adminThe attempt was in aid of the Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation — a charity set up to create an international-standard cricket ground in the African country, where the game is emerging.
The previous batting record of 25 hours was set in October by Australian batsman Jade Child.
Shale, who has just graduated, is now waiting for Guinness World Records to go through the documentation and confirm his new landmark.
He faced around 200 bowlers in his spell at the crease. One of the bowlers was Prime Minister David Cameron, who turned up to give him a few deliveries.
With 10 minutes to go, Shale shrugged off the tiredness and started slogging at every delivery.
“At the final ball he just sort of collapsed into a heap and everyone piled in on top of him,” a spokesman for the attempt said.
“Someone sprayed a bottle of champagne all over the place.”
He then posed for pictures by the clock showing 26 hours.
The rules set down by Guinness World Records allowed only a five-minute break for every full hour completed — to refuel and go to the toilet.
The idea was the brainchild of Alby’s father Christopher Shale, Cameron’s close friend and his Conservative Party constituency chairman, who died of a heart attack at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2011.
“We were standing on the side of the international — I say international — the main cricket pitch in Rwanda which still has bone residue from the ‘94 genocide and we realised that this wasn’t good enough,” an exhausted Shale said.
“We’ve seen first-hand what cricket can bring to a country and we decided, he said to me there, ‘Listen, we need to build a new cricket pitch for Rwanda’.” — AFP.
Online Reporter