Cricket nut from Cookham prepares to cycle to the Ashes (From Bucks Free Press)

Cricket nut from Cookham prepares to cycle to the Ashes

5:45pm Wednesday 7th October 2009 in News By Lawrence Dunhill

A SPINDLY-legged cyclist from Cookham is set to cycle to Australia in time for the next year's Ashes series.

Cricket-mad Oli Broom went to school with England captain Andrew Strauss and has always dreamed of travelling round the world.

After poring over maps and hours spent on the phone begging marketing directors to sponsor him, Mr Broom sets off on the 25,000km trip from Lords on Saturday and plans to spread the cricketing gospel along the way.

He aims to reach Brisbane for the start of the Ashes in November 2010, while raising £100,000 for charity.

He said: “How could I not see England win the Ashes on Australian soil for the first time since the 80s?

“I've wanted to do something like this for a long time and I just felt it was time to go out and do it.

“I don't have a girlfriend tying me to home at the moment and I wasn't fulfilling my dreams by sitting behind a desk everyday in London.

“My legs are not as spindly as they used to be but that was the first thing my mates brought up when I told them.

“I've not done much training but I reckon after a couple of weeks cycling I'll be pretty fit.”

Mr Broom is raising money for sports charity The Lord’s Taverners and the British Neurological Research Trust.

The 29-year-old has spent the last six years working for estate agents Knight Frank. He grew up in Cookham and Cookham Dean but now lives in Lane End.

He will carry a tent on his Santos Travel Master touring bike but has also arranged to stay with dozens of cricket players and fans along the way.

He has already arranged to visit the graves of famous cricketers in Belgium, teach cricket to Croatian school children and train with professional teams in India.

His route will take him through Europe, Turkey and down into Africa before catching a boat across the Indian Ocean and cycling through the Indian sub-continent.

Mr Broom said it was too dangerous to cycle through Iraq while getting a visa for some other middle-eastern countries was too expensive.

After going to Radley College near Oxford, Mr Bloom played for Berkshire's U19 cricket team.

He received support from several corporate sponsors and was recently interviewed on Test Match Special with cricket commentator Jonathan 'Aggers' Agnew.

Mr Broom writes on his blog: “Assuming I survive the Turkish winter, the dry Saharan summer, the chaos of India and the unforgiving Australian outback - I will pedal into the Gabba in Brisbane on the morning of the first Ashes Test of 2010 and watch our boys skittle out the Aussies for not a lot before going 1-0 up.

"Now that’s something to look forward to!”

Click on the link below to visit his website.