Sydney grade cricket sensation Devlin Malone on living in the shadow of Shane Warne
The curse of leg-spinners post Shane Warne has now filtered down to grade cricket level with Sydney star Devlin Malone unable to get a look-in for NSW.
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Some of Shane Warne’s most brutal memories were bowling to fearless grade batsmen who wanted to hit him onto the highway.
But emerging 20-year-old leg-spinning star Devlin Malone is not afflicted by the same curse.
Malone has taken a stunning 61 first-grade wickets at 18.16 this season for Sydney University and at 20 years of age, he is already climbing towards 200 career first-grade scalps at just 21.20 a pop.
When he was just 17, Shane Watson described Malone’s wrong-un as almost impossible to pick.
But for the unprecedented way in which Warne changed cricket, life for leg-spinners in Australia seems to have reverted back to the dark old days pre-Warne, when tweakers were treated with suspicion and viewed as supreme gambles.
Fringe Australian bowler Mitchell Swepson was recently axed from the Queensland Sheffield Shield side, and it’s only in the past two months that Adam Zampa has taken himself off the merry-go-round and cemented his place in the national one-day side.
At the next level down, Malone is experiencing the same frustrations.
Despite being the Sydney competition’s leading wicket-taker, NSW left him out of an intra-squad trial this week in favour of some bowlers with lesser returns, and based on that decision he appears long odds to earn a Blues contract next month.
Malone is so young he doesn’t even remember watching Warne bowling for Australia, yet he is the latest of his kind stuck in the shadow created by the spin king.
“Obviously after Warne, Australia has been searching for that perfect leg-spinner and that’s what they model or base all their selections with spinners around,” said Malone, who will today lead Sydney University into battle against Sydney for the right to play in the first-grade final.
“They want almost identical to what Shane Warne bowled like and I don’t think anyone will get like that. Everyone bowls differently and I think that’s the beauty of spinners.
“I feel if you’re effective in your own way there should be opportunities for you.
“(The system) is very clinical and have high expectations of the spinners. It’s also the age – they expect spinners to mature at 26, so they don’t tend to rush the spinners as quickly as they do batsmen or fast bowlers. It makes it a lot harder.”
Malone remodelled his action in the off-season to be quicker through the crease and it’s paid dividends.
He admits frustration at not yet breaking through to the next level but says the non-selections have only made him hungrier.
“I still don’t really get any opportunities for NSW second XI, I’ve only played the T20s that they’ve had earlier in the year but in the longer formats I haven’t had any contact with NSW about that so it’s a bit frustrating when you’re doing alright and you feel you’re ready to have a crack at the next level,” he said.
“But it gives you more motivation actually to prove them wrong. That’s pretty much what I have wanted to do this year is prove them wrong. I think I’m good enough … so hopefully eventually I’ll end up getting there.”
Originally published as Sydney grade cricket sensation Devlin Malone on living in the shadow of Shane Warne
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