Jono Merlo opens up on his return to the cricket field

Victorian Jono Merlo has opened up about his successful break from the game and how it has allowed him to find joy away from cricket.

Victoria’s Jono Merlo believes his time away from the game has allowed him to feel fulfilled irrespective of the outcome of his performance.

Merlo stepped away from cricket earlier this summer and has since returned with a sense of content regardless of what he accomplishes.

That element of freedom has worked for Merlo in the last month with scores of 68, 107no, 146no and 66 in his last four hits for Premier Cricket juggernaut St Kilda.

“It’s been really enjoyable and that’s the biggest thing for me at the moment,” he said of his comeback to cricket.

“I am not really too fussed about any individual results, really, I am just walking out and trying to enjoy it.

“Not bowling at the moment and just being a batter is a bit of a different experience but I am just enjoying batting, which is something I haven’t had for a few years.

“It’s been nice to walk out there and look forward to batting and just wanting to face as many balls as I can.

“Whatever the result is I have just been trying to do it with a smile and that’s been the biggest thing for me for the past four or five weeks, whether it’s training, in games, I am just very unfazed about end results or anything.”

Merlo works a short ball away. Pictures: CHRIS THOMAS (CM THOMAS PHOTOGRAPHY)

Merlo, 24, admits that being in professional cricket from a young age took its toll on him and his time off endorsed him to find himself beyond just a cricketer that’s judged on performance.

“It was tricky but from stepping away for a while – the three or four months it was – and just spending time out of cricket and realising there is more to life than cricket,” he said.

“I have been pretty much playing relatively professionally cricket since I was 18; I think it’s a lot for a kid to go straight into that environment and that’s all you know, and that’s all I’ve really known.

“For me to step away and experience life, just doing simple things like hanging with some mates and trying different things, just showing myself that I don’t need to go out there and make runs or take wickets every week to be happy.

“I can walk off the field and I can go see family, see friends, try this new thing I have found that I enjoy and enjoy it, that’s where I can get my joy from (now), it doesn’t need to be in the form of making a hundred, winning a game or taking a five-for.

“That’s the biggest one for me, I know that I can get enjoyment from all aspects of my life now, it doesn’t have to be from cricket.”