‘Copped quite a bit of flak’: Chris Lynn defends decision not to play Test cricket
Chris Lynn has never been one to look in the rear vision mirror and remains convinced he made the right call as he opens up on why he gave up Test cricket.
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From Backyard Bradman to bombproof bus. That sums up the crazy, colourful and at times chaotic sporting journey travelled by Chris Lynn.
The flamboyant batsman – who swings at a cricket ball so hard that he is more like a baseball power-hitter – learned his skills on a backyard pitch in Brisbane built by his father Col.
As a kid, Lynn dreamt about wearing the baggy green for Australia but he has instead worn different hats during his unique career.
Plenty of different hats.
As one of the world’s first freelance cricketers, the travelling batting gun-for-hire has played for more Twenty20 franchises around the globe than he can probably remember. And there have been some eye-popping experiences.
“Playing for Lahore in Pakistan, the convoy was about 2km long as they shut down all the streets from the hotel to get us to the cricket ground,” Lynn says.
“We were in a bombproof bus, with a signal jammer next to us so that phones and tracking systems would not work.
“There were helicopters flying over the top of the bus and every 20m there was a copper on the side of the road and on every bridge there were snipers standing guard.
“It did scare me a bit at first. There would always be two buses; I’m not silly so I would always make sure I was on the one with the Pakistani locals and I would sit next to (Pakistan cricket legend) Wasim Akram.”
While Pakistan was an edge of your seat experience, the glitz and glamour of the mega-rich Indian Premier League was something else entirely.
Lynn rubbed shoulders with Bollywood stars and billionaire team owners in the cricket-crazy country of 1.4 billion people.
“The IPL is cricket on steroids, it’s like AFL grand final every week,” Lynn laughs.
“Mukesh Ambani, the owner of the Mumbai Indians, is one of the world’s richest people.
“He owns a 20-story house with a zoo in it. It has an air traffic controller on the roof and about 150 house staff.
“I was talking to him one day and he said he was really keen to buy (English Premier League soccer side) Arsenal, but his mum wouldn’t let him.
“I’m a lot closer to the end of my cricket career than the start, but I look back and think how very cool it has all been. I don’t think I took it for granted at any point.
“It was great my old man put a cricket net in the backyard, I was in there every day and it certainly paid dividends.
“The net is still there, on the side of the house where my parents still live.”
For all the exhilarating times, Lynn, 33, has sometimes copped criticism for making the decision six years ago to step away from long-form cricket and focus on the lucrative T20 game with its sawn-off action.
It meant Lynn would never wear that coveted baggy green and play Test cricket.
Many felt he was choosing cash over country and he would one day regret the decision.
But Lynn has never been one to look in the rear vision mirror.
He remains convinced he made the right call, one which he says was prompted just as much by his dodgy shoulder as anything else.
“I copped quite a bit of flak about that, giving away the long format of the game. But it was only the older generation I copped it from,” Lynn says.
“I had a couple of shoulder reconstructions on my throwing side and the thought of fielding for days on end simply drove me mad.
“I was always a favourite player of the kids, playing Twenty20 cricket.
“The evolution of T20 has given me a pathway to travel the world and play three or four hours of cricket a couple of times a week.
“The crowds, the atmosphere and the explosive fast pace of T20 cricket was always in my nature.
“One thing that I always said to myself was that once I made the decision, I was accountable for it.
“That’s something I am proud of. That I’ve gone through with it, I haven’t changed back and forth.
“I don’t think I will regret not playing Test cricket – I would have had those regrets already if that was going to be the case.
“I don’t want to be one of those blokes who can be bitter, a ‘shoulda, coulda woulda’ sort of bloke.
“I think I had the ability to play Test cricket, but my heart just wasn’t in it.”
At age 33, Lynn retains the element of brashness which makes him one of the world’s most watchable and marketable cricketers.
But he has also matured.
Last August, he became a first-time father when he and his partner Karlie welcomed baby Lily to the world.
Lynn has been a professional cricketer since age 19 but for the first time, he says, he is putting someone else first.
He also has a business and passion project he is enthused with.
