Young Bradburn keeping options open after shock call-up for La Manga trip
For the last few years a Bradburn has been picking the Scotland cricket team, but in the future there may well be a Bradburn in the playing XI after 16-year-old Tom was named in the training squad.
New Zealander Grant Bradburn, 52, was head coach of the national team in June when the Scots beat old rivals England in a one-day international for the first time.
However, last month he left these shores after four years at the helm to take up a job as an assistant coach with Pakistan.
The main role is still to be filled, but, while the selection process continues the show must go on and 26 of the country’s best players will be heading out to La Manga in Spain for a winter training camp from 10 to 16 November.
With some more established names not travelling due to other commitments, the week-long camp will give fringe and up-and-coming players a chance to impress Cricket Scotland’s remaining coaches before a new top man is appointed heading into 2019.
The uncapped player whose name jumped off the page when the squad was released late last week was that of young Stirling County allrounder Bradburn, pictured.
The teenager has played with Stirling, representative teams and Scotland agegrade teams since he moved here when he was 12 when his dad took up the head coach’s post.
In December the Bradburn clan – including other children Jack and Ella – will relocate to Hamilton in New Zealand, but Tom is keen to give a good account of himself in La Manga and keep his options open about playing for Scotland or the country he grew up in going forward.
“To have been called up for the Scotland training camp took me a bit by surprise, but it is a great honour,” said Tom, who attended Wallace High School until the summer and turns 17 on Saturday. “I cannot wait to head out to La Manga, I have heard the facilities there are amazing and I will be able to learn from the more experienced players around me and really work on my game.
“Going forward into the future I am keen to keep my options open. It would be a privilege to be involved in either the Scotland or the New Zealand set-ups and I would love to play for either country one day. I will cross that bridge when I come to it. For now I am just enjoying playing the game and trying to get better.
“Certainly I have loved my time in Scotland. When we moved over I was pretty young and it was obviously a long way from home, but here soon felt like home for me and I have loved being a part of the Stirling County club.
“The guys made me and my brother Jack feel really welcome and they were not afraid to give young guys a chance in the first team which has really helped me and my development.”
So, does the left-handed batsman and right-arm seamer feel any extra pressure going forward because his dad use to be the head coach of Scotland?
“People have been asking me that, but it really doesn’t bother me at all,” he stated.
“Dad will always be remembered fondly in Scotland for the good work that he did and the win over England, but for me as a player it is something completely different.
“He is great with advice and tips whenever I ask him for them and I know he and the rest of the family are very excited for me after this call-up.”