Cricket’s new cult hero – ‘surfer dude’
As the Sydney Cricket Ground crowd welcomed a new cult hero on day five of the third test against Pakistan, that hero’s mother, Sarah, was happily oblivious ... watching the tennis at home.
Mickey Edwards, the star of the final day of Australia’s whitewash of Pakistan, had neglected to mention to his parents that he would be running drinks for the test team.
As fate would have it, he made his appearance as a substitute fielder, despite his parents thinking he would be at work.
‘‘I was meant to be working for Budgie Smuggler yesterday,’’ Mickey explained after coming to terms with his new-found fame.
‘‘But I called in and told them I have something that maybe is a little bit more important to do.’’
Sarah, meanwhile, was watching ‘‘this really good match’’ in the tennis when she saw a text from her husband, Phil, that Mickey was supposedly on the field at the test.
‘‘I noticed this text from Phil, and all the other texts and calls, with people saying ‘are you watching Mickey?!’’’, she laughed.
‘‘So then I turned on to watch, but I had to leave a good tennis match.’’
Described by Shane Warne as ‘‘the surfer dude’’, Edwards was cheered like no other at the ground, to the point that players started purposely giving him the ball just for the crowd reaction.
‘‘I was sort of wondering why they were cheering for me,’’ he said.
‘‘I only picked up on it after the first few times I touched the ball, and then Nathan Lyon thought it would be quite funny to keep throwing me the ball. And the crowd would go up every time.
‘‘I think before he bowled one ball he threw it to me like four times!’’
Edwards has been recovering from three stress fractures in his back, and admits being out on the ground was the first time he had touched a cricket ball in months.
‘‘I haven’t played any cricket in about six months due to injury, so yesterday was the first time I picked up a ball in a while, let alone play for Australia.
‘‘I was sort of praying the ball didn’t come to me at all,’’ he laughed.
‘‘Just be on there for an over, then go back the the little hideout under the shade and just run drinks.’’