing a podcast with someone who's choking to death across the table.

You know, you need to be prepared.

Clear those, Clear those throat box.

But that it didn't.

Wasn't an immediate thing because I, I look back at it now in terms of, like, memories as a real plus point.

Fitness testing and, you know, a real requirement for you to be an athlete, not just someone who's good at cricket, because you can get away with being a good cricketer and not being an athlete.

In fairness, it's a game of.

That combines like athleticism and skill.

Lots of people that aren't in great shape, that can be brilliant players.

Some of the greats weren't in great shape.

But, you know, I started my career in the late 90s.

I can remember again, 15, 16, 17, you know, going away with the, the men's teams, traveling around the country playing games of cricket.

And I couldn't, you know, what's it like?

You know, a lot of my friends are interested.

What's it like?

Wow.

It's like, you know, it's like going on a stag do.

Some of the trips, like every, you know, the lads go to the pub and have a few beers and, you know, go to bed at, you know, 11 and wake up the next day a couple of them a bit dusty.

And then we play cricket and we play hard and all that sort of stuff.

But then, you know, the day ends and the guys go down to the bar and have a couple of beers with the members and yeah, it was, it was like.

That was.

That was cricket and rugby, I think.

I think football was, you know, five years, I suppose.

But then you look at.

I suppose I'm a sort of.

From a distance, from.

Definitely a distance.

You know, follow Man United and, you know, I think you've got that.

Yeah, it's pretty well talked about now.

You're.

You're Brian Robson's.

You're talking about other players, like your Paul, Paul Merson types, your Tony Adams.

You know, it's very well known that during the sort of early mid-90s, there was a.

There was a bit of a drinking culture, brilliant athletes, and they got away with it, but, you know, they didn't live the lifestyle a professional footballer lives now.

So there was a.

There's a.

There's a change.

And I sort of saw a bit of that and it probably coincided with, coincided with me not doing brilliantly.

I did okay when I, when I was young, but I did way better once the game had changed.

And it was a, you know, you looked after yourself and you know, you swapped out your pint of Thatcher cider for a protein shake and a banana in an evening and you saved your Thatcher's gold for winning games.

And again, that, that within itself is a massive change in mentality.

So I urge anyone to do it or at least try it.

So I, I think living sort of your life in some level of moderation, you know, if you're a bit heavy or you're not very fit, you know, do some sort of changes.

I think it's really important that, you know, living relatively sort of a cleanish lifestyle.

I don't really drink just by choice.

I.

Well, you know, I have the occasional one, but you know what, because I have an occasional drink, I love having an occasion, like really enjoy that pint of Thatcher's gold when I have one, if I had one every couple of days.

It just.

And I think if you change your mentality to like, you know, it's probably called like cheat days or treats or something like that.

I think if you're sort of like quite regimented in looking after your health, you know, ticking a few fitness boxes and then have a lazy day and a pint and a McDonald's or whatever your vice is, you enjoy that so much, it's worth those other five or six days where you just like look after yourself a little bit.

And I think that's massive A, you get a massive endorphin boost from the times where you do sit on the couch, do sod all day and have some fast food.

I, you know, if I, if I did that on a number of days and I have done certainly this, this last year when I've been busy, you know, driving around the country a lot, lots of service station food, energy levels that might.

The sharpness of my thinking massively gets affected.

But you know, I'd urge anyone who's sort of stuck in a rut in anything, whether it be sport or their business or anything, just, just to look at that side of their life.

You know, good sleep, good food, a little bit of exercise.

Even if it's just going out for a walk with the dogs or just going out for a walk, I think it gives you such better focus and clarity.

No, I totally agree.

A couple of quick questions before we go on to other things.

Hardest cricketer you ever Faced or toughest opponent you ever faced?

Toughest cricketer I ever faced.

Opponent where you thought this just feels like heart.

Yeah.

Even if a confident person like you, it felt, yeah.

I mean, the era that I played in county cricket was a real blessed one as well.

You know, pre, you know, franchise cricket was around, but.

But one of the sort of pinnacles for international cricket is.

