Resilient by Mitchell Johnson

Author:Mitchell Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2016-10-06T16:00:00+00:00

A Natural Athlete

I first met Mitchell around ten years ago. I was working with a few cricketers including Ricky Ponting, Michael di Venuto and Andy Bichel at the time and running a property consultancy business. Andy suggested that I come down one day to watch Queensland play because there was a young quick he wanted me to think about taking care of. He knew there are a lot of managers out there who are in it only to take the percentage of deals, but elite sportsmen often need more than that.

Andy thought Mitchell had all the potential in the world. When we met we hit it off straight away. He was a humble, shy and respectful kid who had come down from the bush and was obviously a little unworldly, but he had this gleam in his eye. He was also one of the most natural young athletes I had seen. This was well before he played for Australia, in the summer when he won his state contract back.

The athleticism I saw that day was obvious and I think a lot of people don’t realise just how strong and fit he is. He played cricket at the top level for a decade and never once missed a match with a soft tissue injury. It is an incredible achievement.

I was there for his first Test at the Gabba and his last at the WACA. I have been there for games in many parts of the world. We have developed a relationship where we talk regularly. He needed someone to protect his interests and that’s what I did, but other times he just needed someone to talk to.

Like everybody I have loved watching Mitchell bowl and like everybody I think the series that gave me the most pleasure was the 2013–14 Ashes. I knew better than most how low he got before that both physically and mentally and I knew how hard he had worked to get back. His resilience, determination and class made it all the more thrilling for me.

I will cherish seeing him lead his country to that Ashes win. We were all a little surprised by how well he did. Funnily enough, I had been telling journalists who wrote him off that they hadn’t seen the last of him and they hadn’t seen the best of him. At least two of them rang me later and acknowledged that I had been right.

I knew what an athlete he was, I knew how determined he was, I knew he would do well, but I didn’t expect him to be the ICC Cricketer of the Year – again. Only three Australians have won that award. Ricky Ponting won it twice, Mitchell won it twice and Michael Clarke won it once.

People still don’t understand his real achievements. There are only 13 players in the history of the game who have taken 300 wickets and scored 2000 runs. Mitchell was the 12th and Chris Broad is the 13th.

I might be a bit close to this, but the other thing that sticks in my mind is the number of catches dropped off his bowling.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.