He may be the most qualified bowler in the Marsh Sheffield Shield purely on wickets taken, but Jackson Bird is aware a different challenge awaits him when he returns home to his native state.
Having represented Australia at the Under-19 World Cup in 2006 as he came up through the NSW pathway system, the Northern Beaches product never imagined it would take until he was 36 years old to pull on the Baggy Blue.
But that’s the scenario facing the nine-Test paceman after an abundance of current and future Australian fast bowlers in the NSW squad during his early 20s forced him seek opportunities interstate.
Unable to break onto a list featuring Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Trent Copeland and Doug Bollinger following several strong seasons for Premier Cricket club Manly Warringah, Bird took up an offer from Tasmania in 2011, going on to become the Tigers’ most successful first-class bowler of all time.
“It is a bit strange, but better late than never I suppose,” Bird says of the prospect of making his NSW debut next summer.
“Growing up in NSW, playing club cricket, you always dream about playing for NSW and I certainly did as a young cricketer.”
But receiving that Baggy Blue cap is not the only carrot drawing him back.
Bird is determined to maximise his time on the field as he enters the twilight years of his career, while the prospect of learning the art of coaching from one of the best in the country in Greg Shipperd is also enticing.
While the veteran right-armer also had a contract offer on the table from the Tigers, it wasn’t as lucrative as the two-year deal from NSW that also included opportunities following his playing career.
Although disappointed not to be able to finish his career in the Hobart where he has lived for more than a decade, met his partner Scarlett and raised their two boys, Max and George – with a third child on the way in July – Bird says he leaves on amicable terms with “no hard feelings”.
“I’m obviously proud of my career that I’ve had with Tasmania. First and foremost, I’m coming to NSW as a player still keen to compete and contribute to winning games of cricket,” Bird says.
“The longer that the negotiations went on, the more I started thinking that it was probably not going to work out how I was picturing it.
“I speak to ‘Shippy’ (Greg Shipperd) quite a bit anyway, regardless of whether he’s the coach of NSW, he’s a great man to talk cricket with.
“We spoke about potentially coming up here and I suppose on reflection, the direction that I wanted to go with the rest of my career, which is maximising the amount of time that I’m playing cricket, and the direction that Cricket Tasmania wanted to go with the list over the next couple of years was probably just too far apart.
“And that’s fair enough, Cricket Tasmania are entitled to make those tough decisions on their list, and I’ve got no issues with it.
“I’m really grateful to ‘Shippy’, Greg Mail and ‘Maxy’ (Michael) Klinger for getting this deal done, it’s a great opportunity for me.
“I’d like to get into coaching after I finish playing cricket, so I think this gives me a great opportunity to work with ‘Shippy’ and hopefully help some of the young guys along the way as well.
“He sees me coming in and playing that senior playing role and helping the young guys … over the last couple of years in Tassie I’ve played that leader role with the junior bowlers at the Tigers and I guess NSW are in a similar position.”
While he admits he’ll need to adapt his game from the seamer friendly conditions of Bellerive Oval to bowl on the generally flatter, more abrasive wickets at the SCG, as the Shield’s 10th highest wicket-taker of all-time, he’s generally had success wherever he goes.
Bird has also called the ground home for the seven seasons with the Sydney Sixers and his first-class record in NSW is better than what it is at Bellerive.
“There’s a false dawn in terms of the Bellerive wicket being an easy place to bowl fast with a new ball in your hand,” Shipperd says.
“An underestimated part of Jackson Bird’s excellence is that no matter where he goes or what conditions with a new ball in his hand, he’s a dangerous customer.
“He will open the door, I’m sure, to opposition middle orders throughout the coming seasons.
“I’ve coached him for a long time, more so in short-form cricket, and he provides another walking, talking coach around a net session and in a game.
“He’s very giving of his knowledge and he will be a great acquisition (for) our emerging young quicks, who were quite excited by it, over the next couple of seasons.”
Bird says he’ll be leaning on some of his Sixers teammates to learn what to do differently in NSW conditions, where his record includes 13 wickets at 20.30 with a best of 4-41 in three first-class matches at the SCG.
“We played five away games a year when I was playing for Tassie … so it’s not something that I’m worried about,” he says.
“It’s going to be bowling with different fields, a different line than I’d probably would bowl at Bellerive Oval, so there’s going to be a few little things, but in saying that I definitely back my skill-set to be able to succeed on flat wickets like that.
“That’s probably my main motive in coming to NSW, I feel like it’s going to be a new challenge for me in terms of the conditions.
“Sydney is notoriously a flat wicket so it’s something that I’m going to have to adapt and learn and try and be better at, which is really exciting for me, that I can still improve parts of my game. At my age, if I can keep doing that, then I’ll continue to enjoy playing.”