Was to come and play county cricket.

You know, the, the.

The great your Darren Lehman, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, all like Shane Warne was that association with Hampshire for years.

Viviet Slacksman, all of the great, great players in modern history played county cricket and had the opportunity to play against.

And with a lot of those guys, there were.

There were days when you sort of.

You elevate yourself when you're in front of those guys.

You gotta try and get them out.

I had again, the opportunity when I was really young to play against my absolute hero, which was Robin Smith, who played for Hampshire in England.

He was, he was a hard man.

You know, when I first got, I think, really turned on by cricket was watching him bat against the West Indies, like a brutally fast bowling attack.

Ian Bishop caught him on the jaw with a short ball, and you could see on the camera that his jaw was starting to swell in front of you.

Probably cracked if, you know, that would have hurt, you know, 90 miles per hour straight on Jawbone, no helmet.

And he was just.

He had this like, iron look.

And that was kind of the first time I saw a bit of what I loved about football in those days in cricket.

And that really changed my mentality of what cricket was at that level.

I saw that man on man battle and I.

And that really inspired me.

But then I had a chance to play against him when he played for, for Hampshire, and he was a brilliant cutter and puller, played the short ball brilliantly.

And I wasn't a particularly quick bowler, but Andy Caddick was at mid off and it was, I think it was my second championship game against Hampshire at Taunton.

And it was kind of a no no in county cricket to bowl shortening.

Robin Smith, that was his bread and butter.

He was gonna, he was gonna.

Yeah.

And I was at the end of my run, two or three overs in, I was bowling nicely and I was like, caddy, I am, I'm just desperate to bottom bouncer.

I've just like, I've idolized this guy cutting and pulling, and he was like, well, I don't advise it, Triggs, but, you know, if you want to give it a go, give it a go.

And I bowled him, a bouncer and he belted me into the stand for six.

But I was buzzing, I was absolutely buzzing.

My hero just hit me for six and then I sort of went back into like work mode and you know three or four balls later got him out.

I mean it was just, that was, that was an amazing, amazing experience to, to play against those sort of players.

But in terms of tough cricketers I would say that in my era Darren Lehman, you know when he was on, you know his record for Yorkshire is staggering.

I think he averaged about 7, he averaged about 75 for Yorkshire on challenging pitches.

When, when you got a sense that he was in it was Graham Hick, Mark Grandpa Cash, Darren Lehman.

I, I think it was all.

There was a stage in their batting where it was became inevitable they were going to get 100 and I, I haven't seen many players that I've played against in my 20 odd years that I felt that they will play a certain shot and you just go not much we can do here lads.

And that's even having people like Andy Caddick in the bowling attack.

They were phenomenal players.

There's some legends that you mentioned there for sure and, and just in terms of you know those are sort of batters.

In terms of the bowlers, the.

Was there a bowler that when you were coming in, you know coming in into bat you batted at six for Somerset in, in sort of camp championship then you went into three for the one there was there a bowl that came in and you were like okay this guy's either rapid or was a magician with a spin or whatever that you thought this guy's hard work to play against.

Well I think the one, the one bowler that I think I always was a good player.

I think I am or was a pretty good player.

Spin.

I got a good record against spin bowling.

Shane Warm was a magician.

Did you face it?

Yeah.

And I got him for a couple of sixes but he got me at LBW with that famous flipper delivery and it was like it's amazing but, but, but you felt very much in a battle.

You felt very much like you were the underdog in that battle.

But I still felt like I had something to combat him with.

I faced Matiah Muralitharan and it was just survive and don't look stupid.

Before he had his shoulder operation, I forget when he turned the ball like a yard either way and because of his action that was very hard to pick as well and the pace that he bowled and I found that like super challenging in Terms of fast bowlers faced most of the greats of my sort of time span, which was awesome.

I used to really feel like that's when my game was at its best, when I was like, oh, this is hairs on the back of your neck stuff.

And used to love that one guy that used to just hit me in the hell.

I reckon in my whole, whole career I probably got hit on the helmet about four times and three of them were Simon Jones.

