About the Book
Talented young batsman Will Albright has earned himself a place at the brand-new T20 Youth Academy.
But, in order to prove himself worthy of playing for Victoria, he will first have to face everything the academy can throw at him – including more bone-rattling bouncers from his archenemy, Darren ‘Killer’ McKinnon. To make things even more challenging, Will must compete with his best mate, Shavil, for the highly sought-after opening batsman spot.
Can Australian T20 all-rounder Glenn Maxwell help Will adjust his game and earn a spot on the state team without losing his friend or his head?
Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Chapter 1: Goosebumps
Chapter 2: Home Away from Home
Chapter 3: A New Contender
Chapter 4: Game On
Chapter 5: Catches Win Matches
Chapter 6: With Frenemies Like These
Chapter 7: The Bench of Awkward
Chapter 8: Road Trip
Chapter 9: Desperate Times
Chapter 10: Shavil Saves the Day
Chapter 11: Smells Like Teen …
Chapter 12: A Chat with Maxi
Chapter 13: Surprise Delivery
Chapter 14: Birthday Bash
Chapter 15: Come In, Spinner
Chapter 16: Academy All-Stars
About Glenn Maxwell
Cricket Tips
Glossary
Also in the series
Copyright Notice
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GOOSEBUMPS
THWACK!
It was the first sound Will heard as the Albrights’ station wagon pulled into the car park of the brand-new Victorian T20 Youth Academy Centre in St Kilda, and it was music to his ears. The sound of cricket bat on ball.
They drove past the centre’s first-class 5000-seat cricket stadium, where some older academy members were having a practice match. Will’s eyes drank in the scene. He still couldn’t believe he would soon get to play on that ground.
Will’s dad parked the car and they both hopped out and stared up at the large, white building in front of them. It stood out like the tall sail of a ship, over a sea of green. Despite the winter chill in the air, the sun was out. The grass on the oval rippled in the breeze while the academy’s flag flapped excitedly in front of the centre.
‘Wow. It’s bigger than I remember,’ said Will.
His dad let out a low whistle. ‘I can’t believe you get to train here every week.’
‘I know,’ said Will.
He and his parents had visited the centre for the grand opening two weeks before and Will had found it hard not to walk around with his jaw dragging on the ground. The centre included a ten-lane indoor training area, a large outdoor training field and nets area, a gym, an administration block, overnight accommodation for the regional members, and even a 50-metre pool.
Will was amazed that he was actually here. He had goosebumps on his skinny twelve-year-old arms. In fact, his goosebumps had goosebumps.
‘Well, I should get out of your hair. I don’t want to cramp your style on your first day,’ said Will’s dad as they reached the entrance.
‘I guess,’ said Will.
‘Unless you’d rather I stick around and wait for you?’
‘It’s a two-hour training session!’
‘I could always play Candy Crush in the car …’
‘Dad, I’ll be fine.’
‘And you know where to get the tram from and what stop to change at?’ asked Will’s father anxiously.
‘I’ve caught a tram by myself before.’
‘Okay. Well …’ His dad looked at the car park, then back at Will. ‘Did I tell you how proud your mum and I are of you?’
Will laughed. ‘Only about fifty zillion times.’
‘Here’s fifty zillion and one. We’re really proud of you.’
‘Thanks, Dad. Now, go home. I’m going to be late.’
Will’s dad nodded and trotted back down the entrance steps. Will took a final look at the big glass door in front of him. Above it, in large shiny letters, were the words: Team above self. Heart above all else.
Will took another deep breath and stepped inside.
HOME AWAY FROM HOME
Will signed in and headed straight upstairs to the large indoor hall with ten batting lanes. The first thing he saw when he stepped into the hall was the beaming smile of Shavil Kumar, who was already padded up and waiting for a turn at the bowling machine. He and Shavil had become instant friends at the academy’s training and selection camp in April, and he’d been anxious to learn if Shavil had made it in. Now he had his answer.
‘Hello, Will Albright. Welcome to cricket heaven!’ Shavil exclaimed happily.
‘Hey, Shavil. How’s …?’ Will’s mouth ceased to function when he spotted Zoe Jarrett.
She was in a net and swatting balls with her trademark zeal. Will hadn’t been expecting to see Zoe. He’d forgotten that the girls’ T20 squad would be training here as well. Now that he had seen her, he was finding it a little difficult to breathe. She looked different somehow. Her curly brown hair was tied back into a ponytail, whipping from side to side with each ball she whacked into the nets. She looked … beautiful.
‘Hey, Willster,’ Zoe called between shots. ‘How’s the toe?’
Will had broken his toe playing night cricket at camp, and Zoe had clearly not forgotten. He began to answer, then realised Zoe was giggling. ‘Oh. Funny.’
‘Why don’t you grab a ball and show me what you’ve got?’ Zoe suggested.
But before Will could respond, her uncle Jack appeared.
‘Zoe, what are you still doing up here?’ he said grumpily. ‘It’s the boys’ day for indoor training. The girls are about to start on Field A.’
