by Brad Haddin
My view was that I was committed to NSW, so the answer would still be no. But then I spoke to the NSW selectors, telling them about the offer. To my surprise, they told me that they weren’t going to be picking me anytime soon and that I should say yes. I said, ‘But I’m here now; I’ve chosen the Blues.’ They said I didn’t need to worry, I was part of the squad and that wouldn’t change: I should just go and play for the Comets. So I said I would, for their remaining three games.
The first of these was in Canberra, at Manuka Oval on Sunday, 10 January 1999. I had a point to prove; I went out there determined to show the NSW selectors what they were missing. As it happened, our opponents were Victoria. Dean Jones was no longer with them, but they weren’t short of talent, including Brad Hodge, batsman Matthew ‘Herb’ Elliott and all-rounder Ian Harvey. They won the toss and decided to bat. With the score at 3 for 15, we were on a roll, but then Brad Hodge turned on his magic, getting 118 off 152 balls and contributing over half the Bushrangers’ total of 226. Expectations were still almost universally low for the Comets, but I couldn’t have cared less about that. Batting at number two, I was on a mission and Hodgey’s century only made me more determined to do well. My 133 took just 124 balls and included 14 fours and four sixes before mine became the fifth wicket to fall. We took the match with seven overs and four wickets to spare and I was named Player of the Match. I thought, Yep, that should get me noticed.
I was right. I was back at the SCG the following day for training when one of the selectors came up to me and commented on how well I’d done, then asked, ‘Why can’t you do that for us?’ Almost without thinking I answered, ‘Well I would, but you haven’t picked me,’ in a tone that said loud and clear what I thought about that decision. As he walked away, I thought, Oh crap, what did I go saying that for? It sounded so disrespectful — stupid, stupid. But either he didn’t take offence or my performance was just too good to ignore, because the next day I was named as part of the NSW XI that would take on Canberra in a three-day match to start at Manuka the following Sunday.
Higgsy, who had been having a great season with Northern Districts, had impressed the selectors too and was also chosen for the team. The selection of two of its own was a very proud day for Queanbeyan, and the local paper went with the headline ‘NSW dream is realised as Higgs, Haddin face former teammates’. Meanwhile, just in case anyone was tempted to forget the invisible but very real border that separates the two cities, The Canberra Times opted for ‘From hero to foe . . .’ While the match wasn’t a first-class fixture it was regarded as state level, and in a team that included Shane Lee and all-rounder Brad McNamara, only three of us (me, Higgsy and bowler Trent Johnston) weren’t Sheffield Shield players.
It was a bit strange to be playing against Peter Solway and Simon Mann but also good competitive fun. I think those guys felt very proud of me, but no-one was going to give any quarter and under Mike Veletta’s captaincy Canberra made us work for a draw. The stats-obsessed might have enjoyed the unintentional symmetry of Manny getting me out lbw for 13 in our first innings and me getting Sol out on 87. I did only marginally better in our second innings, reaching just 19. I would have liked to have shown the NSW selectors that it wasn’t just in the limited-overs format that I could perform, particularly because, going into the match, chairman Alan Campbell had been very upfront in a newspaper interview about the fact that the Blues’ poor performance in the Sheffield Shield — as opposed to one-dayers, where they were in top spot on the Mercantile Mutual Cup ladder — meant that spots were up for grabs.
In theory, playing for NSW should have ruled me out of going ahead with the other Comets’ Mercantile Mutual Cup games, but the administrators decided it was better that I honoured the commitment. Hopes were high in Canberra in the lead-up to the two remaining Comets’ matches because winning one would be enough to secure a place in the finals. The Canberra paper got very excited, running a huge story headlined ‘Stage set for finals fairytale for Veletta’. But the Comets’ happily-ever-afters weren’t to be: in the first match WA beat us by 49 runs and in the second SA won with four wickets in hand. My own performances were nothing to write home about, though I did keep up a nice quick run rate. The Comets ended the season coming sixth, above only Tasmania. (In the following season, 1999–2000, they didn’t win a match and finished last, after which the Australian Cricket Board announced they would no longer be part of the Mercantile Mutual Cup. The whole experiment had lasted only three years and through pure luck I’d been in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. I’ll always be grateful to the guys I played with, who nurtured me at that crucial time in my career.)
