Crane hoping he can be England’s answer to Warne
MASON CRANE fell in love with cricket watching Shane Warne mesmerise England’s batsmen in the Ashes.
As an eight-year-old, the Hampshire leg-spinner was hooked by the epic drama of 2005 when Warne took 40 wickets but still finished on the losing side — the last Ashes series to be screened live on terrestrial TV in this country.
Crane is now on England’s radar himself. Adil Rashid may have taken a record 23 wickets for a leg-spinner on England’s recent tour to India, but the series was lost 4-0 and England selectors would dearly love to develop a bowler with half of Warne’s ability. Crane, who plays for the MCC versus Middlesex as the English domestic season opens in Abu Dhabi today says: ‘I’ve got a long way to go, and I can get a lot better.’
But he insists any links to Warne — the obvious one being their mutual county — are coincidental. He reveals: ‘It was really just the way the ball came out when I first started playing rather than me trying to copy anyone. I got into cricket through the Ashes 2005, it was so exciting to watch, but I only latched onto Warne and watched a bit more closely when I realised that leg-spin was what I bowled.’
Even now they have met just once and, ironically, it has been Warne’s long-term understudy for Australia, Stuart MacGill, who is credited with honing one of England’s brightest talents. During a stint playing for Sydney club Gordon, Crane and mentor MacGill would meet for one-on-one sessions at the SCG. MacGill may be unpopular with his home board after issuing a £1.59 million writ against Cricket Australia over unpaid fees and prize money but England, and spin coach Peter Such in particular, were not put off and Crane is grateful.
‘He was amazing,’ says the 20-year-old. ‘He is very passionate and we got on well. I have improved a lot through working with Stuart but also being on my own. I would see him once or twice a week, then go and work out things for myself, and that combination helped. There were a few technical tweaks, working on my shape, and encouragement to stay out of bad habits.’
When Crane hit a purple patch in grade cricket, eye-catchingly claiming seven-wicket hauls in three consecutive games, New South Wales came calling.
He became the first overseas player to represent NSW in the Sheffield Shield since Imran Khan in 1984-85. In a win over Shield finalists South Australia, Crane snared five wickets, the fifth taking his first-class tally to 50 just days out of his teens.
Last Tuesday he bamboozled the North’s batsmen with a spell of four for one in a dozen deliveries to turn a one-day contest on its head and seal a 3-0 whitewash for the South.
‘It’s my job to take wickets,’ he says. ‘When that was needed, I got aggressive. Taking a few in that situation was nice. I enjoy the challenge when a contest is in the balance.’
It may not have been intentional to look like Warne but even in these early days he is beginning to sound like him.