YOUNG TALENT TIME
At just 15 years old, Barrabool leg-spinner Tom Scott has landed his name in the history books
HE’S the 16-year-old Tim Ludeman clone.
And Tom Jackson is making waves on the Australian cricket scene.
After a fruitful national championships with Victoria, where he blasted 201 runs in eight matches, Jackson launched his Premier cricket career with a match-winning half-century for Geelong’s seconds on Sunday.
The knock impressed the Cats coaching staff, who are already considering a move to draft the talented youngster into the first XI.
“It was a fine innings,” Geelong coach Andre Borovec said from the sidelines. “He’s a good, young talent.”
Borovec lured the wicketkeeper batsman to Kardinia Park after identifying his star qualities during last year’s Barwon Rockets carnival, where he performed strongly for the Western Waves.
Jackson made a seamless transition to the Cats, clubbing 71 from 69 balls against Northcote.
“It was a good start,” a humble Jackson told Third Man post-match.
“It was a good partnership with Tyler Larkin. He’s a good communicator and he made it a lot easier for me. It was a good deck, the ball was coming on nicely, and there were a few nerves early, but I settled in well.”
Jackson said he felt confident at the crease, admitting the week-long national carnival in Queensland had enabled him to hit the ground running. “It was good fun,” Jackson said. “I got a few starts and it was a good lead-in to the season at Geelong.”
Jackson registered scores of 75, 44 and 42 to impress the Victorian selectors in his maiden appearance for the Big V.
And the Woodford product is prepared to dig deep, eager to follow the path of his hero and fellow Warrnambool export Tim Ludeman.
“I just want to keep making as many runs as possible and see how far I can go,” Jackson said. “I’ll just keep training as hard as I can and see where it takes me. It would be a dream (to play for Australia) but I know I would have to work hard for that.
“That’s what I’d love to do, but there’s a lot of hard work in front of me. to get to that point.”
Jackson has the perfect environment to hone his craft, learning from former South Australian and current Melbourne Renegades keeper Ludeman, and Borovec, who has more than 400 dismissals in Premier cricket.
“It’s really great to work with Ludes. He’s a great bloke and I’m looking forward to doing more with him this season,” Jackson said.
“He is one of my favourites, I look up to him. I’ve got Andre and Tim Ludeman as keepers at training, so it’s really good.”
Ludeman, who has a part-time coaching role at Victoria, has already had a profound effect on Jackson.
“He told me ‘it doesn’t matter how you look, as long as you do the right things’. He said ‘it doesn’t matter how you catch the ball as long as you’re catching it.
“It’s my job to catch it, so it’s little things like that. He’s really good to talk to in general.”