PlayBook Coach is an online platform which virtually connects aspiring sportspeople with coaches.
Lynn says it’s the easiest way to find a coach, book a coach and pay for a coach for all ages and all abilities all around Australia.
Dayne Zorko and Jack Crisp (AFL), Shayna Jack (swimming), Gretel Bueta (netball), Trevor Gillmeister and Jamal Fogarty (rugby league), Tate McDermott (rugby union), and Rosie Malone (hockey) are among the current and former athletes on the books.
Lynn says one the proudest and most moving moments of his life came during the pandemic when he was conducting an online coaching session for a boy in Sydney who was non-verbal.
“He was a kid who wouldn’t talk to even anyone at school. He would ask his brother a question and his brother would then ask me,” Lynn says.
“But in a half-hour session, after 27 minutes I finally got him to talk to me directly.
“His Mum was in the background crying, as she had spent countless thousands of dollars on therapy for her son.
“So it’s not just about kids wanting to play for Australia.
“It might be just about giving a kid confidence to play team sport, if you have confidence you can do anything.
“Or it might be about moving from the wing to the centres in rugby league, or moving up the batting order in cricket.
“It is something I’m really passionate about, as extra coaching and mentoring was what gave me a head start in my cricket career.
“If you can just change a kid’s day or change their motivation, it’s very powerful.
“Putting smiles on the faces of kids is something that is so great.
“When I was at school, (then Queensland cricket captain) Jimmy Maher signed my hat and I remember that like it was yesterday.”
On the sporting arena, it was a major moment last year for Lynn and his many fans in Queensland when the curtain came down on the Lynn era with the Brisbane Heat franchise.
Lynn and the Brisbane Heat seemed to go together like fish and chips, bread and butter, and rum and coke.
But the Heat decided to go in a different direction, with Lynn ending up playing in Adelaide with the Strikers last summer.
For all the bright lights and fanfare of Twenty20 cricket, Lynn insists it isn’t all beer and skittles.
“Some people say that I have taken the cash and I travel the world, what a great life,” Lynn says.
“I’m not going to cry poor, but it is hard work.
“When I signed with Adelaide, it meant that I didn’t actually have a team to train with in Brisbane.
“I came up and had some net sessions at Queensland Cricket. They wanted to invoice me.
“The other thing is that Twenty20 cricket is a case of no play, no pay.
“So I always have to make sure that my body is right, I’m in the right headspace and I’m eating healthy food.
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing. You could say I could have played either rugby league or cricket because I skippered the Queensland under-12s league and cricket teams in the same year.
“I’ve still got a lot of great mates in rugby league, but the bottom line was I was probably pretty shit at footy.
“I was a halfback in league but I would rather face blokes who bowl 140 (km/h) than tackle blokes who weighed 140kg.
“I really enjoyed going to cricket training but I didn’t enjoy the contact sessions in league; I kept getting beaten up.
“I would come good for the game and then get beaten up again.
“So cricket was always going to be my focus.
“No matter how big or how strong the bowlers were, I could still whack the ball back over their heads.”
Along his journey, Lynn has sometimes butted heads with others and says he had a “really interesting relationship” with former Australian and Queensland cricketer Andrew “Roy” Symonds.
Symonds, who died tragically in a car crash outside Townsville last year, was one of Lynn’s biggest fans but could also be his harshest critic.
The duo sometimes agreed to disagree.
“Roy was very hard on me, but he loved me at the same time and he wanted me to do well,” Lynn says.
“He was hard on me, because that’s what Queensland cricketers of his era did.
“Roy came into cricket at a time when the players were tough bastards and you had to earn your stripes.
“But in this new era, there are some easier pathways and opportunities.
“One day, Roy had a few beers under his belt and he told me that I had done a certain amount in the game but the game of cricket didn’t owe me anything.
“He said that I owed the game of cricket. That’s a pretty powerful message.”
Having been in the game for quite some time, Lynn believes cricket is now entering unfamiliar territory.
“Right now, I think the future of cricket is evolving in an unknown space.
“The way I see it, I think international one-day cricket is dying, T20 international cricket is getting smaller and franchise cricket is going through the roof.” ■
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