Strewth, your bat’s just a bit too big, mate!
He called himself the ‘heavy roller’ as a kid but now Harry Brook can be...
DURHAM’S Australian batsman Nic Maddinson yesterday had his bat confiscated for being too big during his County Championship innings against Derbyshire. Maddinson had scored one run when umpire Hassan Adnan halted play, to check if the bat complied with cricket’s laws. The bat did not pass through a bat gauge in an on-field test and the 30-year-old had to change it. The over-sized bat failed a second test last night, and now Durham could be hit by a points penalty as a result of breaching equipment rules.
A bat cannot be longer than 38in from the handle down, wider than 4.25in, 2.64in deep nor more than 1.56in on its edges. Bats are tested twice, as wood can swell in damp conditions and the second test allows time for it to dry out.
Soon after the bat change, Maddinson was out for just eight. He has played three Test matches for his country.
Also at Derby last month, the hosts’ Mattie McKiernan was found to be using a bat against the MCC’s laws in a one-day loss to Hampshire.
The offence was deemed to be unintentional, but Derbyshire lost two points — equivalent to a win in the Royal London Cup — as an individual is responsible for their equipment complying with the laws.
Harry Brook will look the epitome of the modern England cricketer when he makes his much-anticipated Test debut against South africa tomorrow. But his journey to the top could easily have been derailed by issues that had nothing to do with his ability with the bat.
Martin Speight took Brook under his wing when he arrived as a shy 14-year- old looking anything but a prospective professional at Sedbergh School in Cumbria where the former Sussex and Durham batsman is now director of cricket.
‘When I played you didn’t have to be super fit, it was just how good a cricketer you were,’ Speight tells Sportsmail. ‘But you have to be an athlete now and Harry was not, shall we say, very athletic when he arrived.
‘During lockdown I had a Zoom call with Harry and he described himself when he was at school as the heavy roller. He was very poor at running and not athletic at all but clearly a very talented cricketer.’
So Speight got to work with the young yorkshireman as much off the field as on it. ‘He knew he had to get better,’ says Speight. ‘We arranged for him to see the school athletics coach and for two years he spent two sessions a week basically learning to run well.
‘He got himself into the gym and started working hard at everything he did. It took him a while but he became the whole package. That was key to his development.’
But overhauling the heavy roller was far from the most significant part Speight has played in the making of an exciting talent who will tomorrow step in for the injured Jonny Bairstow at the kia oval after being in the England Test squad all summer.
Speight was somewhat ahead of his time in the 1990s as an unorthodox stroke- maker and was one of the first to start sweeping faster bowlers, and it was to him that Brook turned to correct a technical issue that emerged in his early years at Headingley.
‘He did very well in his first year after leaving school but he had some flaws that had crept in and a few years ago we completely rebooted his set-up, stance and his triggers,’ says Speight, 54. ‘ The end product is four years later he is where he is.
‘Harry always stood very still at the crease but as time went on he started putting too much weight on his back leg. His hips and shoulders would open up and his bat would come down from gully. He’d play across straight balls or nick ones that weren’t really doing a lot.
‘He spoke to me and said, “This isn’t working”. He felt he needed to go back and across and set himself up to know where his off-stump was.
‘Even now he’ll send me videos asking what I think and I’ll say, “your head has dipped a fraction there” and he’ll go off and work at it. If he hadn’t made that change he wouldn’t have gone on. He had to solve that flaw but he’s steadily got better and better.’
So much so that Brook, now 23, will fulfil an ambition that first took shape in the impressive setting of Sedbergh when he worked with Speight all those years ago.
‘We are incredibly proud of him,’ says Speight, who has maintained his hobby of painting from his playing days to his life at Sedbergh and has held numerous exhibitions of his work.
‘Harry’s a great lad. He respects the game and wants to be a Test cricketer. It’s always been his dream and I hope he gets the opportunity on Thursday. He should do.’
and his mentor will be in the crowd at the oval tomorrow to see his old charge on the biggest day of his career. ‘I still speak to Harry most days,’ adds Speight. ‘I think he just likes having someone as a sounding board he’s known for years which is a treat for me and hopefully helpful for him.
‘as soon as Harry heard about Jonny’s injury he rang me and said, “I’ve got a ticket for you. I want you there”.
‘The headmaster has given me permission to miss school. I’ll be on the first train down and last one back.
‘I want to be there for his first day if he bats or not.’