Simon Jones.

For some reason I could never pick up his short ball.

And that's a horrible place to be when you know that if he bowls your banks, the likely high chance is going to hit you on the body somewhere.

And he used to clang me on the helmet for a pastime.

He used to sort of amble in and then 95 miles an hour, whereas you had a show of actar and a Bret Lee and a Chris Silverwood in his heyday and all that, and a Mark Wood.

They're steaming it in so you get a sense of something fast is coming.

Simon Jones was just like Amberlynn and then this rocket would come at you and it just.

For some reason, I just could never.

Line him up, if he's any constellation.

You've probably seen the video of me with the Lassens event with Simon Jones, so I'm with you on that one, but just, just moving, not just of time, doing.

You're a busy man, you've got lots of stuff to do.

We'll talk about the business, but just.

Are there any similarities also between, you know, professional sport and business now, when you look, you know, and the other similarities that what we've mentioned around you talk about risk and about being fearless and be able to, you know, other things that.

And I go back to that settlement.

I remember you talking to me once about Sachin Tendulkar, who's one of the greatest cricketers ever to.

To live, you know, across the planet.

And I remember, I'm sure, I'm sure you said this, you know, said to me that you asked him a question about how he copes with certain situations.

And I think the answer that you gave me at the time, if it's the same answer, that was pretty simple, which was.

It was breathing and it was.

Was that those sort of conversations.

And when people are going through difficult times, I mean, people listen to this that are going through a difficult time in, in their life or in business or in, you know, something's not going wrong for they've lost a deal or whatever else.

Were there mechanisms that you used when you were at your most difficult times as a sports person that, you know, that just helped you, that can help people now do you think?

Oh, well, I genuinely think.

And in this, in this sort of like podcast era and you know, I think people expect the answer to be something that sounds amazing.

And I don't, I just don't think it is like Sachin's the conversation.

I got on quite well with Rahul Dravid, who was known as the Wall, an amazing cricketer himself, you know, right up there with the probably top 10 batters of all time.

And I asked him, because I knew him, any chance I could have a chat with Sachin.

And you know, I just wanted to talk to him about batting and I was expecting something miraculous and he just talked about his breathing for 30 minutes.

Bored the ass out of me.

It was like such an underwhelming thing.

But it took me a while to realize that actually when I started to think about, you know, people talk about being in the zone.

Being in the zone for me as a cricketer is being calm.

And to be calm, I think a byproduct of that is you, you have to have your breathing in check.

If you, if you.

Well, one of the hardest times as a cricketer is when you, you run a three because you, you sprint three runs, you sprint like 80 meters or whatever.

The, the, the, the, the distance is with a turn and your heart rate is 150 plus and you're breathing quickly and you've got a faceable like within 5 or 6 seconds time.

As soon as I started to realize that focusing on getting my heart rate back, that coincides with being fitter as well.

Because the fitter you are, the quicker you're, your, your cardiovascular system recovers.

Being in control of my, myself helped me perform.

And when I scored hundreds, like our psychologist said, what does it feel like when you're out there?

I said it's the weirdest thing.

This is John Pitts who's you know, great guys, works with some Formula one teams and has worked for, you know, professional football teams and, and Somerset.

I said it's the weirdest thing.

Pits he like when I'm at the non strikers end when I almost every time I've ever scored like 50 plus runs, I feel like I could just lean on my back and fall asleep stood up.

I am just in this weird place actually.

It actually feels quite uncomfortable.

Until I understood that it was me at my best, until I worked that out.

And I think to answer the question, you know, in, in business is I don't think there is a magical solution for whatever your challenge is.

But, but I think people, you know that phrase in business, people do business with people.

I don't think there's a true word.

I think in the digital age you can have faceless relationships, but I still would suggest that a lot of business is done face to face.

If you're in control of yourself, you're calm, you're prepared and ultimately backing yourself.

You know, if I was selling something to you or offering a service, I need to really, really believe that my service is an advantage to you.

