May 15, 2020, by Emily Bateman
Alumni Spotlight: Tim Doughty
The University of Nottingham alumni community stands at over 280,000 worldwide. Many of these graduates were involved in sport and physical activity during their time at Nottingham and their experiences have had lasting impacts on their careers and personal lives.
As part of our new alumni profile series, we caught up with recent graduate, Tim Doughty (Finance, Accounting and Management BSc Hons, 2016), Managing Director of Cricket Vision and a Senior Business Analyst at Deloitte Digital.
In this blog, Tim shares with us how his time at Nottingham influenced his career, the development of his sport startup, Cricket Vision, and how he is keeping budding cricketers active during lockdown.
My Nottingham story
Tim (far right) and his friends at the 2016 Graduation Ball
“My time at Nottingham was simply fantastic. I chose Nottingham because of its reputation as a business school and the spacious campus, which you can never get bored of. At my offer-holder day, I learnt about how the University supports entrepreneurs and the Enactus scheme community, which made me want to attend even more! I have always been interested in business and opted to study for a BSc in Finance, Accounting and Management. I wasn’t successful at getting into the Cricket Team in my first year, but I turned to coaching instead, which prompted me to set up Cricket Vision in 2014.
“After graduating in 2016, I wanted to travel and do something worthwhile. Whilst I was President of the Entrepreneur Society, a company called Start Me Up got in touch about advertising their programmes to our members. The opportunity was to gain remote work experience with startups around the globe, based in Bali. I immediately applied. It was the perfect combination of travel and getting some experience in the startup world. During the internship, I worked for a Silicon Valley based FinTech, run by the founder of Couch Surfing, whilst also working on Cricket Vision projects and hiring a developer to build our online platform. In September 2017, I started a graduate scheme at Deloitte Digital in tech consulting, building tech products for clients and working in cross-functional teams, both in the UK and abroad.”
Cricket Vision & the ‘At Home Cricket’ Campaign
Tim whilst filming an activity for the ‘At Home Cricket’ campaign
“Like for many startups, the last few months have been tough to say the least. As for Cricket Vision, we had to cancel our Easter camps which caused a significant financial hit to the business. I knew that cricketers around the country would not only be missing the sport, but also the competitiveness that goes with it – the highs, the lows and the super overs (if you’re playing in the World Cup Final!) I wanted to try and create something which was competitive and fun, and our ‘At Home Cricket’ campaign was born. I had to act fast, so I filmed myself introducing the campaign, set up a website and posted on our social media channels to get everyone excited. Within a week, we had a website with a blog and video section, filmed 5 videos to fill the first week and posted our first challenge, and, in the next few days, we will be launching a series of ‘Beat the Coach’.
“Before Covid-19, virtual cricket coaching provision was rare and most coaches operated face-to-face. I envisage that more cricket coaching in the future will be done online and, from my knowledge of technology, I can see virtual reality playing a big part in this. A virtual coach which is a real person on the other side of the world… doesn’t that sound cool?
“I particularly wanted to reach out to those children who were due to attend our camps, but also players of all ages around the country who’re missing their summer sport. We knew that not everyone would have access to outdoor space, so we integrated some challenges that can be done inside with limited space and equipment. Above all, I wanted to make the videos entertaining to watch and the activities fun to do – everything from flipping a loo roll on a bat, to throwing socks at sun cream – with some more challenging activities thrown in too, such as bat keep ups and reaction catching. We are also offering 2 tickets to Lord’s for the person who sends in the most videos of themselves having a go at the activities before 7th June!”
My words of advice
“We’re all currently spending significantly more time at home and this can lead to inactivity, due to boredom or a lack of incentive to get up and out. Now, more than ever, it is essential to keep active and healthy. These are hard times for our mental health and keeping active can help with this. Everyone feels a bit down at times – when this happens to me, I go for a run which makes me feel re-energised and more motivated to get on with whatever I aim to do that day.
“Budding cricketers – stay positive and don’t lose your enthusiasm for the game – cricket will come back better than ever in the not too distant future and it will be epic!
“Above all, take care of yourself, your loved ones and all those in your immediate community. There is light at the end of the tunnel and there will be a return to some sort of normality soon. The return of cricket will also definitely be something to celebrate!”
Get involved
The new online Health and Wellbeing hub from University of Nottingham Sport offers a range of online resources – get in touch if you’d like to suggest an idea or make a contribution.
We’d also love to hear from fellow University of Nottingham graduates who would like to share their story with our community. To get involved, please register your interest via our Alumni Profile Form or contact our Sports and Alumni Relations Officer, Emily Bateman, at Emily.Bateman@nottingham.ac.uk
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