Covered Winter 2015

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14 15
“I’ve grown up in Nottinghamshire and
this is the team I watched as a youngster,
I used to come toTrent Bridge to watch
Chris Read and Paul Franks,” he said.
“I’m a Notts fan, and now to be playing,
and being a part of the Club, it’s
something you can’t take away from me.
I love every minute of have secured
three more years here is mindblowing.
“I have a photo framed at my mum and
dad’s house from when I was at primary
school. I used to play inWrigley’s Kwik
Cricket competition and we got to a final
atTrent Bridge, and Chris Read was giving
the prizes out.
“We ended up winning the tournament
and there’s a photo of us all with Ready,
and there’s a seven-year-old me, stood at
the end with a right face on.
“I showed it to him, it’s a belter.When
you get to meet players like that at such a
young age it makes you really want to push
to get in that team.
“When you get away from the whirlwind
of the season and get away from cricket
for a couple of weeks, you sit back and
think ‘this is my job, this is what I do for a
living and I love every second of it. I love
everything about it, I love everybody at
the ground, and everyone who comes to
watch us.”
While his skills with the white ball saw him
bubble under the radar, Ball’s newfound
prominence has come hand in hand with
an extra yard of pace and the ability to
trouble those batsmen he’d previously been
bested by.
However, hearing he spent his formative
years batting at four, before being casually
tossed the ball aged 15 for his first
competitive bowl is worthy of a (justified)
double take.
“At 15 I was a batsman,” he said.Yes, he
really did just say that.
“I batted number four for Paul Johnson’s
under 15s team and I didn’t bowl until the
last game of that season.
“We came up against a player who had
got something like 170 against us earlier
in the year. No one could get him out and
they randomly chucked me the ball and
said go on, have a bowl.
“I got him out second ball and thought,
‘maybe this is something I can pursue’. I
bowled a spell and came off the field and
Johnno collared me, then a few of the
coaches told me I should see how far I
could take it. I did, and here we are.
“On reflection, I was a very dodgy
number four.”
Of course, it’s easy to paint Jake’s
breakthrough as a pure success story, a
young player knuckling down, working
hard and reaping the rewards. It’s
important too, not to gloss over a much
tougher previous 18 months.
Rewind to September 2013, and Ball
had just run roughshod over Somerset in
the semi-finals of theYorkshire Bank 40
atTrent Bridge. After a matchwinning
4-25, he was ruled out of the final with
a back spasm. In 2014, a broken foot –
again sustained against Somerset – took
the steam out of his season. Now, a year
on, it’s clear that the change tastes all the
sweeter.
“That was probably one of my toughest
moments in cricket,” he admitted.
“To have been such a part of a campaign
and to get to what people talked about as
one of the best moments of their career,
playing in a Lord’s final, and to not be
involved and be able to influence it hit me
harder than I thought.
“I like to think of myself as quite a
relaxed, calm character but that really
got to me. It has now made me more
determined to push the team to play in
another one, to play in a Lord’s final.
“When you miss cricket, when you’re
on the sidelines for chunks of seasons, it
pushes you hard to really get fit and bring
your game on.
“You can’t really do a lot about a broken
foot but in terms of getting strong and
getting through seasons, the only way you
can push for higher honours is being in
the team consistently and working harder,
putting in better performances and testing
yourself at the very best level, for as long as
you can.
“It’s about being strong, and of course
skill, but also about being able to execute
your skills for longer and that means fitness
and gym work, putting the hard yards in
and it pays off.”
As well as a superior cricketer, there’s an
added steel to Ball in 2015. In part it’s
down to his physical development and
advancement of his game, but equally he’s
a more mature cricketer. It does, however,
seem that his ability to perform under
pressure has come naturally, rather than
developed consciously.
“Mental strength is something I’ve never
really thought about, but it’s something
I’ve developed without knowing, he said.
“I’m a level-headed character and that
helps me in big games and pressure
situations. I don’t overthink things,
sometimes a player can wind themselves
too tight and that’s something I’ve never
put much thought into, and that’s probably
why I feel quite relaxed and enjoy big
games.
“The one that sticks out in my mind is the
derby game atTrent Bridge this summer,
playing in front of 13,500 people, we
had two overs to bowl and they needed
19 to win.
“It just happened. I wasn’t thinking about
the crowd, I wasn’t thinking about the
game situation, it was just me doing what
I’d done my whole life.
“I bowled, went for six, got a wicket and
we went on to win the match. It’s not until
after the game when you’re huddled out
in the middle – celebrating as we were –
you look around the ground and think
‘my God, there’s a lot of people here’, and
that’s just the way I am. I get lost in games,
don’t overthink and just play cricket.”
“Mental strength is something
I’ve never really thought
about, but it’s something I’ve
developed without knowing.”