And if I do believe that and I've done my work, that comes across somewhere in the ether and that person goes, this guy's talking the truth, this some sense.

And yeah, I, I do see a lot of things online where there's, I'll do this magical thing and it sounds very, you know, fantastical, but I just don't think that is where the real magic is.

I think it's like within yourself, preparing, making sure you've got a product that, you know, people want, whatever that may be.

You know, even stuff like with my new business, Cricket style, I mean, hopefully you can see on, see on screen, you know, well, I had, I had the, I had the opportunity to, you know, design and make some hoodies, but I went into like material weights, you know, designs of every single thing that was, was chosen.

So I sort of, I could have just picked a hoodie from anywhere.

But I, I did it in a way that when I say that, you know, these are on our website, I absolutely believe they're probably the best, best studies out there.

And, and I think if you transfer that to whatever your genre is, I think that's where, that's where the real.

And I think you're right with that sort of element of, of being able to people look for the magic cure.

And actually sometimes the magic is just in the basics, isn't it?

The basics of good preparation, like you said, and good planning and actually these elements of breathe and just being able to be calm.

And I think it's interesting you say about being the same as a business situation.

You know, people listen to this going, oh, I'm going to a sales meeting with you have three Fs, you fight, you flight or you freeze.

And most of the time people tend to, you know, run away, flight or freeze.

But actually the way you fight is to be able to prepare yourself for that and know how you're going to handle it comes from your preparation.

So it's no different.

And I think you're right.

It's, it's just about being able to control that emotion and control that in that calmness that you talked about and been able to be really calm.

And even when you were, you know, 99, you didn't even did the tensions.

Rising shape or is it still you still 99 that?

No, that's when I started to myself.

Definitely.

Everyone knows that that 99 to 100 run, that's, that's a different beast.

Yeah, no, no calm, lots of breathing, panic mode, try and get that extra run.

But I think, yes, I think it's just find your own, find your own flow.

I'm, I'm convinced apart from those faceless transactional businesses which I know there are lots of that are just emails, computers or did, you know, digital space stuff.

You know what when you're, when you're working with someone or want to bring someone into your environment, I think really what, what does the other person want?

Want someone that's likable, comfortable in their own skin.

And I think that part of it, comfortable your own skin means you believe in your product.

I think that is a big part of that.

And someone who's trustworthy.

I think there's, in the modern world there's, there's a, there's an appetite to maximize.

Whether it be like how much you're going to, or bill or whatever it is to maximize from the word go.

I, I, I think strong long standing business relationships.

So you know what, we're gonna, we're, we're gonna do this for a couple of months.

It's, it's gonna be, it's gonna be X.

But I know it will scale when you see what I can deliver.

I really like that narrative.

I, I really.

Because you're not just trying to sting someone for the maximum from bull one, you're going into a business or you're bringing someone into your business and there's that period where okay, right, let's work together.

And I'm very confident that after six weeks you're going to love what we're doing and that's when the money's made or the, whatever it's what I talk about.

It's something called the hidden 10 in business and sales, which is actually the bit which is, is all about you as a person, who you are and what you do and how you come across.

And it's hidden because it's about your values, it's about how you care, it's about what you, you look to do.

And ultimately it's the bit that people look at and go, okay, I want to work with that person or I want to go, you know, go to battle into battle with those.

Guess if you think about your career going back to the conscious of time now and we'll finish the set.

But, but you know, your career and you will, you know, I have no doubt from knowing you and you were the sort of person when you were in the middle or with your, the other 10 teammates you played with that people were like, yeah, I know this guy's got my back.

And I think that, that, that's critical, isn't it?

Especially in, and you talk about your business environment now.

But, but if you know you've got the backing of other people and they've got the backing of you, it becomes quite a powerful, unstoppable trait.

Both business.

Yeah, I think, I think you can learn to be conscientious.

But I do, I do think that, that, that is born out of your, your upbringing, your influences, your school teachers, your met your mentors, your brothers, your sisters.

I, I think if you're in, if you're in, if you, if you surround yourself with fellow conscientious people, that will all, you know, we've known each other a long time now.

