My Family's Keeper
Page 35
The presence of our families and close friends made our wedding a magical occasion.
My teammates Stuart Clark, Dom Thornely, Ed Cowan and Michael Clarke shared the special day with us.
Sightseeing atop Table Mountain, Cape Town, with Karina and six-month-old Zac, March 2009
Gear ready to go in our garage storeroom, 2010
Zac meets his new sister soon after Mia’s birth on 21 October 2010
Mia watching me play against New Zealand at the Gabba, 5 December 2011
In the SCG change rooms after our 4–0 series win against India, 6 January 2012
A proud moment: acknowledging the applause from the crowd following my Ashes century at Cardiff, 11 July 2009. (Tom Shaw/Getty Images)
Getting one away in our KFC T20 International against the West Indies in Hobart, 21 February 2010. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Taking a catch to dismiss England’s Alastair Cook in the second Test at Adelaide Oval, 5 December 2010. (Hamish Blair/Getty Images)
An x-ray of my finger following surgery to insert two plates and five screws after it shattered like a Violet Crumble during the 2009 Ashes campaign.
Zac, aged two, visiting me in the nets at Blacktown Oval, in November 2010 (Phil Hillyard/Newspix)
Ryan Harris, Mike Hussey, me and Nathan Lyon at Kirribilli House, Sydney 1 December 2012
Watching the ball in a match against New Zealand at the ICC Cricket World Cup in Nagpur, India, 25 February 2011. (Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
I couldn’t believe how unwell Mia looked when I arrived home from the West Indies on 20 March 2012.
A rare moment when Mia was free of nasal tubes. I loved every minute of that cuddle.
Mia on her way back to the ward after radiation therapy at the adult hospital, November 2012
Oncology Fellow Dr Santosh Valdi, Clinical Nurse Consultant Erin Sheehan and Oncologist Dr Luciano Dalla-Pozza reviewing Mia’s progress during immunotherapy, 7 May 2013
Even with a broken shoulder, Mia still managed to have some fun.
Mia’s bright smiles helped us all stay positive.
During the bone marrow transplant in September 2012, Mia gained 3 kilograms of fluid, which affected her liver, her remaining kidney and her lungs.
The grandparents played a critical role in my ability to return to the cricket field. My mum and dad were there to share Mia’s second birthday with her while I was away, on 21 October 2012.
Karina’s parents, Marg and Phil, celebrated their milestones in the ward so that Mia didn’t miss out. On 25 July 2012 it was Phil’s birthday.
Celebrating with the Sydney Sixers after winning the final of the Champions League T20 in Johannesburg, South Africa, 28 October 2012. (Stephane de Sakutin/Getty Images)
Rejoicing after taking the wicket of Stuart Broad during the First Ashes Test of the Commonwealth Bank Ashes Series at the Gabba, 24 November 2013. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Everyone except the English team enjoyed this one-handed catch, which dismissed Joe Root in the Third Ashes Test at the WACA, 16 December 2013. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Wicketkeepers have to be perfectly positioned to take a bottom edge, like the one Ben Stokes got on a Nathan Lyon ball, on the fifth day of the Ashes’ Third Test, 17 December 2013. (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
Enjoying Sydney’s 2013 New Year’s Eve fireworks as a family
Zac celebrates his first ton, in the MCG nets, Christmas Day 2013. (Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
At 2.15 a.m., in the middle of the MCG, I lead the team song for the last time, following our 2015 World Cup victory over New Zealand. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
My parents with the World Cup. Rob Lindblade/ICC
Throwing a golf ball against a wall during a nets session at Windsor Park, Dominica, 31 May 2015. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Announcing my retirement from all forms of cricket except T20, September 2015. (Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
With my family at the SCG for a career lap of honour, 21 January 2016. (Hamilton Lund)
Team Mia supporting research into neuroblastoma in the annual Run2Cure, 22 June 2014
Our amazingly brave and gorgeous Mia on her first day at school, 29 January 2016
A family portrait, 16 February 2015. Back row, left to right: Karina, me, my parents, my grandmother Mar, Christopher and Jenna, and Amy and Michael and daughter Georgia. Front row: Zachary, Hugo, Mia and their cousin Molly.
AFTERWORD BY
DANIEL LANE
IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG for Brad Haddin to prove he was carved from the same block of granite as some of Australia’s toughest wicketkeepers — uncompromising scrappers such as Rod Marsh, Ian Healy and one of Brad’s mentors, Steve ‘Stumper’ Rixon. When Phil Emery retired from the NSW Blues in 1999, news of Haddin’s selection over Craig Glassock — considered by many as Emery’s obvious heir — surprised a few of us in the media. Glassock had played a handful of games for NSW and, with the team in a state of transition — older players were moving on and the new breed was being ushered through — many believed the selectors would crave some experience. However, if there was any pressure on the young, seemingly cocky Haddin — who had already been earmarked as a special talent when he had captained Australia’s Under-19s and represented the ACT Comets in the 1997–98 domestic one-day competition against the so-called ‘big boys’ — it didn’t show.
