If you are an ardent follower of domestic leagues across the globe, you must have heard about the name called Chad Bowes. The man started his cricketing journey in South Africa but then arrived in New Zealand and the man didn’t have to look back at all. Ever since his arrival in the land of Blackcaps, his cricket career embarked upon an upward spiral.
Talking to ESPNCricinfo, Chad Bowes opened up on what exactly changed his career path and how his future now makes a lot more sense. But once again changing countries isn’t the best of options always and not an easy task either. However, Bowes has managed to pull it off with a broad smile on his face.
Chad Bowes underlines how his life changed for the good after New Zealand happened
Chad Bowes said, “Probably not that script that I thought I was going to write for my career, but it has been a hell of a journey from South Africa to New Zealand,” Bowes tells ESPNcricinfo. “Lots of tough and challenging periods and a lot of highs along the way as well. Obviously, the big decision to move countries and create a new life from scratch is the foundation of my last six-seven years of my career. So, a lot of learning has taken place – not just on the field, but in life in general.”
He further added, “I’ve come over here with my wife Chloe and we just had a baby girl here who has a New Zealand passport. But we’re still waiting for one for ourselves (laughs). But it has been an incredible journey – obviously one that was unexpected, but incredibly valuable in terms of me learning about myself and about the world and just about what it takes to actually thrive and not just survive in different kinds of environments. So, it has been a learning curve that will carry on going. The dream of playing international cricket has been in my blood for 20 years and it still remains in my blood. The only difference is that the badge has changed.”
Here is what Chad Bowes had to say about turning the tide
The Kiwi hard-hitter continued, “I felt there was a window period in my mid-20s there where I could shift my career path and my life path, so it wasn’t purely based on cricket, but more of a holistic decision of where is our future and where do we want that to be – not just for me, but for my family, children and the rest of our lives. So, from a career standpoint, New Zealand had the kind of environment that I wanted to pursue from a professional point of view and from a life point of view, and it had enough for us to raise a family and have opportunities for us and our children.”
Reshuffling focus on his parents’ emotion to join the Kiwi ranks, Chad Bowes said, “Obviously, a very emotional choice because my parents and family and Chloe’s parents and family remain behind. So that took a while to digest and made it incredibly tough and it’s still been tough since that day. The emotions come and go. Covid-19 resulted in that emotion being more intense – not being able to connect with family for so long. There have certainly been moments where I felt the challenges have been overwhelming and we’ve questioned if this is the right choice for us. But every time we fall back on the answer of this is the right thing, we’ve found a way to manage ourselves and manage our emotions.”
