No worries, Hilton, get out there and enjoy it

RUSSELL GOULD MATTHEW Nicholson has some advice for Boxing Day Test bolter Hilton Cartwright: relax and enjoy it.

The West Australian allrounder is looming more and more likely to take his spot in the Aussie XI next Monday despite a modest first class history and his relative anonymity. Nicholson is well placed to offer his thoughts on the matter having himself come from the clouds, and what was supposed to be a flight home to Sydney, to make his one and only Test appearance the day after Christmas in 1997.

A speedy quick from NSW, but then playing for WA, Nicholson’s life was turned upside down amid a flurry of activity just three days out from the game when Jason Gillespie hurt his knee in the pre-Christmas round of Sheffield Shield games.

Phone calls across the country held up an Ansett flight on the hot tarmac at Perth Airport as the West Australian Cricket Association, who had been informed then 23-year-old Nicholson had been picked for Australia, tried to get in contact with him.

Nicholson, who took seven wickets in a tour game against England that summer, was told by Ansett staff to ring the WACA, so he borrowed a passenger’s mobile phone, a rare thing in 1997, got the information first hand, and was redirected to Melbourne.

He got the midnight flight, arrived in Melbourne early Christmas Eve morning, got a taxi to the hotel, and the whirlwind kept going.

“I didn’t know until the morning of Boxing Day I was going to play,” he said. “It was a whirlwind, trying to meet people, familiarise yourself with the players, and get all the logistics out of the way.

“The general public had no idea who I was. I think there was a headline ‘Matthew who?’. It’s kind of a bonus. People don’t know who you are, expectations are low, from the public anyway. And you wish in hindsight, having only played one Test, that you really did take everything in, and really enjoy the occasion.

“But unfortunately you are in a tunnel with the blinkers on, concentrating on trying to do what you are there for.

“That would be my advice, to just relax and enjoy it.

“If he’s good enough, he’ll do well.”