Just a day after my Aussie playing debut, still mildly bemused from the long haul and unfamiliar temperatures, I found myself in the right place at the right time to be drafted in as a late replacement in a Twenty20 floodlit game at Caloundra CC.
Whilst trying to teach a particularly stubborn little rascal the front foot defensive, I was approached by ‘Spud’ Murphy – acknowledging I was adorning some barely acceptable cricketing footwear – who said: ‘Johnno, you’re playing tonight’.
Only two hours later, as I kitted up in the Sunshine Coast Scorchers’ mutli-coloured pyjamas, did I get a sense of the hype around the game. TV cameras, advertising boards, stump mics, a burgeoning crowd and Allan Border wandering by… This was not your ordinary cricket match.
It turned out, as I hopelessly tried to partake in the ‘touch footy’ (rugby league) warm-up, the match was part of an X-Factor style cricket TV show on the Fox 8 channel. Dubbed Cricket Superstar, 16 pre-auditioned hopefuls from around the country started the programme, living in a Brisbane mansion รก la The Apprentice, and one-by-one were voted off by judges.
With our Scorchers side ready for the limelight, our opposition was made up from the home club plus the three remaining ‘Superstars’, who stuck out like a sore thumb with their Fox 8 get-up and cameras capturing their every move.
Eventually underway, we removed one Superstar for a duck, only to bring another to the middle. Nervous at first, the young gun worked his way to a composed fifty to enhance his reputation in the final stages of the competition. It would have probably helped him that I bowled three overs of gentle medium inswing at him – although the first two were fairly passable, only going for a run-a-ball!
With the Superstars XI ending up with a hefty 160 for 5, the rain started to pour, accentuated by the glowing floodlights against a cloudless night sky, but this only added to the TV crew’s willingness to continue. The remaining contestant – a lanky 6ft 4in left arm quick – bowled his four menacing overs and the game was eventually called to a halt, everybody suitably drenched, Scorchers hopelessly adrift of their target but with all Fox footage achieved.
For the winning contestant a state contract looms, the programme itself to be aired early next year with Allan Border as host, the Aussie legend also acting as mentor and main judge.
Whilst trying to teach a particularly stubborn little rascal the front foot defensive, I was approached by ‘Spud’ Murphy – acknowledging I was adorning some barely acceptable cricketing footwear – who said: ‘Johnno, you’re playing tonight’.
Only two hours later, as I kitted up in the Sunshine Coast Scorchers’ mutli-coloured pyjamas, did I get a sense of the hype around the game. TV cameras, advertising boards, stump mics, a burgeoning crowd and Allan Border wandering by… This was not your ordinary cricket match.
It turned out, as I hopelessly tried to partake in the ‘touch footy’ (rugby league) warm-up, the match was part of an X-Factor style cricket TV show on the Fox 8 channel. Dubbed Cricket Superstar, 16 pre-auditioned hopefuls from around the country started the programme, living in a Brisbane mansion รก la The Apprentice, and one-by-one were voted off by judges.
With our Scorchers side ready for the limelight, our opposition was made up from the home club plus the three remaining ‘Superstars’, who stuck out like a sore thumb with their Fox 8 get-up and cameras capturing their every move.
Eventually underway, we removed one Superstar for a duck, only to bring another to the middle. Nervous at first, the young gun worked his way to a composed fifty to enhance his reputation in the final stages of the competition. It would have probably helped him that I bowled three overs of gentle medium inswing at him – although the first two were fairly passable, only going for a run-a-ball!
With the Superstars XI ending up with a hefty 160 for 5, the rain started to pour, accentuated by the glowing floodlights against a cloudless night sky, but this only added to the TV crew’s willingness to continue. The remaining contestant – a lanky 6ft 4in left arm quick – bowled his four menacing overs and the game was eventually called to a halt, everybody suitably drenched, Scorchers hopelessly adrift of their target but with all Fox footage achieved.
For the winning contestant a state contract looms, the programme itself to be aired early next year with Allan Border as host, the Aussie legend also acting as mentor and main judge.
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