You've done me favors.

I will always return favors to you.

But that's, that's not, that's not the core of our relationship.

We enjoy each other's company, we play a bit of golf together, we have a good time and, but on the flip side of that, I know through a number of experiences that you'll dig me out of whatever it is, if I needed it.

And I do the, I do the same for you.

And that's, and like I said, that's, that, that's just, it's just a, it's just a non, I mean this is a proper business.

It's a non negotiable way of how I try my best to be with people.

Haven't all have, have, haven't always executed it, made my mistakes like everyone else has, but that's, that's the person I aspire to be.

And like within my challenges of business, sport, whatever it is.

I think one of my biggest, biggest challenges is, is be the bloke I want to be.

Be the person I want to be.

I, I'm, I'm semi conscious quite a lot of like leaving a cricket ground and hoping that the supporters that watch me, the players I played against, if they, I came up in conversation three weeks later, they'd be like, whatever they want.

To talk to me about as a performer, a player, not really that bothered, but like, I would love someone to said, you know, I played against him a few times, great competitor, like, came hard at me, like, but, but he was, he was a good dude.

Good, good man.

Yeah, no, I agree and I couldn't agree more.

And I think, you know, you're saying it's like.

And I also think it's about, you know, I do the things that I do because I, there's somewhere around the world someone will listen something and they'll go, that's helped me.

And I think, you know, you've done the same.

You've been, you know, had that privilege.

There'll be people, you know, probably a bit older now, but that have grown up playing cricket because of you watching cricket and, and that cricket and, or that game they played or that physicality or that mentality that they've developed because of what you've done will have put them into, to solve a critical situation in their life or in their situation.

Sometimes we don't think about that ripple effect, but I've got no doubt that you've created lots and lots, far more than I have because of the, the impact you had on people's lives.

And even, you know, you made me, I remember, you know, when Somerset won the Monday final a few years ago, you made me smile that night, you know, because it was like it was.

I think that was the wine, that.

Was the cider probably.

But yeah, but it's that ability to influence people's lives in that way, which is what you've done.

And I guess that's the, the, the, the beauty of what you do.

I don't think it stops there.

I don't, I, I, I don't, I think again, whether you're looking after yourself health wise exercise, whatever it may be.

There's just a consistency if you try and be as consistent as you can.

Yeah, I, I actually think when I was thinking about the conscientiousness, I used to go out for walks with my n Nan at Western Beach.

I spent a lot of my upbringing with my nan with, and Judy the poodle walking around.

And my nan used just educated me.

Every single person we used to greet on the street, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever time of the day it was always greeting people.

She used to make me hold open doors in shops for like ages while like there's a person like 30 yards away.

Hold the door, Peter.

And I'd be standing there, good afternoon, how are you?

Yeah, and, and I Think that was.

That that was.

Was a core sort of like fundamental of my character quite early on in my upbringing.

Again, just like big, bigger purse.

Be.

Try and be a good person as much as you can.

So look, before we finish just talk about cricket styling because I know it's been something you're interested in and we want to you know, give it because it's a great business and I think you know it's got huge potential and huge.

You've you know, put a lot of.

Yeah.

So explain you know, for anyone listening to explain what it is and you know, as a chance to.

On what it's about really.

And I think it's a perfect fit for you because of your cricket background but also your ability to be like you say.

I might see you changing lives daily now with people winning things.

So talk about it.

Yeah, I mean it's, it's a sort of a way to market for.

For products like cricket equipment.

It's big in the golf industry.

You know cars and house is pretty much everything now.

I know there's a really successful business that does darts equipment boards and flights and all the stuff that people love with.

With dart.

So it's the online, online raffles essentially probably there's the.

Is the rudimentary ex explanation of it.

So I will.

I love cricket kit as well.

Like cricketers and golfers are the same animal.

Like new driver.

It's like Gollum's ring.

You want to like my is mine.

So you can never have too many golf clubs or cricket bats.

So I know that there's like a.

In the cricket space there's certainly a lust for the equipment.

