Ryan Carters sets new goals

While shooting a video for his charity Batting For Change, Ryan Carters made a discovery about the art of film production. As the likes of Steven Smith, Brad Haddin, Nathan Lyon and Steve O'Keefe offered a line each about Carters' cause, the Sydney Sixers 'keeper/batsman and amateur director found out which take was invariably best.

"For the most part I found the second shot is usually the winner," Carters said. "Often the first is a bit hesitant and then you get a bit more energy and they nail it, then if you get them to repeat it too many times things tend to drop off a little bit."

An improved second take is what Carters has been looking for in a few ways this summer. Not only is Batting for Change in its second season, with a higher cash target - $66,666 rather than last season's $30,000 - but Carters himself has found himself playing innings of higher stakes following a breakout first Sheffield Shield season with New South Wales in 2013-14.

The effort required to expand Batting for Change, which in its first edition funded the construction of three new classrooms at the Heartland School in Kathmandu, was emphasised by the hours spent shooting the promotional video on a grey, moody day at the SCG.

"I guess you'd call me the director," he said. "The cinematographer and editor was a good friend of mine from Melbourne who generously flew up and did the whole thing free of charge for us. It's great to have people like that throwing their energy behind the cause. The video came together beautifully, really communicates the message in a short period of time and hopefully holds extra power with those well-known Sixers and Australian cricketers speaking the words and getting people on board."

The fact of his wicket becoming more sought after following a season aggregate of 995 runs in the Blues' Shield-winning team was shown by increasing pressure at the crease. Just as it took a few takes with each cricketer on the video, Carters took time to adjust, but a stout 198 against Queensland in the final Shield game before the states downed red ball tools for the Big Bash League was a sign of progress.

"I was really pleased with my innings in the last game leading into the BBL," Carters said. "It was a very important match for us coming back from the break from cricket [after the death of Phillip Hughes] and getting back onto the field it was great to be part of a team win there.

"I'm pleased with how the Matador [One Day] Cup started, then Shield cricket it's just about trying to do what I can every single innings. We know as a batsman you're not going to make runs every single time, the trick is to cash in when you do get an opportunity and you're set."

The opportunity to take up a charitable cause has driven Carters for some time, following his travels to various parts of the world not commonly glimpsed by cricketers. This year, the Batting for Change format is the same - supporters pledge an amount of money for every six struck - but Carters' team has changed from the Thunder to the Sixers, and the object of the charity is not in Nepal but India.

Thanks to a partnership with the LBW Trust, funds raised will go towards assisting women from poorer areas of Mumbai to get a tertiary education after completing high school. The very six-oriented funding target would be enough to support the education of 500 women in Mumbai, through the SPRJ Kanyashala Trust in Ghatkopar.

As was the case last year, Carters started by building enthusiasm among his teammates and casting further afield from there. "Last year the Thunder players were really generous in their personal pledges and a lot of people said they were really inspired by it," he said. "This year at the Sixers I've had a lot of enthusiastic support. Steve O'Keefe has been very helpful in particular and made a personal pledge of $100 per six. On top of that a lot of the other Sixers players are making individual pledges as well.

"It certainly feels like we're gaining momentum in a number of ways. The fellow players getting involved has escalated, we're receiving more publicity through the media, more people are visiting the website and checking us out on social media, and also this year a way of trying to boost our fundraising has seen us engage some corporate partners. That's a way of topping up some very generous donations from the public.

"I hope that Batting For Change can be a way of demonstrating to cricketers and other sportsmen that if we provide a fun and exciting way for people to get involved in combining their love of cricket whether as a player or supporter with wanting to try and help out people in the world who need it the most, then the lesson I've learned is people are happy to get involved."

So far, the combination of pledges and sixes has raised $47,725, though some work remains to achieve the desired target. Carters has found reason to keep pressing on via updates from Kathmandu, where the construction of the classrooms funded last summer is nearing completion.

In April, many of the world's Twenty20 cricketers will be journeying to India for the IPL. Carters will maintain his own path less traveled by using that time to visit Kathmandu and Mumbai, to witness the progress of the work Batting For Change has made possible. That visit might well be cause for another video.