PADDLESWEEP EXCLUSIVE: @theashes interview

Ashley Kerekes aka @TheAshes become an overnight internet meme after an outburst on Twitter. With The Ashes in full swing in Brisbane, Twitter cricket tragics, presumptions bastards as they are, assumed that The Ashes would have a Twitter personality and started Tweeting an an unsuspecting 22-year old from Massachusetts.

Annoyed by these presumptions bastards, or cricket tragics, Ashley retorted with: I’m not a friggin cricket match, logged off her phone, turned off push notifications and went about her normal life.

After watching Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook grind the Aussie bowlers to pulp, cricket lovers were all too glad with this tiny bit of amusement. The retweets started to escalate and before long, everybody was Tweeting @TheAshes from tongue in cheek chirps like: “quite right, you’re a cricket series” to “Just change your handle to @LutonTownVsBarnet” – everybody had caught on to the sensation.

Her follower count grew rapidly and she has gone from 300-odd followers to over 11 000 in just under a week and marketing companies were quick to cash in. Qantas offered her a free flight to Australia to go watch her first cricket match and Vodafone offered her tickets and a phone to Tweet the entire experience.

As a result, some of those who initially entertained the meme were left sour and insults were being fired left, right and centre. @TheAshes has been called everything from ‘gold digging American bitch’ to other unsavoury remarks we’d rather not publish on this blog.

Paddlesweep.net caught up with Asheley, though, and we find that she really is nothing but your typical all American girl with a heart of gold and a wicket (punny) sense of humour.

PS: Some people have been rather rude about your situation, they’re almost coming across as if jealous. Calling you things like ‘a typical greedy American’ – what would you say to these people? They seem to feel that just because you don’t know about cricket, you don’t deserve to be treated to a trip to The Ashes – we think they’re jealous.  What would you like to tell them?

AK: I think it’s a mixture of jealousy, like you said, and skepticism. I can see where they might think it was all a hoax or a fraud, but I hope they will come around and finally realize that it was just a huge coincidence.

As for the greedy part, I would like them all to know that I haven’t asked for any of this. True, I did ask for a second ticket if I’m going to be flown to Australia, but I think anyone can understand why a young woman wouldn’t want to travel alone. (edit: @mspr1nt definitely would travel alone but only to Australia and maybe England)

Also, we’ve managed to get the prices on the t-shirts lowered as well as working on getting a portion of the profits from the t-shirts sales to go towards a charity.

PS: You’ve taken an active interest in cricket, do you think it’s a sport that you could start supporting beyond the Ashes? Were you ever interested in any other sports?

AK: If I ever come to understand the game, I believe it will have left a lasting enough impression on me to make me want to keep watching.

I used to be really into American Football with my dad, until my favorite team choked in the Superbowl after an amazing season. Never got over it. (Think about where I live, and you can probably figure out which team.) (edit: @mspr1nt knows how that feels. Oh Klusener, Oh Donald, why do you hurt my heart so?)

My boyfriend is really into soccer, and we attended the game between AC Milan and Inter Milan at Foxborough Stadium last summer. But, Dan made me watch the World Cup and the vuvuzelas drove me CRAZY! I guess I’m a fickle sports fan.

PS: Have you looked up some cricketers, there are a couple of hotties out there, have you found one that you like yet?

AK: I have a boyfriend. I’ve been told that I am not allowed to flirt with cricket players. However, I’ve been invited to a concert by one of them, and he also asked me to knit him a scarf. And I’ve been told which one’s to avoid.

PS: We at Paddlesweep.net believe that you have been chosen by the cricket gods to be a prophet and spread the gospel to Americans. Will you be telling your fellow citizens about this wonderful sport and about all the crazy fans out there?

Well, seeing as no one I know around here had ever heard of cricket before I got “famous”, I’d say maybe you’re right.  They certainly know about it now.

I’m not sure exactly what I’ll be telling them yet. I think I need to watch some actual cricket first. However, my life goal is to work in elementary education, so maybe it will move into more sports/cultural education and I’ll teach children something about cricket. And also maybe convince the American TV stations to air some cricket!

PS: What is the immediate impact this has had on your life and what kind of impact do you think it will continue to have?

AK: The immediate impact is that I have almost no free time now! I was already working a lot of hours at my job, but at least I got a lot of down time after the kids I babysit for go to sleep. Now I spend a good portion of my free time before and after work doing interviews.

I’m not sure what kind of lasting impact this will have. Instant celebrity tends not to last, so I’ll probably go back to living my normal life after a few weeks. But I’ll always have these memories.

PS: What was your initial reaction after you’d ‘gone viral’ – when you first logged on and you saw you’d gone to about 2000 followers? Did you, at any stage, want to change your Twitter handle and just get away from the crazy cricket fans?

My initial reaction was “Oh my gosh! I’ve gone viral!” Haha.

I didn’t consider changing the handle because when I realized what was going on, I thought it was absolutely hilarious. To me, it was a huge joke. Now it’s still fun, but it’s more “real”

PS: Would you like to go on the Oprah show to spread the gospel of cricket?

AK: Hahaha, really? You think Oprah would want me? I think it’s doubtful. But, you know, if she offered.

PS: We know you love kids, respect, since you do currently hold quite a bit of power, would you consider getting involved in charities that help kids? Either in your own country or in other countries (perhaps helping with a cricketing academy in under privileged communities?)

AK: Oh absolutely.

I’ve been asked to think about what I want to do with this after The Ashes is over, and one of the things I have in mind is possibly going around the local schools and teaching kids about cricket, but also include topics like sportsmanship, teamwork, leadership, etc. I haven’t thought a lot about it, but there’s some definite possibilities for working with kids.

PS: This is not a question, simply a statement. We think you are awesome for being such a sport (no pun intended) for playing along. Anything you’d like to add?

I’d just like to thank all of my followers for following me and retweeting my posts, and tweeting to me. If I could respond to every single one of you (the nice ones anyways!) I would. I want them to know that I’m reading their tweets, and when I ask questions about cricket, I really am reading their responses and trying to learn from them.

I’d also like to thank everyone who responded to my initial angry tweets and got the ball rolling on this. I’m not of everyone who got it going, but I just want them all to know that I do appreciate it. They’ve changed my life.

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Big thanks from Paddlesweep to the lovely @ljLoch from Republic PR for organizing the interview.

Tagged as: the ashes on twitter