Facing Up: James Lidgett on his hopes for East Belmont and his career so far

James Lidgett produced a stunning start to his career with East Belmont last weekend. He opens up to Wes Cusworth on his performance, his career and expectations for the season.

James Lidgett made an impressive start to life with East Belmont.

East Belmont may have been edged out in a first-round, final-ball thriller by St Peter’s however it didn’t prevent new Lion James Lidgett from announcing himself to the Geelong cricket community with a terrific all-round performance on debut.

Having recently arrived in the region from Bacchus Marsh, the 29-year-old unleashed a full repertoire of shots against the Saints, finding the boundary on 10 occasions as he plundered an unbeaten 60-ball 75 before claiming three wickets with the ball.

Lidgett shared his journey to Winter Reserve with GCA1 reporter Wes Cusworth.

Wes Cusworth: Unfortunately, you landed on the wrong side of a nailbiter to start your GCA career; however, that must have been one of the more remarkable games you’ve been a part of.

James Lidgett: Yeah, definitely. The whole situation, the light, and just how close it was, all the different factors that you don’t experience in normal cricket too often. It was very interesting and a bit of fun, but unfortunately just fell on the wrong side.

WC: Even despite the result, you must have been delighted to begin your season with both runs and wickets.

JL: Yeah, to a point, it’s bittersweet. It’s good to know that you contributed, but I guess when you do contribute you feel like you could have done that little bit more to get us over the line. I was gutted after the game, to be honest. I hadn’t personally had that experience of bowling the last over before. So, it was something very new and it did hit me pretty hard.

WC: Even the St Peter’s boys were full of praise for the way you placed the ball into the gaps during a very entertaining innings. Has that always been a feature of your game?

JL: I’m probably not the biggest hitter in the world, so my skill set is more towards that and trying to score off as many balls as I can; minimising dots and hitting those gaps. Playing to my strengths, which I think I managed to do well earlier. I struggled a little bit towards the end of the innings, but that’s how I like to play my cricket.

WC: I believe it’s your friendship with Shane McNamara at Essendon that saw you land at East Belmont.

JL: Yeah, so there were a couple of people from primary school who shot me an off-the-cuff message. Then I also knew Shane from Premier Days and they obviously got me onto him, Shane being one of the leaders of the club. It moved pretty quickly from there when he found out that I was moving down this way. So yeah, knowing Shane as one of the leaders of East Belmont was a big driver in me coming here.

WC: What have you heard from Shane and other sources about Geelong cricket?

JL: I’ve heard it’s a pretty good standard. I guess when I did my research around finding a new club, it was more how the club itself was run. I heard really good things about East Belmont. I just want to enjoy my cricket, that’s my big thing, and it didn’t really matter where I played or what competition or anything like that.

WC: What was it like to be appointed a Premier Cricket captain at Greenvale Kangaroos at just 20 years of age?

JL: It was awesome. I wasn’t expecting it too much. We were in our pre-season and we were looking to grab a few players, and we didn’t really do that. I went to the coach, and said, “if you don’t find anyone, I’d love to give it a go”. It just happened from that. It was one of the biggest seasons of my development, learning about the game, rather than just playing. You’re really analysing the game a lot more and it really held me in good stead for future years. Rather than just batting and fielding, it was learning some of the finer details.

WC: You’ve enjoyed success as a leader at Bacchus Marsh, will that mean co-coaches Lochie Inglis and Hayden McMahon, along with captain Shane McNamara will lean on your expertise?

James Lidgett in action for East Belmont.

JL: I’m not too sure. They haven’t necessarily needed to go to me too much, but I am more than happy to help anyone who asks for help. I think cricketers tend to really like to impart their knowledge to other people, they like to share and help grow the game and other players. If anyone from any club asked me for anything, I’d be more than happy to give them my piece of advice, and they could choose whether to take it or not. I love cricket and I love the thought processes and the mental and technical sides of it. I get quite excited to help out, to be honest.

WC: Last summer saw Bacchus Marsh step into the Ballarat Cricket Association for the first time, so you’re obviously no stranger to coming up against new players and challenges.

JL: Yeah, I hadn’t played on turf for quite a while, so moving to turf was a good thing to go back to and, in a way prepare me for coming here.

WC: Maddingly Park, Bacchus Marsh typically has a lush, slow outfield, so you’ll no doubt welcome some fast outfields around Geelong.

JL: Yes, I do very much enjoy that. It was part of my research into picking a new club, having a look at the outfields and the wickets. I came down to East Belmont and had a look, saw the facilities and tried to identify something that suited my own skillset. It all looked pretty good at East Belmont.

WC: You’ll enjoy the nice short, straight boundaries at St Joseph’s tomorrow, too. All the very best for round two James.

JL: Thanks, if I can time the ball for four, I’m happy with that. It’s what I like to do, nice cricket shots, it’s all pretty traditional sort of stuff.

Originally published as Facing Up: James Lidgett on his hopes for East Belmont and his career so far