Carlton paceman Xavier Crone’s first call from Victorian selectors results in state rookie contract

XAVIER Crone is the Blue whose call-up to the Victorian squad came completely out of the blue.

Xavier Crone has been given a rookie contract with Victoria. Picture: Supplied.

HE’S the Blue whose call-up to the Victorian squad came completely out of the blue.

Teenage paceman Xavier Crone had no inkling he was on the Bushrangers’ radar before he received a call from chairman of selectors Andrew Lynch last month.

The Carlton quick had done enough to draw comparisons to Australia’s greatest fast bowler Glenn McGrath during his short career, but was blown away to be offered a rookie contract by Victoria.

“I got the call from Andrew Lynch and it was pretty direct and to the point,” Crone said.

“A bit of, ‘hey, how are you going? I’d just like to offer you a rookie contract.’

“It all happened pretty quickly I didn’t have much time to process it.”

Crone, from Bendigo, finished his first full Premier Cricket campaign at Princes Park with 31 wickets, including 11 at First XI level.

His unmistakeable potential attracted the attention of the Victorian hierarchy, who jumped at the chance to bring Crone into the Bushrangers set-up amid interest from interstate.

“I obviously started off the year in the seconds, really enjoyed that and loved the challenge of transitioning from country cricket into Premier Cricket,” he said.

“From there I just wanted to work as hard as I could to contribute to as many wins as we could get.”

Crone, who stands at about six foot four but is still growing, said he was flattered to have drawn comparisons to McGrath.

“It’s obviously very flattering but I think I’ve got quite a long way to go before I can even be considered in the same paragraph as someone like McGrath,” he said.

“There’s a bit of a resemblance in the physique, obviously the height, I’m pretty skinny and scrawny at the moment.”

But the similarities go beyond their physique.

Crone likes to probe away and test the technique of batsmen with similar unwavering precision to McGrath, who captured 563 Test and 381 one-day wickets over a decorated career.

“As a kid I tried to base my game and the way I bowled around consistency of the areas and try and make the batsmen play as much as I could,” he said.

The 18-year-old’s breakout game with the Blues came against Prahran in Round 16 when he underlined his rising-star quality with a haul of 5-25 from 14 overs.

Crone admitted he sometimes had to pinch himself when people reminded him how far he’d come over the past two years.

Xavier Crone (pictured left) with Carlton captain Lachie McKenna. Picture: Stuart Milligan.

“It’s been a pretty crazy 18 months,” he said.

“This was my first season at the Blues and the year before that I was still playing local cricket, some underage cricket.

“It’s been pretty crazy, a bit of a whirlwind in the last few seasons with how far I’ve been able to progress.”

Crone represented his home state at under-17 level and has also played for the Vic Country under-19 squad.

He is now closer to the big time than ever before and will rub shoulders with Australian pacemen such as Peter Siddle, Scott Boland and James Pattinson at training.

Crone said his goals for his first season with Victoria would be simple.

“Absorbing as much as I can from the opportunity I’ve got to train with the high quality and talent of players around me at the Bushrangers and hopefully take that back to Carlton and go a bit better than the one final we played this year at the Blues,” he said.

Crone hopes to move to Melbourne by the end of the month before throwing himself into his first pre-season as a Bushranger.

Meanwhile, Carlton has retained the services of former Victorian quick Ryan Sidebottom, who missed out on a state contract for 2016-17.

Sidebottom was courted by other states but has decided to stay in Victoria.