Mason Crane In Sydney: Postcard From The Pathway

It’s been an enjoyable and interesting start to my placement, with the Gordon Club in Sydney. We won our first game, against the University of New South Wales, and I took four wickets. And I even got sledged by the umpire!

Every time I gave him my cap to bowl, he called me a Pom. But I’m definitely not complaining. Everyone has been really welcoming so far, since I arrived on October 5 – a couple of days before the first day of the University game.

All the matches in the McDonald’s Premier Cricket competition over here are played over two consecutive Saturdays, and luckily we batted first, which gave me an extra week to get over my jetlag before I had to bowl.

We put a big score on the board, more than 400, and then the seamers bowled really well – it’s always a lot easier coming on as a spinner when two or three wickets are already down. The pitch was quicker and bouncier than I’m used to at home, and as a legspinner that’s great – it means the edges carry to slip.

I played in an under-21 game on Sunday, and as well as another couple of wickets I even managed 70-odd with the bat. So I’m really looking forward to the start of our next two-day game against Bankstown this weekend.

I do feel very lucky to be over here in such a great city, playing cricket and developing my game. My Hampshire team-mate Will Smith played for Gordon last year so I was talking to them already, and then Peter Such, who I’ve worked with a lot through the England development programmes and under-19s, told me the ECB could help with me spending the winter over here.

The plans for me and Derbyshire’s Matt Critchley, another legspinner who is playing for Randwick Petersham, include doing some work with Stuart MacGill, and also bowling in the nets with the New South Wales state team. That’s really exciting, the chance to work with a legspinner who has so much experience of Test cricket with Australia – I can’t wait to get started.

It’s my first time in Sydney, and only my second time in Australia after I went to Perth with England Under-19s last year. There’s a lot of cricket going on here with their domestic one-day competition, and there’s a Test series against South Africa coming up which should be good – I’ll definitely try and get to a day of that. And I’m looking forward to the Big Bash as well.

We train twice a week at the club, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the club are fixing me up with a gym so I can do the programmes that Hampshire want me to do. Our old strength and conditioning coach from Hampshire, Mike Main, is out here now working with New South Wales, so I’m going to do some work with him as well.

I had a hard season with Hampshire, but I loved every minute. We had a lot of injuries which probably increased my workload, and I bowled on some pretty flat wickets and in some tricky situations. But that can only do me good in the long-run, bowling more than 370 overs – and the extra experience I gain over here this winter can only do me more good going into next season.