As a child, Cameron Green could not separate Ricky Ponting and Brett Lee as his heroes. So he tried to become both.
Ahead of Australian cricket’s biggest day of the year, the health of the men’s Test team has been greatly enhanced by how scarily close Green is to emulating not just one great player, but two.
“When I was younger, Ricky Ponting and Brett Lee were at the top of their games,” Green tells The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. “So everyone wanted to bowl as quick as they could and Brett Lee was the quickest, so he was someone in the backyard you tried to pretend you were him. Then I had a Kookaburra Kahuna just like Ricky’s, so that’s pretty funny to look back on.“
At 22, Cameron Green is already casting a giant shadow on this Ashes series.Credit: AP
Where Green, 22, was very much a young man finding his way against India last summer, now he has had an enormous influence on both of Australia’s two Ashes victories over England. His duels with the touring captain Joe Root have been among the most vital passages of play for the series.
The fact that Green has tilted a couple of Test matches with the ball before the bat makes sense because, as he explains, he starts every playing day thinking of himself as a bowler; only pivoting to a batting mindset should it become apparent that is what he’ll be doing next.
“You’ve got to really prioritise, because you can’t do both at the same time,” Green says. “Before a day’s play I prioritise bowling. Stretching, doing everything you need to get right for bowling. You can always catch-up with batting - I’m batting at No. 6 so I can go for a late hit if I need it, but you can’t really rush bowling. It’s hard to flick between both, but you find a middle ground.“
On the flipside of Green’s bowling exploits is a batting game that is still developing, particularly when it comes to the cut and thrust of not only dealing with international class opponents but deep, critical analysis of his methods. Ponting’s dissection of his technique on national television in Adelaide was something Green needed to “filter” through the advice of his batting mentors, including Western Australia’s Beau Casson.
“It’s interesting, because you listen to someone like Ricky and you want to take everything on board, with the successes he’s had,” he says. “So you’ve got to speak to your coaches and work out what you think you can use - you’ve got to filter it a little bit, but I thought they were really good words.
“[My set up] depends on the bowlers you face. Someone who predominantly goes with in-swing, you might come outside your crease or move more towards off stump to negate the lbw, or you can go the other way. There’s a few little things you can work on when you’re trying to see what’s more dangerous, but sometimes you’ve also got to keep it pretty simple and similar.“
Those close to Green comment that he remains something of a nervous starter with the bat, needing 30-40 balls in which to feel comfortable before he can give vent to a wide array of powerful shots. That was certainly the arc of his best Test innings to date, 84 runs against India at the SCG that started carefully but ended in a blaze of sixes.
“You’re nervous out in the middle when you first head out there,” Green says. “I think whatever grade you play you get nervous when you’re out on the ground. So it’s something to work on, but I’m sure if I just get a good total and a bit of confidence, that will get a lot better.“
Cameron Green in Adelaide.Credit: Getty Images
But it is a sign of Green’s burgeoning maturity that during the winter he sought out mindfulness experts as part of efforts to strengthen his mental routines and also broaden as a person. Like his captain Pat Cummins, Green is conscious of not putting all of himself into his cricket with nothing left over.
“I think when you come to this level, you do get overwhelmed or a bit more anxious. I think that’s pretty natural,” he says. “So I spoke to a few guys and they said mindfulness is something I could use. We all speak about being tactically, technically and physically really good, but you’ve got to work on your mental side as well. So I was just trying to do one percenters to try to do that.
“Becoming a professional cricketer you kind of put all your eggs in one basket and try to become a better player, but you’ve got to find things away from cricket to do. That’s definitely a work in progress, finding other hobbies and stuff, but like any other 22-year-old you like catching up with mates or going down to the beaches in Perth. I try to make life as balanced as I can.“
Talk to Green up close and you get a sense of his imposing physical size, but also of a modest, thoughtful visage that explains moments like his apology to teammates for “over celebrating” his first Test wicket in Brisbane. His combination of height, gentility and tremendous speed and skill recalls nothing so much as the titular Big Friendly Giant of Roald Dahl’s The BFG.
That said, Green is not so gentle a giant when he gets the bat or the ball in his hands. He possesses a streak of quiet competitiveness that his state coach, Adam Voges, has seen well away from the bright lights of Test cricket.
”As soon as he’s in the game he’s ultra competitive,” Voges says. “I often look at how guys go about our warm-up games, and you work out their personality pretty quickly and how competitive they are by how they go about those. And he’s super competitive in those sorts of things. You always know that that’s in there, it just might not always be turned on.
“You’re starting to see what Greeny can produce at Test level and what we’ve already seen at domestic level. You talk to a lot of opposition players and they’ll tell you they’ve experienced the sort of spell that Joe Root copped in Adelaide. Fast, good pace, good bounce, movement away, which coming from his height can be a handful.“
In a summer where Australia’s buzzword appears to be “calm”, a serene environment would appear to help Green to be himself. He is considered one of the best sleepers in the WA set-up, able to find a nap at a moment’s notice when not batting or bowling.
“Being calm is so important,” he says. “As cricketers you can get a bit too far ahead of yourself when you’re batting really well or if your bowling isn’t going too good.
“If there’s any way you can keep that level, it’s obviously what you’re looking for. It’s been really good in the change rooms at the moment, it feels really calm, but it always helps when you’re winning games...”
As the most arresting allrounder Australia have produced in decades, Cameron Green is going to win a lot of games for his country. As many as Ponting and Lee? Time will tell.
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