Righteous Fools

The inquest into the untimely death of Tom Maynard was held today at Westminster Coroners Court and a verdict of "accidental death" was reached. Tom was one of our first interviewees here at The Middle Stump, and no one in the cricketing world had a bad word to say about him. Described by the Surrey physio, Alex Tyson as "having all the looks and the talent in the world, without an arrogant bone in his body" a statement from the family also described him as being "sports mad".

Tom Maynard RIP

Whilst traces of recreational drugs were found in his body, the outcry on social media sites is quite frankly pathetic and it has to be said there are some very righteous individuals that we have in this country. Show me a man who has not made a mistake and I'll show you someone who hasn't lived. Many of us, myself included, have dabbled with drugs in the past and some of us grow out of it, but sadly Tom paid the highest price of all and wasn't given the chance.

Other pontificating prats on Yahoo today were wondering about the future of the Tom Maynard Trust. Why should it make a difference to what is a great cause established in Tom's name?

The Tom Maynard Trust was set up to help the development of aspiring disadvantaged cricketers and other sports people who require support with different aspects of their career development, including bursaries, help with training and education, financial support for overseas placements, assistance with kit and equipment and, either directly or in partnership with other agencies, providing support for raising awareness and rehabilitation programmes within sport. In essence, doing a fantastic job and helping those who might not achieve their cricketing dreams without some help.

One person who doesn't agree with our thoughts is someone who has regressed from being a cabinet minister into someone who now only appears on reality television shows when she has a book to flog.

Edwina Currie

Edwina Currie, whilst you may think that it might be ok to fuck a serving Prime Minister behind his wife's back, fucking over the cricketing community with your tweets is quite frankly not on. Currie, a loudmouth former Conservative MP tweeted today, "Tom Maynard abandoned his Mercedes with the engine still running, Blackberry logged in to his Facebook page. Darwinism at work"

At the end of the day, this is a son, a brother, a man with numerous friends and to have a pop at someone without the right to defend themselves is scandalous bullying. Easy pickings. What the sanctimonious fool doesn't realise is that there is a community out there on Twitter, a cricketing community of people that care, people who were friends with Tom or just people like us who don't like to see this sort of stuff. Quite frankly we are not impressed. The wrath of the farming community over the salmonella in eggs, is nothing compared to when the #cricketfamily gets going. Mark my words!

This is the same Edwina Currie who was highly crictical of Sara Keays who wrote publically about her affair with Cecil Parkinson, but when she herself had a book to sell wasn't so sentimental about the pain caused to Norma Major.

Today has been difficult enough for the Maynard family without comments from people who didn't know Tom, didn't know the family, and to post it on a public platform such as Twitter is heartless to the extreme. 

The Cricket Family pulling together last summer

These disgraceful comments come from someone lower than a snakes arse in our opinion. Saying that, any MP who voted for and then a few years later against, the death penalty, such as Ms Currie, will no doubt have changed her stance by tomorrow when she realises how many people she has pissed off. When her book sales start to diminish, no doubt a grovelling apology will be forthcoming, fuelled and pushed by her publishing house. Money talks.

Support the Tom Maynard Trust. Support anyone who puts their heart and soul into raising money for future cricketers, and if you are like me...don't buy another of Edwina's books. Not that I've ever bought one anyway!