So and the way that the, that is changing the quality of the kit out there now it's you know, it's, it's quite an expensive sport to play now the very, very top end kit that we supply put together, you know it's a couple of thousand quids worth of kit and you know we'll have a limited amount of.

Of tickets, raffle tickets and you essentially will buy a few relatively low cost.

You can put a couple of quid up to you know, a tenner if you want to give yourself a pretty decent chance of winning sort of 1 in 20 or whatever the odds might be at the time.

Yeah and yeah, yeah we've been, we've been running a couple of months now.

Tens of thousands of pounds worth of kit has been shipped all across the uk.

The our, you know, followers players haven't really had a negative word said about it.

I personally do the live draws.

I go into my like Dale Winton mindset and try and make it a little bit fun.

The draw nights.

Yeah, and it's brilliant.

I mean as, as a business like we love our players winning the stash and you know, really encourage them to take a video of it or, or, or send us some pictures of them winning it.

Obviously it's you.

Not everyone can win all the time but you know, we've got a quite a few regular players that have had some awesome kit sent their way.

Well, I was looking on Sunday and you've got like this you know, gray nickel set of kit which is like, you know, a thousand quids worth of gear which I was looking and it can be like for £1 49th chance.

And I guess I think the reason it's really interesting for me when I think of that is goes back to what you said about being fearless and trying.

Okay.

Well actually it's like in anything in life you don't.

Right.

And we're not encouraging people to, you know, they've got to do it responsibly, whatever they want to, but a lot of time you don't, you don't get a chance to win unless you try something and actually give something a go.

And so I, I think if you're a cricket fan watching this and you've got a son or a daughter or, you know, or you know, you.

Someone that's maybe loves the game but struggles to give it a chance.

Right.

Because the chances are you're going to get, you know, a chance to win some gear but.

And actually that would cost you thousands.

Yeah, I mean most cricketers have got their own equipment.

They probably, they've probably already bought their bat.

But again, you know, bats do break from time to time.

You know, for me it's a little bit community based as well.

You know, we're outreaching, we're doing some sort of kickback schemes for, for clubs with like specific codes and all that kind of stuff.

And, and as we grow I think we'll try and outreach.

I, I think with whether it be next summer or the following summer, we'd like to do a, a big sort of cricket star sort of T20 competition that clubs can enter and I think we, that's what we would aspire to do.

I can't quite afford that.

But you know what, I'll chuck in a fiver.

And have a pretty decent chance of winning it.

And that, that's, that's our business, business model.

We're trying to try and make it fun.

Like I said, we want, we want to.

Yeah, it's general offensive where I look.

At it, but needs to be, it needs, it needs to be a relatively nominal amount of money as well, to a point.

I mean, you know, like I said, it's if.

I always think if, you know, some of the, some of the sites that do like Porsche 911 GT3s and all that kind of stuff, they kind of look like lottery odds.

You know, it's like hundreds of thousands to one.

But yes to, you know, winning our kit.

It's, it's very fair.

Like we, we've made sure.

It's actually again, one of my sort of main non negotiables.

It needs to like be super fair.

I would say, even though I can't absolutely say it for sure on the, on, you know, on this podcast right now, but I would say across the board in terms of what you get for your, for the ticket price, it, It'd be the best out there and I want to keep it that way.

There's no, there's no reason for me to change that.

And you excited?

Just thinking final sort of question you, how excited are you?

Because obviously you, you know, you do your commentary on the Somerset and, and you, you got your golf and you do.

And you, you know, you also still play the game and you know, there's lots of people, clubs all around the world that still want you to play because you're studying good nick and you do that sort of stuff.

But how excited are you about the business?

Because it feels like to me, it feels, I've said it feels like just a natural fit for you in terms of sort of linking business and sport together.

So you must be quite buzzing about what it could look like and where it can go, especially because international opportunities are huge.

Cricket is a global game.

Yeah, I think it does have.

I mean we're the first to, we're the first to market in cricket.

It's a different way of people getting hold of the kit that they aspire to get hold of.

So that's a real positive.

Again, again took that brave punt.