‘Fine,’ said Zoe. ‘Just trying to get in some practice before training.’
She thumped one more ball into the nets with a well-measured front foot block, then tucked her bat under one arm and strolled out of the net.
‘Maybe we can catch up after training one day,’ she said as she walked past Will.
‘Um, okay.’
‘Well, you don’t have to if you don’t want to,’ said Zoe.
‘But I just –’
‘Fine. Whatever,’ she huffed, and sauntered out the door of the batting lanes.
Will stood there with his mouth wide open and eyes staring blankly, wondering what exactly had just happened.
A second later Zoe popped her head back through the door with a devilish grin on her face. ‘See you around, Willster. Don’t break any limbs now.’
Then she was gone.
Jack chuckled and patted Will on the back. ‘Infuriating, isn’t she?’
Will shook his head and laughed. Jack was right, but for some reason Will couldn’t wait to see her again.
‘Righto,’ said Jack, turning to address the rest of the group. ‘Let’s get stuck into it. Gather round, boys.’
A moment later the twenty-four new academy recruits were sitting eagerly in front of Jack.
‘Welcome to the Victorian T20 Youth Academy,’ said Jack. ‘Take a good look around, boys. As part of the city squad, you’ll be training here in our brand-new centre. You have access to some of the best cricket facilities in the country as well as assistance from top coaches and sports science experts.
‘I want this place to be your home away from home. I want you to feel comfortable but I also want you to treat the place with respect. After all, you’ll be sharing the space with the girls and the Melbourne Stars T20 squad. You may even meet some pretty big stars around the place today.’
‘Maxi?’ Will whispered to Shavil.
&
nbsp; Shavil nodded. ‘Maxi!’
‘Some of you might already know that later this year there will be a state versus state T20 youth tournament taking place right here in Melbourne. In fact, we’ll be hosting many of the games here at the centre and some of you will get a chance to play in the Under 14s state team.’
This was followed by a rumble of excitement.
Wow, thought Will. I could be playing for Victoria!
‘All right, boys, stay focused,’ said Jack. ‘You will be divided into four squads – two city teams, two country teams – and you will play each other over the next few weeks in the lead-up to the state selection. I’ve posted the squads on the noticeboard, so you can go and have a quick look before batting practice begins.’
The boys didn’t need to be told a second time. They bolted to the back of the room and clambered around the noticeboard, jostling each other for a view of the squad lists. Will was standing on tiptoe, straining to see past the shoulder of a tall curly haired kid with a bad patch of pimples on his neck.
Shavil pumped the air with his fist. ‘Cool! We’re both in City A.’
‘Guess they didn’t want to break up our winning combination,’ Will said with a smile.
The two boys standing in front of Will parted and he was able to get a good look at the team lists. The first name he saw was like a cricket ball to the head.
Darren McKinnon. Or ‘Killer’, to his friends.
‘Ooohh, Killer is playing for Country A. Looks like you’ll be meeting up with your old cabin buddy,’ said Shavil.
‘Hey, you were in that cabin too!’ said Will.
‘Yeah, but you two had a thing. He’s your nemesis, like Lex Luthor for Superman, or the Joker for Batman,’ explained Shavil.
Will had to admit Shavil had a point. Killer McKinnon had tried to take Will’s head off with his lightning-fast bouncers on more than one occasion at the cricket camp last April. Darren had been the gun bowler of the camp tryouts. Now he was back to haunt Will in the academy play-offs. Will had managed to get the best of him the last time they’d played. He wondered if he would be so lucky when they met up again. He also wondered if he would be able to escape the encounter with his head intact.
A NEW CONTENDER
WHOOOSH!
The cricket ball hurled towards Will like a speeding meteor on a collision course with Earth. But, in this case, Earth was Will’s face.
It’s happening again, thought Will, as he stood in the nets for their first training session with Jack. But he didn’t flinch. Instead, he leapt to his back foot, ducked low under the ball and flicked it away behind him and into the net.
‘Sorry, mate, that one slipped out of the hand,’ said Mitchell Long, the tall, curly haired kid with the bad pimple patch.
‘That’s okay. I need to practise against the high stuff, anyway,’ said Will, relieved that Mitchell’s bouncers weren’t as hard or as fast as Darren’s.
Will remembered seeing Mitchell at the cricket camp but there were a few faces he hadn’t seen before. The kid in the lane next to him was definitely new and, from what Will could see, he was good.
‘Nice form,’ said Will between balls. ‘I’m Will, by the way,’ he shouted above the sound of bats whacking balls.
‘Thanks. I’m Brock Anderson,’ the boy replied with a smile. He was a lot taller than Will, with dusty blond hair and bright blue eyes.
‘Did you go to the Academy Cricket Camp?’ asked Will. ‘I don’t remember seeing you there.’
‘Nah, I only just moved here from Perth,’ Brock said casually. ‘Jack picked me based on my performance in the state schoolboys’ side earlier this year.’
‘Oh,’ said Will. ‘You must be good, then.’
Brock shrugged modestly.
