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MyWorld in Cricket
In this exclusive extract from his newly
published book, Stuart Broad reflects on
the formative years of his cricketing journey.
For anyone interested in playing cricket, the
early years are a vital period in developing
your talent. As a boy, I was fortunate to go
to a school where I was able to learn from
good coaches, and from having the space
in our garden to spend long summer days
practicing there. The fact that my father
was a Test cricketer helped, too!
A lot of my real cricket learning game in
the garden, stupid as it may sound. I played
non-stop at home. Sometimes, I’d just be
playing swingball, pretending to be Matthew
Hayden with windows as imaginary fielders
to be avoided when I hit the ball. I learned
a huge amount playing various games at
home, as I was able to try out all sorts of
things – even leg-spin – without it really
mattering, as it would in the heat of a match,
which is the worst time to experiment.
Until I was 14 or 15 years old, I still
worked hard on my game in the garden. I
would throw a tennis ball at the shed wall
for hours on the end and see how I could
hit the rebound. Eventually, my mum had
to knock the shed down, because there was
a huge crack in the wall where I’d been
hitting the ball! These days it’s rare that
people are able to spend so long practicing,
with so many other distractions, but I
didn’t see it that way. To me, it was just
play, but by doing so much of it I learned
such a lot.
I was lucky enough to go to Oakham School
in Leicestershire when I reached the age
of 13, and I couldn’t have had two better
people to help me develop my game than
Frank Hayes and David Steele, who were
the coaches there. Hayes was a top-order
batsman who had played for Lancashire
between 1970 and 1984, and won nine
England caps in the mid 1970’s, making
a century on his debut against the West
Indies in 1973. Unfortunately for him, all
his England caps would come against the
men from the Caribbean, who were just
beginning their long period of dominance
at the time.
Steele was another top-order batsman,
who had an even longer county career, and
played with Hayes in the 1976 series against
theWest Indies. He had made hisTest debut
the previous summer at the age of 33, when
he had taken on Dennis Lillee and Jeff
Thomson at their fiery peak – in the days
when helmets were unheard of. His fearless
approach to taking on those two earned him
the admiration of cricket fans everywhere,
and his heroics saw him become the BBC
Sports Personality of theYear in 1975.
When I look back at what I picked up from
them, however, I realize that technically they
didn’t do a great deal for me.What they did
do, however, was even more important: they
fuelled my love for the game – they were
both great storytellers, and hearing their
tales made me even more convinced that I
wanted to become a cricketer. I remember
Hayes recounting how he hit his first ball
in first-class cricket straight back over the
bowler’s head for six. He was inspirational in
the sense that he showed me the possibilities
the game could offer and the fun to be had
from a cricket career.
Meanwhile, Steele was someone who grew
the love of cricket in everyone who played
under him. He talked about the Aussies
and the tough cricket he played and how
he loved the battle. His passion made us all
want to turn up to practice and play. I’m
sure that their methods were better for me
as a teenage than having someone telling
me precisely where my front foot should be
when I played an off-drive.
If I have to pinpoint a time when I developed
my real love for the game, I would go for that
time under their coaching – rather than what
I picked up frommy father or from playing in
the garden. Of course Hayes and Steele were
strong characters, so if you did something
wrong they’d let you know about it, but they
also made sure we knew that we were there to
play cricket and have a good time.
I began to establish myself in the school
first team in 2002 (I was 16 during the
summer term), and then in the following
two seasons we did not lose a game as we
had a very strong team. During that time
STUART BROAD:
MY WORLD IN CRICKET
in those days
I was seen as
more of a
batsman than
a bowler
stuart broad