It was obvious from watching Haddin perform in those formative matches for NSW that the ‘keeper from Queanbeyan’ was a ‘goer’. While the Blues took some terrible beatings as they found their feet, there was plenty to like about what Haddin’s teammates said about him. He didn’t take a backwards step, he expected his bowlers to fight for their wickets, he took the ‘game on’ and liked to ‘chat’ to the batsmen from behind the stumps (whether it’s true or not, one wonderful anecdote suggests that once led him to swallow five flies during a single innings!).
I saw first-hand the determination and energy that drove Haddin to greatness when he joined the old Thump Boxing gymnasium at Five Dock in Sydney’s Inner West in 2004. I was a member there because it was the perfect place to let off steam from tight deadlines and the media grind. Brad was there for a different reason: to develop a level of fitness that would give him an edge over his rivals, all of whom would one day be contenders for Adam Gilchrist’s place in the Australian team.
Like the other members, I watched as Haddin was put through fearsome one-on-one sessions by his trainer, Christian Marchegiani, a mutual friend. The program was designed to push Haddin deep into the discomfort zone and more often than not the relentless regimen of weights, agility exercises, shuffle runs, burpees, beep tests and other torturous drills left this star of Australian cricket hunched over a garbage bin, vomiting.
There were a few aspects of Haddin’s approach to training that left an impression: most notably, he fought the natural instinct to collapse to the floor at the end of even the most gruelling session. I well remember the parade of younger players who’d accompany him to a session; while they spoke of their hunger and desire to play for Australia before training started, few were ever again sighted after their first taste of the ‘tough stuff’.
As a journalist with an interest in what makes champions, I enjoyed talking to Haddin — who, it needs to be said, took weeks to drop his guard, through, I guess, the fear that his comments might end up in print — because he provided profound insights. Two things that stuck in my mind were his approaches to cricket and leadership, because both principles can be applied to life. He spoke of playing cricket with a sense of ‘no fear’, saying it’s hard to achieve greatness in any field if you’re forever looking over your shoulder for perceived threats. He also said over his regular post-training macchiato that his message to the players before a match was to be the person who made a difference out there. Both struck me as good creeds.
Once doctors said Haddin’s daughter Mia was healthy enough for him to claw his way back into the Australian team, he provided
raw insight into the emotionally draining battle he, his wife, Karina, and extended family had fought in an interview I did for The Sun-Herald. While his actions on the field and in the gym proved he was a warrior, listening to Haddin detail his little girl’s battle exposed his vulnerability and fatherly tenderness. His decision to speak about the battle he and Karina had fought came after his heroic comeback to the Test team when he starred for Australia in the triumphant 2014 home Ashes series. However, he stressed there was no way he would’ve ever played cricket again had Mia needed him. ‘I didn’t think about cricket,’ he said. ‘I didn’t think about coming back to the game . . . It was [all about] making sure Mia had the best possible chance of surviving and that our other kids could live as normal a life as possible with everything that was going on.’ As Haddin poured out his heart, I thought his emotionally charged words proved he was, first and foremost, his family’s keeper.
Haddin proved he meant every word because he’ll forever be remembered as the man who effectively walked away from the Australian cricket team during the next Ashes series that was staged in Britain. Fate once again dictated his daughter needed him more than his mates in their Baggy Green caps. While he says any parent would’ve reacted the same way, the fact is he was the parent put to the test.
Brad Haddin’s entire career ought to be celebrated for the series of sacrifices that established him as a teammate who was selfless. After all, Haddin urged the national selectors to forgo him — the then vice-captain of the Aussie team — for the top job. Even though the Australian captaincy provides lucrative post-cricket opportunities, such as commentating, Haddin endorsed the much younger Steve Smith because he believed it was crucial that Cricket Australia prepared for the future. In a similar vein, he refused the opportunity to become the most capped player in the history of NSW cricket by not doing what his teammates wanted: delay his retirement until he played one more match for the Blues. While they thought he was entitled to the honour, Haddin was adamant that to play that game would have been selfish — and unforgiveable. He realised he’d be bitterly disappointed in himself if he chased a personal milestone. ‘It would worry me more being remembered for that — playing for a milestone — because that’s not me,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t be playing to be a better player or making the environment better; it would be for personal reasons, and that would eat away at me for the rest of my life.’
Further testimony to his willingness to put others before himself was his taking Peter Nevill under his wing at the Eastern Suburbs District Cricket Club, and then NSW, even though it was clear the younger wicketkeeper, who’d moved to Sydney from Melbourne to improve his game, would one day be a direct threat to Haddin’s place in the Australian team. Destiny decreed Nevill assumed Haddin’s position behind the stumps when the selectors chose him to play in the Test after Brad returned from spending time with Karina by Mia’s hospital bed. However, it says plenty for Haddin’s qualities that it didn’t cross his mind to ask his protégé to stand down and allow him to resume his place on the big stage. ‘Nev was put in an uncomfortable position,’ he says. ‘I’m quite close to Peter and this was nothing to do with Peter . . . It was a decision the selectors made. The selectors made their decision and that was fine . . . I made myself vulnerable to being dropped because I walked away.’
