Clarkson now under contract
A brand new cricket contract and a clean bill of health have Josh Clarkson excited about a full return to action this summer.
The 20-year-old Nelson allrounder joined Doug Bracewell as Central Districts’ new contracted players announced this week, with Clarkson now also on the comeback trail following offseason back surgery.
After a couple of season’s of ongoing back issues, which has seriously restricted his ability to bowl, he’s now looking forward to taking a full part in CD’s representative campaign.
‘‘I’m pretty stoked really,’’ said Clarkson about becoming part of CD’s elite group.
‘‘I had a pretty good season last year with the bat and now I’ve had this surgery a few weeks ago and the back’s feeling really good at the moment.
‘‘We’ve just started batting training this week, so I’m really looking forward to this season and seeing what it has in store.’’
According to Clarkson, that will hopefully mean a full return to the bowling crease as he looks to consolidate his allround credentials. But he’s not about to rush anything.
‘‘I don’t really want to rush the bowling too much at the moment . . . [more] just get my batting back on track and ready for the start of the season and worry about the bowling probably later on in the season. It’s just another string to add to my bow and it’s the thing that’s going to get me into teams being an allrounder I think. I definitely don’t want to give it up.’’
Clarkson had the surgery in early June, after which he couldn’t walk for the ‘‘first few weeks’’, but said he’d been ‘‘pretty happy with the recovery so far’’.
‘‘I had two stress fractures in my back, which was just from bowling pretty much, and the vertebrae had sort of just given up and gone really weak. So with the surgery, they just filled the crack in and scratched the bone and made it get a bit irritated so it would wake up and start healing better.’’
Clarkson debuted for CD in 2015 and impressed in his first full season last summer.
To date he’s played 11 onedayers, averaging 42.85 with the bat and a top score of 70 not out, and 19 Twenty20s in which he’s averaged 43.14 and hit a top score of 64 not out. He’s also played two first class matches.
He was also part of the of the New Zealand team that contested the 2016 under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh.
His goals for the season appear fairly clear-cut.
‘‘Definitely just to cement that spot in the one-day team and then hopefully maybe in the back end of the season play a few four-day games, specially with my bowling as well, but just make sure I get through this season without any injuries which is probably a main goal of mine.’’