No one was doing it.

I liked it in, you know, it's, it's pretty big in the, in the golf world.

Why, why wouldn't.

Cricket is like that.

So again, taking that punt and putting my, putting my time and effort into it over the, you know, three or four Months now.

I'm excited about that.

But again, I, as I said earlier on in this, in, in this chat, I, I don't, I don't feel like the, the slowing down of my, the way my mind works.

Like, yes, I will be focused and I will want to succeed, but there's always part of my mind that's like, right, next challenge we need to do.

You know, I, I very much like, I'm just, I feel like I'm always on physically, mentally.

I'm not, not overly comfortable with just being sedate.

Even when I am just sat in my chair with the TV on, I'm not really watching it.

I'm thinking about, you know, okay, that would be really good.

Good.

You know, why don't we try that?

And I think that's, that's probably why I've got so many different things.

I mean, I would probably describe myself some days as.

Was it.

What's that phrase?

A busy idiot running around like a blue ass fly.

Maybe not achieving, you know, the, it's the perfect out to come.

But yeah, I think within the strive, you find out the parts of your life that are, that are pretty good.

I've really enjoyed my commentary and, you know, to have the opportunity to work with people like Vic Marx in particular, who was like, test match special, he's got, like, he's got one of those sort of.

He's one of the voices of cricket for me.

So to sit alongside him and chat about with both Somerset players as well.

So to chat across the, the two eras, I would call mine like the Langothic era.

And he was the Viv Riches of both Amira and, you know, how know, you know, because of that cricket community, there are crossover stories.

I mean, that's, that, that's a great part of my sort of year.

But, you know, the business, it started really well.

People are enjoying it.

That's the main thing that people really are enjoying.

The, the content, the output, the stuff we're looking to do.

I think people see what we're trying to do and they also like the chance of winning some pretty awesome stuff.

Amazing.

So thank you so much for giving me your time today.

I appreciate it.

Yeah.

Where could people find you if they want to reach out to you?

Or is there a, is there a channel that's best, social channel that's best for them to connect you?

Obviously on Instagram and LinkedIn, those sort of things.

Where's the best place if someone wants to reach out to talk to you about Cricket Star?

Maybe there's a Someone listening to you that's got some gear they want to share with you all.

But actually where's the best way to reach you?

Yeah, I've got an X and an Instagram under my name, so that's easy to find.

Cricket star competitions is.

Is our website also has the relevant social medias and yeah, I'll be generally findable.

Bouncing off walls and ceilings from time to time.

Coming to a wall and ceiling near you.

Love it, mate.

Look.

Well, thank you so much for giving your time today.

It's conversations flows as ever, mate and it's great to hear your stories and some of the stuff which I didn't know about in terms of some elements around your.

Your background and what you did and how you achieve what you success and look, it's been great to share some times you and I think as I said, I still.

You want to.

You know, as sports people go, you're one of the most inspirational sports people because you.

You made people feel that it was possible.

And I think that's the thing for me is that it's.

It's given people that hope with that dream that actually they can go and do the things they want to do if they work hard enough to make it happen.

And you, you made that happen.

You.

You brought that to a lot of people and bring that story together, which is great.

Well, James, if I can make it from Wyvern Comprehensive and Wesley Super Mare, anyone can make.

There you go.

Nothing's fine like that.

But look, mate, thank you so much for being here.

I really appreciate it.

Great to have you on, on the podcast and a long time coming.

So I wanted to do it for a little while, but finally got a chance to get it done.

So thank you.

Cheers, buddies.

So there you go.

There was Peter Trigo.

Great.

Have a look at your story.

Incredible cricketer.

So many inspirational games I've watched.

Peter.

It was a real privilege for me to have that.

That chat with him, but also commonalities around how so many things that we do in sport and life and business are common between the lots.

So that's it for the podcast this week.

Thanks for listening as ever.

If you're like.

If you like what we do, then share it and like it and tell other people about it so we can get more guests like Peter on.

On the podcast.

But until next week, that's it.

Thanks very much and see you soon.

Take care.