Robert Craddock: How England’s Ashes revival can start from the bottom up

Two of England’s most threatening players braved Australian conditions as youngsters. Plus, find out the full grade cricket stats of each player who came over.

As England scrambles for answers to the question of how to even be competitive on Australian soil, the story of the hero of Hoppers Crossing provides a timely clue.

Veteran English seamer Stuart Broad, 35, is on his last Ashes tour. Some time in the next week he is sure to be contacted by the Melbourne-based friends from the Hoppers Crossing Cricket Club where, staying with the club groundsman, he played a season as an 18-year-old before he cracked the big time.

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“The experience changed him,” Broad’s father Chris, a former Test opener turned match referee, once said.

“In the hostile atmosphere of Australian league matches the boy became a man and the man discovered he liked something even more than cricket: he liked cricket with needle.”

Stuart Broad in his Hoppers Crossing hat in 2004.

Sleeping with the enemy — or at least playing in their backyard — is not a bad option for an aspiring Ashes tourist.

Broad may not have dominated on Australian soil in Ashes contests like he did in England but he always looked Australia, its players and its crowds, in the eye and was up for every contest.

It was almost as if his six months at Hoppers Crossing conditioned him for what lay ahead. Australian tours have never rattled him like some others.

Significantly, the two players who have looked most likely to threaten Australia this summer – batter Joe Root and fast man Ollie Robinson – both played club cricket in Australia on the way to the big time.

Broad has always been up for the fight with the Aussie crowds. Picture: Adam Head

Both surprisingly struggled in the deceptively challenging world of grassroots cricket but emerged better for the experience.

Four years ago Robinson played for famous Sydney club St George and was even handed his first grade cap by Josh Hazlewood before they opened the bowling together.

Robinson found that season tough. He took just 13 wickets at 47 but it was a crucial stepping stone to him becoming the first man chosen in England’s attack on this tour.

Root played grade cricket for Prospect in Adelaide 11 years ago when he was training with the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy in Adelaide and despite being dropped to reserve grade after averaging 29 – and still no century on Australian soil – felt the experience was a crucial part of his cricket development.

The Aussie experiment hasn’t always worked for the Poms — Rory Burns at Tea Tree Gully in 2013.

The road isn’t always smooth. Rory Burns played for Tea Tree Gully with Travis Head in Adelaide and made heavy weather of it then and now.

But, the Australian club experience has been good for most players just as the likes of Marnus Labuschagne has broadened his game by playing in England.

Former captain Andrew Strauss played three seasons with the Mosman club in Sydney, met his late wife Ruth and the Bourbon and Beefsteak Hotel, and was proud to call Brett Lee a club teammate.

Strauss said when he finally got to face Lee in a Test match it felt strange but at least he knew what was coming so his early investment had paid off.

When he was playing club cricket in Sydney Strauss watched Test matches from the member’s bar at the SCG and let the atmosphere wash over him.

Later he wrote: “Australia is a magnificent country, combining an outstanding climate, with breathtaking views, good food, some of the world‘s best wine, excellent shopping, interesting people.

“It is also, a dry, arid, harsh, and potentially dangerous place, where fools venture at their peril.”

ENGLAND PLAYERS WHO PLAYED GRADE CRICKET IN AUSTRALIA

* JOE ROOT (Prospect District, SA, 2010-11) 13 matches, 353 runs, 29.42 Avg, 0x100s, 3x50s, 78no HS
* OLLIE POPE (Campbelltown-Camden, NSW, 2017-18) 23 matches, 994 runs, 45.18 Avg, 3x100s, 4x50s, 128 HS
* RORY BURNS (Tea Tree Gully, SA, 2012-13) 18 matches, 543 runs, 31.94 Avg, 1x100s, 2x50s, 147 HS
* ZAK CRAWLEY (Wembley Districts, WA, 2016-17) 14 matches, 601 runs, 50.08 Avg, 0x100s, 6x50s, 75no HS
* ZAK CRAWLEY (Sydney Cricket Club, NSW, 2018-19) 18 matches, 715 runs, 65 Avg, 2x100s, 3x50s, 129 HS
* OLLIE ROBINSON (St George, NSW, 2017/18) 14 matches, 13 wickets, 618 runs, BB 3/24, Avg 47.54
* STUART BROAD (Hoppers Crossing, Vic, 2004/05) 13 matches, 16 wickets, 398 runs, BB 4/29, Avg 24.88
* MARK WOOD (Palm Beach Currumbin, Qld, 2012/13) 9 matches, 18 wickets, 270 runs, BB 6/47, Avg 15.00
* DOMINIC BESS (Northern Districts, SA, 2015/16) 18 matches, 38 wickets, 624 runs, BB 4/17, Avg 16.42
* DOMINIC BESS (West Torrens, SA, 2016/17) 18 matches, 31 wickets, 553 runs, BB 4/43, Avg 17.84

Originally published as Robert Craddock: How England’s Ashes revival can start from the bottom up