BBL13: Josh Brown, the bat maker and bowler breaker lighting up the Brisbane Heat
Hot off the back of his spectacular 140 to power the Brisbane Heat into the BBL 13 final, TIM MICHELL charts the rise of a late blooming 'controlled slogger'.
Josh Brown describes himself as a controlled slogger.
It sounds like cricket’s ultimate oxymoron.
“I don’t really premeditate if I’m trying to hit the ball for six,” the Brisbane Heat opener says.
“If I see it and I think I can hit it for six, I will try and hit it for six.
“If they bowl a good ball, I’ll just try and get a one or something like that.
“It’s sort of a tough one. I’d love to go hard at everything, sometimes you have just got to pull it back a little bit.”
Brown broke through last summer after years dominating Queensland’s T20 scene, playing 14 BBL matches which included a 23-ball 62 against Sydney Sixers.
The morning after that six-hitting blitz, every Australian cricket fan knew the name of the batmaker from Brisbane.
“That was an unbelievable night,” Brown said.
“I got the tap on the shoulder the day before to let me know I was playing at training. As you do, you get nervous for your second game.
“After I got the first one away, the way the crowd was carrying on just got me going even more.”
Adam Gilchrist — the cricketer Brown grew up idolising — hailed the 29-year-old his new favourite player after he went close to putting Sean Abbott and Ben Dwarshuis onto the third tier of the Gabba.
It was an innings we probably should have seen coming.
Meeting your hero 🤩 @gilly381
— Brisbane Heat (@HeatBBL) January 16, 2023
Adam Gilchrist 🤠Josh Brown #BringTheHEAT#BBL12@FoxCricketpic.twitter.com/IxP3GuySfW
Those at Northern Suburbs District Cricket Club certainly did.
They have become accustomed to Brown terrorising bowlers during his progression from the club’s fifth grade team to being a First XI star.
“Amazing striker of the cricket ball and the great thing is he’s a very good batsman,” Norths’ Jon Hopes said.
“He’s not just a big hitter. He’s very, very skilful and that stood out very quickly.”
Batting at No. 7, Brown made 83 off 60 balls in a Third XI semi-final in his first season at Norths.
But the first weekend of December, 2018, is remembered at Norths as when Brown truly announced himself.
On day one of a Second XI fixture he smashed 12 sixes, 13 fours and finished with 140 from 97 balls.
He backed up with 81 from 69 balls the next day.
“Josh traversed the road which was probably the road of the 80s, where he came through and played with unbelievable hands,” Hopes said.
“Unbelievable ball striker. He scored 160 in second grade one day and he hit a six off the back foot over cover point that went about 100m in the air. It’s not just the power.
“His best shots are his proper cricket shots. He’s just a very good player and he’s a wonderful guy. We’re very lucky to have him.”
Brown first came onto Brisbane Heat’s radar in January, 2022, when the club was left scrambling to fill a squad after being ravaged by Covid.
After missing out on being one of 10 Covid top-ups, he was set on making an irresistible case come Queensland’s T20 Max tournament in August.
Against the University of Queensland, Brown walloped an unbeaten 147 from 68 balls.
Two innings later he went even bigger, launching 17 sixes against Ipswich in a knock of 159 from 59 balls.
Those brutal blows came at the perfect time, with the Heat chasing a replacement for the BBL’s all-time leading run scorer Chris Lynn after a shock split.
“I have always been a very attacking player. When I first started, I got taught how to block,” Brown said.
“I could always go across the line pretty well. So I had to go the other way with my game to sort of learn how to stay in and not hit every ball.”
Brown would sign as a local replacement player to cover for Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja in September.
“The T20 Max launched him. It was on Kayo and everyone got to see him,” Hopes said.
“We had Harry Nielsen playing for us, Tim Nielsen’s boy, and I think South Australia got a look at him.
“Then a few people starting watching videos … and that vehicle has been interesting. Because it’s a little bit higher than first-grade cricket.”
Hopes added: “He’s the highlight because people come to watch him play. The ball goes a mile.
“The boundary is 70m and he’s clearing it by 40m. The ball goes a mile. It’s just amazing ball striking and impressive to watch.”
A big-hitting right-hander endangering the Gabba crowd by launching six after six.
The comparison to Lynn was inevitable.
As it turned out, Lynn’s advice was what helped launch Brown’s career into the big time.
“I bailed him up at a lunch one day and just had a chat to him,” Brown said.
“This was the season before I got all those big scores.
“I was like, ‘what have I got to do to get 100s in Twenty20s?’ He was like, ‘if you get a hundred in a T20 make sure you get a big one.
“Especially in club cricket, go and get that 140, 150. That was season was when I got both of those. Talking to him about it was just unreal.”
Brown’s maiden BBL campaign culminated with Brisbane Heat’s incredible run from fifth to the BBL final.
Undaunted by the spotlight, Brown took 25 runs off the first two overs of the decider.
Until Cooper Connolly and Nick Hobson’s late heroics, he looked destined to become a BBL champion.
“That was unreal. It was a crazy ride really,” Brown said.
“I don’t really know how to explain it too well. Unbelievable, to just keep winning and winning. Then what (Hobson and Connolly) did was pretty special.”
By night, Brown is one of Australia’s most destructive batters.
By day, he makes bats for a living for Cooper Cricket.
It is a job — or at least a hobby — he has continued after signing his first full-time deal with the Heat.
“I make all my own bats, which is pretty cool,” he said.
“Last year I was using 2 pounds 11 ounces, 2 pounds 12 ounces. I’ve gone a little bit lighter this year.”
Brown has even fixed the willow belonging to a few of his Heat teammates in the Brisbane factory where he shapes bats for a living.
“You know what Marnus (Labuschagne) is like. I’ve seen his list … pretty spot on with everything,” he said.
“Even the weight of the binding is pretty crazy. He’d be the most picky I reckon.”
Brown is the type of batter who can change a game — and captivate a crowd — in an instant.
But off the field, he couldn’t be more different.
He doesn’t crave the attention or fame which comes with being a professional athlete.
Hopes said Brown found his new-found notoriety “very awkward”.
“He’s just a special person and we really convey the message to him that it’s his cricket club (at Norths),” he said.
“He’s a very, very good player in any context, any format. He doesn’t always like the red ball but he’s an exceptional red-ball player. He can change it on a hat like that.”
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