Okay, at 30 he’s not exactly a boy and, although he’s Brisbane born-and-bred, he wasn’t exactly dragged up in the drug-infested struggle streets of Darra, but there was something about Josh Brown’s incredible charge up the ladder of cricket success last week that put me in mind of my recent viewing of the Netflix adaptation of Trent Dalton’s amazing first novel.
Perhaps it was the way Eli and Gus, the brothers at the heart of Boy Swallows Universe, used self-effacing, naïve charm to mask great endurance and even greater spirit, just like Brownie.
Of course, unless you’re a Big Bash tragic (puts hand up) you may have missed the heroics of Joshua Brown in getting the Brisbane Heat over the line for its first BBL championship in a dozen years, and by the end of the week his name had already been scrubbed off the sports pages by the equally astonishing heroics of Shamar Joseph, a West Indian fast bowler 10 years his junior and making his Test debut in a series which the visitors equalised thanks to the kid’s astonishing seven-wicket haul at the Gabba.
But by the end of the week Brownie was also on a plane enroute to Bangladesh for his first international T20 contract, signed for a fat fee to the Chattogram Challengers in the Bangladesh Premier League, with a multi-year Heat contract also in his back pocket and the Australian T20 selectors also taking a close look at him.
It’s worthwhile briefly reflecting on how two brief knocks changed everything for a bloke who, even after showing promise in his first season, spent most of his second on the Heat bench. It was only when the Heat’s Test stars and internationals departed at the start of the finals series that the stopgap big hitter got his chance, and opening the batting in the Challenger final against Adelaide Strikers on a strange wicket at Carrara, Brownie alternately bludgeoned and finessed his way to 12 sixes and 10 fours on his way to 140 off just 57 balls, the second fastest 100 and third biggest score in the history of the league.
Two days later at the SCG he led the team through a difficult start with a superbly constructed 53 off 38 balls, setting the Heat up to claim their second championship.
Josh Brown’s sporting journey started out in soccer where he showed a lot of promise as a junior, but at 13 his focus switched to cricket and, after junior representative success, he joined Brisbane’s Northern Suburbs club, making his first grade debut, as a batting all-rounder who bowled handy medium pace, at 24 and playing in Queensland’s Second XI 18 months later. In 2019 he spent a season in the UK playing in the Cambridge and Hunts Premier League where he scored over 1000 runs (including one mammoth 290) and took 43 wickets.
He was a late signing for the Heat’s 2022-23 season and made his debut on 15 December against the Melbourne Renegades. Two weeks later on New Year’s Day he sent shock waves through the Heat camp with a blistering 62 off 23 balls against the Sydney Sixers. Watching that game, I remember thinking, where have they been hiding him! Adam Gilchrist said: “Josh Brown is my new favourite player.”
Never the first pick until now, the humble Brownie has just got on with the job, making an alternate career for himself as a bat builder and repairer for Cooper Cricket, the brand on the magic bat that has taken him to the top of his sport. Not surprisingly, Cooper’s are doing a very brisk trade in Brownie model willows.
Nazaré fires for Challenge
Okay, it wasn’t the maxed out epic that we’ve seen in recent years, but the waves at Praia do Norte at the beautiful old Portuguese port town of Nazaré for the WSL Big Wave Challenge last week were XXL big, offshore groomed and smooth as silk.
According to the WSL report: “The Tudor Nazaré Big Wave Challenge unfolded today in 30-to-40 foot waves. Surfers woke up to a glorious day with light winds and very clean wedges across the various peaks of the Nazaré lineup. While the bigger sets were a little slow in the morning, forcing competition to go on hold for a couple of hours, the action got underway just after midday as massive crowds assembled on the headland and around the iconic lighthouse. A little under five hours later, competition wrapped in fantastic fashion in massive waves and with enthusiastic crowds cheering on the world’s best big wave surfers.
“The defending event winner Lucas Chianca (BRA) put on an incredible show all day and could not be denied a second, back-to-back Men’s Best Performance Award in Nazaré (his fifth Nazaré title). Despite a last-minute partner change due to Kai Lenny pulling out injured, Chianca wasted no time to find his rhythm with fellow Brazilian Pedro Scooby (BRA).
Brazil’s Maya Gabeira (BRA) successfully defended her title at Nazaré, a break she has dedicated most of her life to and where she remains undefeated.”
