COVERED 2024 Winter

23 @TRENTBRIDGE But perhaps what he least expected, in all his years of unrelenting endeavour to climb the ladder, was a match-up with his all-time Notts icon. “Growing up, Michael Lumb was my hero,” Freddie says. “Funnily enough, he’s now my agent – which is pretty cool… and surreal.” It was Trent College Head of Cricket and former Leicestershire seamer Scott Boswell who pointed Notts’ former white-ball trophy-winner in McCann’s direction, and it didn’t take long for the two left-handed openers to click. “Lumby had a look at some of my scores, watched me play and then told me he wanted to sign me.” McCann says. “I remember having my meeting with him, thinking, ‘I remember watching you, my club number is literally chosen after yours’. And now we’re mates, we go for coffees and chat most weeks. It’s bizarre. “We’re both left-handers, so he’s been incredibly helpful at times when giving me tips on my batting, too.” Few manage the feat of achieving debuts in First-Class,T20 and List A cricket all in one cycle, the latter now often being the route to accessing a first opportunity. McCann’s maiden One Day Cup campaign for Notts – in which he expected to feature towards the end of the group stage – turned out to be, in fact, one of many achievements for club and country that year. “It was a really good learning experience for me,” he notes. “As a batter, they say you’re going to fail more than you succeed – everyone knows that.There’s something comfort- ing in knowing that even the very best go through that same thing, but it’s still a fact which I struggle to get my head around.” But after bowing out short of the knock- out rounds of the 50-over competition, the best story of his year was still on the horizon, against none other than the soon-to-be County Champions. An astonishing 154 against Surrey – in just his second First-Class appearance after making 50 on debut in Durham – put McCann’s name in the headlines. Then to put that performance well beyond the realm of a one-hit wonder, he did it again againstWarwickshire – two influential, survival-securing hundreds in five County Championship appearances. Had he been ever so slightly less fortu- nate with the finger injury he picked up in July, perhaps none of this would have even been possible. OneT20 match, on which nothing was riding besides pride itself, kickstarted a fledgling career. “I’m still pinching myself that things have gone the way that they have,” McCann smiles. “I’m only at the beginning of my career, and I can’t wait to see where I can take this next.” “I’M STILL PINCHING MYSELF THAT THINGS HAVE GONE THE WAY THAT THEY HAVE. I’M ONLY AT THE BEGINNING OF MY CAREER, AND I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHERE I CAN TAKE THIS NEXT.” Freddie McCann FREDDIE McCANN