How English all-rounder Paul Walter went from Melbourne local cricket to a BBL cult hero
Paul Walter was a relative unknown when he arrived in Australia for last summer’s Big Bash League — unless you’re involved at Melbourne club Deepdene Bears. Now, ‘Tall Paul’ is one of the competition’s cult heroes.
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The BBL should have seen Paul Walter coming.
And, not just because the English all-rounder stands 202cm.
Walter was a relative unknown when he was drafted by Brisbane Heat last year.
But he sounded a warning to Brisbane’s BBL rivals of what was to come when he rolled up to Stradbroke Park in Melbourne’s inner east for a one-off game for Deepdene Bears last November.
Walter bludgeoned 10 fours and 10 sixes on his way to 154 from 107 balls, striking at 143 in the Eastern Cricket Association’s second tier against Edinburgh.
“He basically got off the plane and came straight to training one day and said, ‘I’m here for a hit if you guys want me to play’. That’s how we teed that up last year,” Deepdene Bears president James Lindsay said.
“They were a bit starstruck I think. We were all a bit surprised when he turned up.
“But the ones that knew him from a few years ago, it was like seeing a mate again.
“Some of the young kids were like, ‘wow, this is awesome. Look who we have got at the club’.”
Clever pace-off bowling from Paul Walter! #BBL13pic.twitter.com/u61xaSnEdM
— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) December 21, 2023
Teenager Mitch Money took bragging rights as the bowler who dismissed Walter, although by that stage Edinburgh’s attack had been dealt a brutal lesson.
“He came on to bowl once Paul was already on about 130 or 140. He actually got him out, so that was pretty awesome,” Edinburgh’s Leroy Hinds said.
“It probably would have been better if he wasn’t on 150 yet, but it was still pretty good.”
Walter debuted for the Heat less than a month later, taking the wicket of Hilton Cartwright in a 103-run victory over Melbourne Stars.
Within weeks, he had joined the likes of Craig Simmons and Peter Hatzoglou on the list of BBL overnight sensations.
Kids around the country were lining up for selfies after Heat games and emulating Walter’s iconic aeroplane wicket celebration.
The legend of ‘Tall Paul’ started years earlier for those involved at Deepdene Bears, a club based in the Melbourne suburb of Kew East.
Walter spent a summer with the club in 2016-17 as part of the Bears’ partnership with English county side Essex.
He was still making a name for himself in England at that point and was yet to feature in an overseas T20 tournament.
Fast forward and Walter has become a sought-after player on the T20 circuit, turning out in the BBL, UAE, Pakistan and for Manchester Originals in The Hundred.
“We looked after Paul — he stayed with one of the members of the club. We put him up in a house and looked after him for the year,” Lindsay said.
“Then he obviously went back and started making a name for himself.
“We knew him from just (being) a young kid from a few years back to then, all of a sudden he’s a cult hero running around with his arms out being the overseas player every time he gets a wicket.
“It was awesome to follow him through. He’s a great bloke. He’s actually a really nice guy. So it was great to see how he progressed through the BBL.”
This is your captain speaking 👨â€âœˆï¸
— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 10, 2024
Paul Walter's aeroplane has taken off at The Gabba! #BBL13pic.twitter.com/Q7JTqKHF6C
Walter became the linchpin of the Brisbane attack in his maiden BBL campaign, taking 17 wickets to inspire the Heat to their first BBL title in more than a decade.
In a bowling arsenal led by the precision and pace of Xavier Bartlett, Spencer Johnson and Michael Neser, the big left-armer was the keystone.
“I always thought it was the bowling side of things (that was his strength). He was tall, that extra bounce. Bowls a lot of off-speed deliveries. Bowls a lot of tough overs in the competitions in England,” Heat assistant coach Andy Bichel said.
“The added bonus was he was batting five and six in first-class cricket.
“That was the discovery we made, I think it was a few days into talking about Paul Walter. “We worked out, ‘s***, he’s batting five or six and has recently peeled off a hundred in first-class cricket’.”
Bichel said Walter’s success allowed Brisbane to play both Matt Kuhnemann and Mitch Swepson and had given captain Colin Munro flexibility with how he deployed the attack.
“One of the other great things we were able to do last year (was) if someone was having a night out we were able to do that,” he said.
“In previous years, even if Michael Neser’s got two overs for 10 (runs), we would always have to try and save him, because we still needed him for other overs.
“Someone like Jhye Richardson does this for the Scorchers.
“If he’s got 2-10, (they) give him another over and he might get 3-10 and blow the game apart.
“We were able to do that a bit with our bowlers last year.”
There's that celebration again!
— KFC Big Bash League (@BBL) January 3, 2024
Big wicket for the Heat as Paul Walter removes Philippe for 41. #BBL13pic.twitter.com/5e278WIjZo
Walter was slated to play another game for Deepdene Bears this season, but the ECA’s points system scuppered those plans.
Edinburgh maintains it got the last laugh despite Walter’s batting blitz, defeating the Bears in a semi-final before earning promotion.
Not that Hinds, who is still in the infancy of his career, will forget the experience of playing against a BBL star anytime soon.
“Obviously we lost that one and it was disappointing. But I think we kind of put it in perspective,” Hinds said.
“I think we lost by 70 runs and he made 150. We thought, ‘well they are not going to have him if we play them later down the road’.
“We happened to come up against them in the semi and knock them off en route to winning the premiership, which was pretty awesome.”
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Originally published as How English all-rounder Paul Walter went from Melbourne local cricket to a BBL cult hero
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