Anyway, whatever I did on the field and at training was enough, because by the time the 1999–2000 season started I was officially part of the NSW state squad. The annual contract had a base rate of $10,000, which wasn’t enough to live on, but as long as I got selected for the team itself I’d be fine since we also got match fees. If you played right through the season it would add up soon enough — and I planned on doing exactly that. I chucked in my part-time jobs and threw myself into the new, intense full-time training. I loved it. I did everything that was asked of me and more, every single time. I wanted to make a difference. I didn’t want to be a guy who’d played a couple of games for NSW and that was the end of it. I’d seen enough high-level performances by now to fully understand the level of work required and I was totally up for it.
Nathan, Dom, Greg and Higgsy were also in the squad: we’d leap-frogged right over the guys who were supposedly next in line. We all trained hard, but we had fun off the field too. We were a bunch of young guys, footloose and fancy-free and making a living from the sport we loved — how could we not have fun? We’d all go out together on a Saturday night and have a blast. However, I’d absorbed some good lessons, both from my time at the Academy and from watching how Merv Hughes handled himself, and I never let the out-of-hours fun get in the way of my performance.
In July of 1999, Phil Emery announced his retirement from first-class cricket. His were big shoes to fill; he was second on the all-time list of most games played for the Blues and held the record for most dismissals, with 332 catches and 46 stumpings. I wanted more than anything to have a chance to make that kind of contribution, but I wasn’t the only keeper in contention. Craig Glassock was still part of the squad and the name of another Second XI player, Nigel Taylor, was also being bandied about. Coach Steve Small was keeping his options open until the start of the season got closer. There was only one thing for me to do, and it wasn’t sitting and fretting, it was working even harder than ever. I knew the selectors would be scrutinising every aspect of my game and of my attitude and I was going to make sure they knew that I was up for the challenge.
The hard work paid off: when the team was announced at the start of the season I was named as keeper for both one-dayers and the Sheffield Shield. It was an incredibly proud moment for me and my whole family. But it was an opening, an opportunity, not a crowning achievement. I was in the hot seat and I wouldn’t stay there long if I didn’t perform.
I couldn’t wait to get out there and give it my all and I got to do just that on 10 October, two weeks before I turned 22. I made my debut as a fully fledged NSW player in the opening game of that year’s Mercantile Mutual Cup tournament. We were up against Victoria at North Sydney Oval, a beautiful little ground. My whole family was there to watch, of course, and it turned out to be quite a memorable game one way and another. It was a sunny morning and, when we won the toss, captain Michael Bevan opted to bat. With Mark Taylor having retired the previous summer and Michael Slater away playing for Australia, Rod Davison was chosen to open and I went in to partner him. Unfortunately, we were both out before the sixth over was finished, with my plan to hit big coming unstuck on just eight. Corey Richards dug us out of the hole, but even so we only managed 240 by the end of the innings. Higgsy, who was also making his Blues debut and was not out on 14, had a nice moment when he lofted the bal
l past the mid-wicket boundary and onto the roof of the grandstand.
Matthew ‘Herb’ Elliott and Graeme Vimpani opened for the Bushrangers and none of our bowlers — Stuart Clark, Nathan Bracken, Brett Lee, Higgsy or Gavin ‘Riddler’ Robertson — could stop them as they put on 194 in just over 38 overs. Herb was on 103 when I saw my chance: he unwittingly moved out of his ground as Gavin bowled and I had those bails off in a flash. By this stage, clouds that promised a huge thunderstorm had rolled in and we played the last 30 minutes in an eerie darkness. The final scorecard didn’t do anything to lift the gloom, with Victoria cruising to victory by seven wickets with 13 balls remaining. Along with the rest of the team, I just had to shake it off and prepare for the first Sheffield Shield game of the season, nine days later at the Gabba.
