A YEAR AGO, HE WAS SERVING A COCAINE BAN… NOW JACK’S EYEING ENGLAND
THIS time last year, Jack Burnham was hitting Tarmac, not leather, in the belief that his dream of playing for england had been obliterated.
Serving a 12-month ban for taking cocaine, reality bit hard, forcing him out of bed at half past five each morning to earn a wage as a groundworker on construction sites.
Today, a batsman who broke Sir alastair Cook’s national record tally at the Under 19 World Cup of 2016, with 420 runs at the tournament in Bangladesh, returns to firstclass cricket with Durham intent on making the most of a cherished second chance.
‘There were long days and it was hard work,’ Burnham, 22, reflected ahead of a Division Two fixture against Derbyshire — one of six fixtures that open the 2019 County Championship season.
‘I did a little bit of building work when I left school, but in all honesty I did get sucked into this life, this good life, as a professional cricketer. To go
away and see what other people have to do to make the money to get by in life was a big eye-opener. now, I’m going to work as hard as I can, make as much money and play as many games around the world as I can. I know how lucky and privileged I am.
‘at one point I thought that was it with cricket, I’d ruined every opportunity I had. But the support and help that the club have offered and given me is very appreciated. To be here now, going into a season, fit, strong, having this opportunity again is just amazing.’
Durham vowed to stand by Burnham when the ECB meted out their punishment in october 2017, on the proviso that he completed fortnightly rehabilitation following three failed drug tests earlier that year.
he did so, in addition to making changes in his social life — removing himself from previous friendship groups around the pit village of esh Winning where he grew up and even ending a relationship.
he said: ‘I did take things for granted. But hopefully I can be an inspiration. Someone who went through bad things in life and people can look at and say, “You can do it, what has happened has happened, keep fighting and working hard, you can get things back on track”.’
not that he expects all of Durham’s fanbase, or english cricket’s wider community, to be won over immediately.
That, he says, is a longer-term project. ‘I need to be the first in and last out, graft every day, and hopefully over time I will regain that respect. all that matters now is what happens on the field,’ he added.
It appears one legacy of his sabbatical as a labourer, during which he played club cricket at weekends, is greater power to his strokes. ‘oh yeah,’ he said with a smile. ‘We had training last Sunday and I hit one over the stands. I have never done that before.’
Further down the line, the schoolboy run- scoring prodigy — like his county colleagues Ben Stokes and mark Wood, Burnham is a former comprehensive pupil — has his eye on england caps.
‘I had a little taste of it with the Under 19s,’ he said. ‘For now, I just think, “Score runs here”, get as many runs as I can, win games and hopefully, in a couple of years, go and play for england. It would be a good story, wouldn’t it?’