SKY IS THE LIMIT FOR TEEN SPEEDSTER
IGNATIUS Park firebrand Jarrod Edmondson is on a fast track to the top.
The left-arm quick has big aspirations on the cricket field, following in the footsteps of cricketing idol Mitchell Johnson, and he has taken another giant step toward them.
In fact, a chance encounter with Johnson, who played for Edmondson’s junior club Wanderers, in Townsville before Christmas has only spurred his dream.
“I didn’t get much time to talk to him but we had a bit of a net session there where he showed me a few skills – 100 per cent, he has still got it,” Edmondson said.
The 17-year-old tearaway was recognised for his efforts at the recent Queensland Secondary Schools state championships with selection in the Queensland Schoolboys side.
It was a bittersweet moment for the fast bowler, after the national championships, due to be played next month, were called off due to the coronavirus pandemic. But it has taken nothing away from the Year 12 student, who wants to use his disappointment to fuel his further endeavours.
Edmondson is determined to earn the maroon cap of Queensland again, and even a Baggy Green down the line.
But it could all have been amiss had it not been for a snap decision four years ago.
“I have been playing for ages, probably since I was six, my dad has always been into cricket. He got me up into a club and I have gone from there,” Edmondson said. “I preferred to be a batter at first. I changed when I got to that under-13 range, I focused more on bowling because I wasn’t making many runs.
“With the lack of runs there was not as much excitement so I thought I would go into bowling. I was doing pretty well at that.”
And he has only gotten better, spending the past two seasons opening the bowling for Wanderers in the Townsville Cricket A Grade competition.
But it is his work off the field that makes Edmondson the strike weapon he is according to Ignatius Park cricket co-ordinator Len Farren.
“I am always proud to see someone selected in the state side. It is really special. To have someone picked in the state side when we didn’t do so well (at the championships), is an attribute to Jarrod,” Farren said.
“Not only did he take four wickets in two games, he also kept the runs down, which is really important in those games.”