Mitchell fired another quick delivery at Will and he went back to batting. They continued practising in the nets for the first hour until Dan Brocklehurst arrived with some baseball gloves and a bag of cricket balls.
‘Let’s head up the back, boys. Time to test your fielding skills,’ said Dan, bouncing his eyebrows with sinister glee.
A few moments later, Dan had the group diving for catches, throwing at targets and chasing balls in every direction. After that he decided to work on their high-ball catching ability – not an area that Will, who rarely fielded in the deep, felt very comfortable with.
‘Get under it!’ Dan called to Will as he tossed a ball up towards the roof of the training hall. Will quickly got himself into position under the ball and tried to remember what Dan had taught them at camp about making a wide target with their hands. But just as the ball got to him, he stumbled backwards and it popped out of his grasp.
‘Good try, Will. You need to keep moving so you can get behind the ball,’ said Dan. ‘Okay, Brock, you have a go.’
Dan threw another ball towards the roof and Brock caught it effortlessly, tossing it back to Dan.
‘Nice one, Brock. Perfect positioning,’ said Dan. ‘Catches win matches, boys. Catches win matches!’
‘That new guy is amazing,’ said Shavil as he and Will packed up the gear at the end of their first gruelling training run. ‘Did you see him in the nets before? He was smashing them everywhere and he didn’t even break a sweat. I think we’ve got some real competition.’
Competition. The word echoed in Will’s head.
Will looked over at Brock talking to some of the other boys. He seemed nice enough, and Will wanted to like him, but all he could think about was how he now had to compete against yet another player. He’d finally made it into the academy and hadn’t considered the fact that the real competition was only just beginning. Will was going to have to perform out of his skin to beat kids like Brock.
Even he and Shavil were competing. Sure they had the openers’ spots now, but there were three other squads. That meant six other openers that he and Shavil had to beat to be selected for state.
As Will and Shavil left the training hall, Will’s eye caught another glimpse of the noticeboard. He wasn’t surprised to see Brock Anderson at the top of the list for City B. They really would be competing against each other.
A sinking feeling filled the pit of his stomach as he headed towards the lift with Shavil. But before it had time to take hold, the lift doors opened and they were met with a familiar face. Glenn Maxwell. Both boys froze, unable to do much except stand there with their mouths wide open, grinning idiotically like carnival clowns.
‘Hi, boys. Will and Shavil, isn’t it?’ Glenn said as he stepped out of the lift. He held the doors open for them. ‘How do you like the new academy training centre?’
Shavil nodded and smiled.
‘Good,’ blurted Will. ‘I mean, it’s really good, Mr Maxwell. I mean Glenn, I mean …’
Will didn’t know why he was so nervous. He’d spent three days with Glenn on the academy camp and had even got some much-needed advice from him before the tryout game. Although, that was before Glenn had become the number-one player in the Indian Premier League.
‘Just call me Maxi, okay?’ said Glenn.
‘Okay … Maxi,’ said Will.
Shavil smiled, his eyes still wide with surprise.
‘Say something,’ Will whispered between gritted teeth. ‘You look crazy.’
‘Um … hope to see you again soon, Maxi,’ Shavil said awkwardly.
Glenn laughed. ‘I think I’m supposed to be working with the junior squads over the next few weeks, so you definitely will. Anyway, I’ll catch you guys around.’
Will and Shavil both nodded.
‘Um, want to get in the lift now so I can let go of the door?’ asked Glenn.
Both boys nodded and entered the lift.
‘See you later Maxi,’ Will called out at the last minute as the lift door closed.
‘Wow, he’s super-cool,’ said Shavil once the lift had begun heading back down to the ground floor.
‘Yeah. I can’t believe we get to train with him again,’ said Will. ‘That’s so awesome.’
‘I think I’m really going to like it here.’ Shavil beamed as the lift doors opened. The two friends stepped out into the large tiled foyer of the academy centre.
‘Me too,’ said Will.
GAME ON
Will drew back his bat and cracked the ball through the off side, then watched it zip away to the boundary for four.
Not a bad way to start the first innings, he thought. Four from the first ball.
It was a cold, cloudy Saturday in June and it was game on between City A and City B.
It felt a little weird to be playing cricket during winter, on the frosty ground, but the sun was out for now. Quite a few spectators, mostly families of the players and academy officials, had turned up to watch the city squads play. The junior squad was the first game on the oval, with two more set to follow. That was the great thing about T20 – you could get through three games in a day if you started early enough.
Shavil gave him a thumbs up from the non-striker’s end. Will braced himself. He and Shavil needed to get the team off to a good start but he also needed to make sure he played well for himself. Jack and the other state selectors would be watching – he had to stay focused. He couldn’t afford any loose shots or lapses in concentration today.
Will readied himself at the crease as Mitchell Long, the lanky pace bowler, ran in for the second delivery. It was an attempted leg cutter but Will spotted the change in grip as Mitchell rolled his arm over. Will moved quickly to attack the ball, driving it through a gap between the mid-wicket and mid-on fielders. There was only one man in the deep and, though he gave chase, the ball still beat him to the boundary.
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