The Baggy Blue was incredibly precious to me, but there wasn’t a big ceremony for receiving it; I just collected it from the office of Cricket NSW when I picked up the rest of my Shield whites uniform (as opposed to the blue one-day gear). Greg Mail, Don Nash and Greg Hayne also made their debuts and the game started perfectly for us when Matthew Hayden was caught at slip on the first ball. Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there. In fact, thanks to a double-century from Martin Love, Queensland were so far ahead of us that even following on we could only manage to give them an additional target of 81. I didn’t take any dismissals but acquitted myself well with the bat, scoring 33 and 54 (with six fours among that half-century) as part of solid partnerships with Greg Mail and Shane Lee. But the Bulls beat us with nine wickets to spare — a result that was so inevitable that the crowd, sparse to begin with, fell to just 500 by Day 4.
(My first innings dismissal was an lbw to a medium pacer from Matthew Hayden. I still think the umpire was intimidated by Haydos into giving me out and I remain dirty about it all these years later. That delights the big bloke, who, when we catch up for a beer, takes great pleasure in first of all reminding me that he got me out in my first game then rubbing in the success Queensland have had in State of Origin rugby league in the past decade. The man is relentless!)
Our one-dayer against the Bulls was a completely different story. Two days after they’d thrashed us in the Shield, we took them on in a Mercantile Mutual Cup game. As well as a catch I got two stumpings — though it would have been preferable if the Haydos one had come before he reached 104. Even so, we won comfortably.
A fortnight later, in a Shield game at the SCG against South Australia, I pulled out all the stops, top-scoring with 86 in a lineup that included Michael Slater and Michael Bevan. The game was a draw after rain wiped out most of the final day’s play. That was frustrating, but at least we hadn’t lost.
As the season unfolded so did our pattern of winning in the limited-overs format and going down on the four-dayers. Our rematch against Queensland, at home this time, was even worse than the first game. Once again we were forced to follow on and this time they beat us by 10 wickets, with Greg Mail’s 39 the top score from both our innings. It was painful, as was the following loss to Tasmania. The Blues, once absolutely dominant in the game, hadn’t won the Shield since 1993–94 and had actually come bottom the previous year — something that would have been unthinkable to earlier generations.
The idea of bringing on a whole lot of young players was to shake off the malaise and produce a team that was strong enough to do well even when the international players couldn’t be there. It was becoming obvious that, if it was going to happen, it wasn’t going to happen quickly. We were all just getting used to first-class cricket and, while none of us had been accustomed to losing up to this point in our playing lives, the experience stood us in very good stead later in our careers. The success that lay ahead was all the more enjoyable because of the dark days we had early on.
The very busy schedules of the Test players meant we didn’t get to see a lot of them, but it was great for us young blokes when we did get access to them. Their knowledge and experience was invaluable and I soaked it up. Because of their commitments against touring Pakistani and Indian teams, I didn’t get to play with the Waugh twins until our fifth Shield match of the season. We were at the WACA having a hit a couple of days before the game when Steve Waugh bowled me a bouncer. I ducked, thinking, What’s going on? Is it some kind of softening-up ritual? He bowled me another one. Okay, I was getting rattled now. We’d hardly spoken, but had I done something to annoy him somehow? Did he just not like me? Then he sent down another bouncer. I moved from wondering if he was cranky to getting fired up myself. Tugga, as he was known to us, was the captain of the Australian team, an amazing cricketer we all looked up to. But in that moment I thought, Steve Waugh or not, if he does that again I’m going to hit him out of the net. Sure enough, the next ball was another bouncer and sure enough I hit it out. He gave me a satisfied nod and said, ‘I heard you had a good pull shot; I just wanted to check it.’