Haddin’s career statistics tell of a great achiever in Australian cricket, but the figures that note such things as his taking 262 catches in 66 Tests and scoring 3122 runs for the national one-day team fail to capture his epic tale of heart and courage. One of the great frustrations of being a journalist who has covered much of Brad Haddin’s career is that he has always given the impression he’d prefer to have his teeth pulled than to talk about his personal triumphs. It’s therefore been left to some of his former teammates to tell of the human moments behind the statistics and to document the actions of a teammate who made a difference:
Peter Nevill, Haddin’s replacement as Australia’s wicketkeeper
‘It was obviously a difficult time for the Haddins when they were in London [and Mia was sick] but Brad was very supportive of me during that time. He could quite easily — and understandably — have shifted his entire focus away from cricket, but he still very much supported me during that Test match in London when I debuted. He and Karina sent a bottle of champagne to my room and their thoughtfulness in doing that during what was a terrible time for them is another example of the kind of people they are. He’d been such a great mentor to me in the nine years leading up to that match that we obviously had a wonderful relationship . . . It was an unusual feeling [to replace him in that circumstance].
‘Brad used to stress to me that as a wicketkeeper he did the basic things better than anyone and being able to do that is the key to wicketkeeping. It wasn’t only the great catches and sharp stumpings that made him great; it was also the consistent things he did throughout his career.’
Steve Smith, 45th Test captain of Australia
‘It was more or less Brad’s idea that [the selectors] give the captaincy to me: he was the vice-captain at the time and he endorsed me for the job. He’s a great man and it was tremendous during my first couple of games as captain to have him by my side to offer some guidance.
‘I’ll always remember Brad as one of the great team-men; a fierce competitor who wanted the best for whatever team he was playing for, be it Australia, NSW or the Sydney Sixers. Brad Haddin taught me plenty. I learned loads from listening to the way he spoke and watching the way he played the game.’
Peter Siddle, Australian fast bowler
‘Brad was like the big brother of the team and we shared some good times together, and some bad times as well. Regardless of the circumstances, he was a great bloke to be around.
‘Even though he wasn’t the captain, I always looked up to Brad as a leader. The way he went about the game — he was competitive and aggressive — was extraordinary. When you talk about the Australian “way” of cricket, he stands alongside guys like Steve Waugh, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and David Boon — blokes who had a good crack.
‘His decision to [stand down from the team to be with Mia] says what type of man he is, and it’s that quality that allows me to know we’ll be good mates for the rest of our lives.’
Nathan Lyon, Australian spin bowler
‘Brad is one of the best teammates I’ve played alongside because he cares about you, and all good teammates put everyone else before themselves. He was exceptional in the way he carried himself on and off the field, and his professionalism was extraordinary.
‘You always knew that Brad had your back in all areas of the game and that was a comfort. His willingness to lead from the front gave Australia a genuine edge. I think his efforts with the bat and gloves when we won the [2013–14] Ashes series 5–0 were incredible; he dug us out of trouble on so many occasions.
‘While the public was captivated by Mitchell Johnson’s performance in that series — and Mitch was on fire — Brad’s efforts were acknowledged by his teammates. Watching him take the game on and change the momentum gave us the courage as the bowling unit to go out and take wickets.’
Mitchell Johnson, former Australian fast bowler
‘We played a lot of cricket together and we always got into a lot of scraps together because Brad was one of those guys who’d back his mates 100 per cent. That quality made him one of the best team players imaginable.
‘I admired that he was a very strong character who’d stand up for what he believed in. If there was something he didn’t think was quite right, he’d speak up and get it out there. We looked up to him because when Brad spoke he was honest; he wasn’t fearful of saying what he thought. He was an open book and it was good to have that kind of voice in the team.’
Ryan Harris, former Australian fast bowler
‘Brad’s legacy is that he proved the importance of passion. He was obviously great at what he did, but he also led so well from the front it really made a differ
ence.
‘When he returned to the Australian team [from helping to care for Mia in 2012–13] he obviously wasn’t the captain, but he let the younger players know what it meant to play for Australia and what you needed to do to be a top player. He brought them into line and became a godfather figure in his own way.
‘I admired that if there was an elephant in the room he was the person who’d bring it up because he realised that might help the team. He wasn’t always right — and Brad will admit that — but he always raised points that needed to be discussed. He was brutally honest and enjoyed challenging the younger guys.
‘When Mia [was sick] he kept it very quiet because he didn’t want the detail to affect the team’s preparation. We grew up in an era where the Baggy Green was everything, but what Brad proved is that family overrides everything.’
CAREER RECORD
of
BRADLEY JAMES HADDIN
Born 23 October 1977 (Cowra, NSW)
Right-hand batsman
Wicketkeeper
Compiled by Ross Dundas
CAREER SUMMARY
SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE TABLES
* Not out (unless otherwise indicated)