A CRICKET LIFE

The former New Zealand skipper on being fast-tracked into leadership, rekindling his love for the game at Trent Bridge and his second career as a T20 coach

Interview Euan Crumley

Unexpected success

In some ways I was quite a reluctant cricketer. I was six or seven when I was first introduced to the sport and I really enjoyed it, but it wasn’t something I was absolutely hoping to be the best at. That meant I cruised a little bit and it wasn’t until the end of my primary school days that I got selected for Canterbury junior teams. Some representative honours came my way which were a little bit unexpected and unplanned.

Playing then partying

At high school I basically played cricket on Saturdays with my mates to know where the parties were, so this wasn’t your absolute high-performance story. We had great days playing and then good nights as well. There were some under-age tournaments for Canterbury representatives, but I really just loved playing with my mates and having fun.

Committing to the game

Once I got to age 17-18, I started to get a little bit more serious about committing to the game and I’m thankful for that, because then I had the energy to do it. When the time was right, I was ready to commit and that enabled me to give that energy and focus which can often be lost as you’re going through your formative years. Cricket is a game that’s got such high demands that if you overcommit to it then you can feel resentful towards it. I didn’t have that, so the balance was really good.

A student at Sydenham

Back then we had really good club cricket, where the national players would still have time to play. I joined a club called Sydenham, which had a number of New Zealand representatives – people like Lee Germon and Blair Hartland – so it was a great opportunity. I had some success there and that built into the continued Canterbury influence and finally making the Canterbury A team at 18. A lot of things happened really quickly and there wasn’t too much overthinking about it. I just went with the flow.