The game itself was a well-matched contest, with a solid roster of Test players on both sides. The Warriors’ line-up included Mike Hussey, Brad Hogg and Adam Gilchrist, who had made his debut in the Baggy Green a couple of weeks earlier and was their captain for this game as well as wicketkeeper. Our much-needed win was built on second-inning centuries from Tugga and Michael Bevan.
December approached and with it the annual Prime Minister’s XI game, this year against India. I was once again invited to be part of the team, not as a gesture of encouragement to a promising youth but, for the first time, as a professional first-class cricketer in my own right. Knowing that Sachin Tendulkar would be playing, we had joked before the game about how we’d better not drop him or he’d bat for a week, so it was a huge relief when I caught him for a duck off Brett Lee.
It had been a pretty great year, but there was one more treat in store for me before it ended: an introduction to Karina Castle. I had no clue at the time, but I had just met the love of my life.
CHAPTER 9
A TASTE OF THE BIG TIME
IT WOULD BE NICE to say that when I first saw Karina in December 1999 I knew instantly she was the one, but I didn’t. I was attracted to her and there was chemistry between us, but there were complicating factors, too.
We met at a Northern Districts Cricket Club Christmas party at the Orient Hotel in The Rocks. She had a friend in the club who had invited her along. He introduced us, telling me that Karina was an athlete too, a world champion in fact. She was beautiful, with a warm manner that made her easy to talk to. We’d both recently turned 22 and I got a buzz out of discovering that her birthday was the day before mine. I learned that her sport was touch football. She was too modest to tell me all of this at the time, but she’d played throughout high school, been chosen for the NSW state side in Year 12 and a year later she was picked to play for Australia in the national mixed team. She then received the ultimate accolade of being picked for the national women’s team.
Eight months earlier she had played in the sport’s World Cup held in Sydney. Australia had won the trophy and become world champions. That was a noteworthy achievement but I didn’t recall hearing anything much about it at the time. Karina wasn’t surprised. Unlike cricket or other footy codes, touch football was a strictly amateur sport, even at the highest level. She and her teammates covered their own costs on training camps and paid their own way when they travelled around Australia or across to New Zealand to compete. In addition to their training and playing schedule, they were required to find time for fundraising to help cover costs.
To get all that done you had to be very focused, as she clearly was. I later learned that as soon as she was allowed to, at age 14 and nine months, she had found herself a weekend job in a fish and chip shop near her family home at Terrigal on the NSW Central Coast. And even though she’d gone to Newcastle Uni, two train rides and more than an hour and a half away, she’d commuted for the first two years of her Radiography degree so that she could continue to meet the obligations of her job and touch footy. Now fully qualified and working and living in Sydney, she had
to fit training and competing around her full-time job. That kind of drive and work ethic was very impressive. We had a great night together and more fun going to the movies and to dinner in the following weeks, but the timing just wasn’t right for either of us to start a new relationship.
It was a bit of a shame, but I was preoccupied, having been unexpectedly selected to play for Australia A (Australia’s second team) in two one-dayers against the visiting Pakistan team. My goal for the season had been to build up Sheffield Shield experience, so getting the call that I’d been selected was a real thrill.
The first game took place on 2 January 2000 at Perth’s WACA. There was some strong talent on the Pakistan side, but it was skewed towards players near the end of their international careers, such as Wasim Akram and Saeed Anwar (both former Pakistan Test captains), rather than younger names like Shoaib Malik. Our side, on the other hand, consisted of half younger players the selectors wanted to see in action, including Andrew Symonds, Brad Hodge and Brad Williams (yes, we were a three-Brad team), and half experienced hands including Matthew Hayden, Shane Lee and Stuart MacGill. I didn’t make the impression I was hoping for when I was stumped for a duck in the first innings, but helped make up for it with three catches. We won that game and the following one, two days later at the Adelaide Oval.