New signing Mickey Edwards has arrived at Headingley from Australia, the fast bowler joining the county as a domestic player courtesy of a British passport.
Sydneysider Mickey will be detailing his experiences of his maiden campaign with the club in a player column on yorkshireccc.com throughout the summer.
By Mickey Edwards
I’ve only been with the club for a few weeks, but I can honestly say I already feel right at home here and have been adopted as an unofficial Yorkshireman.
I feel like I’ve been really well embraced by everybody so far, and the boys have even been trying to knock the Australian accent out of me. So you never know, I might be a full on Northerner pretty soon.
I’m currently living in a hotel in Leeds City Centre, which has been ok. But I’m looking around for something more permanent at the minute.
The city life isn’t really me nowadays. The younger version of myself was, but I’m more someone who prefers to be on the outskirts now – somewhere with rolling meadows and nice little pubs. I’m yet to see that kind of scenery, but I’m hoping to find somewhere soon.
Me coming here as a domestic player means I have to have a meeting with the ECB to denounce my Australian ways, saying I won’t look to play for Australia.
That’s absolutely fine, but I can’t deny that I will be a little bit torn when the Ashes comes around this summer.
There are a lot of guys in that Australian side who play for New South Wales, and I’ve got really good relationships with them. I’d like to see them do well. But my new team, England, I want to see them do well as well.
I think I’ll side with the winner. That’s the best route, I reckon.
It will a really good series. It will be a challenge for Australia coming over here. The challenges are the moving ball and skilful bowlers, but they’ve got the pace that could trouble England.
Personally, I’ve been really happy with how things have been going.
I’m at a stage in my career where I know what I’m doing with my bowling, I’m pretty comfortable with it and it doesn’t waver too much.
New conditions and bowling with the Dukes, which moves a bit more, has taken some adjusting. But it’s going well.
I’ve been asked a few times what my aims are for this season, and it’s a really good question because I don’t really know.
The ego in me as a cricketer is saying, ‘I want to play all the first-class games, bowl a lot of overs and take a lot of wickets’. Realistically, I might have to work away in the twos to start with.
I’m happy to do that. As long as I can play cricket for Yorkshire and in England, I’m kind of happy.
It’s nice to hear that Ottis and Goughie have said good things about me, which gives me that added confidence. But, as I say, everyone has been really good to me.
I came with no real idea of who many of the other bowlers, but I’ve certainly been impressed with them all.
Coady’s obviously a genius, just wobbling it about. I believe he’s got some of the best stats for a Yorkshire bowler ever. Leechy’s been very good, Ben Mike bowls nice pace as well.
They’ve also got this new guy Mickey who’s supposed to be pretty good!
One thing that’s struck me is that I’ve been in bowling groups previously where everyone has been fighting for the same spot and it gets quite competitive. But, genuinely, everyone here is happy to help each other out to ensure they get better for the betterment of the club.
Someone who I haven’t seen since I’ve been here is Harry Brook because of his IPL commitments.
It will be his first taste of that competition. He’s been pretty incredible over the last 12 months, and has had a pretty meteoric rise. I’ve got absolutely no doubt that he will have a good tournament.
That is the same for all the Yorkshire lads here. We’re all confident and ready to have a go at promotion. We can’t wait to get going.
