From Wimborne To Lord's In Three Weeks

From Wimborne to Lord’s in three weeks, such has been the remarkable progress of Dorset and Sussex left-arm seamer Brad Currie this season. 

The 23-year-old has been a consistent performer for Dorset in National Counties cricket for six years but has long had ambitions to play first-class cricket for a living. 

Having trialled with six county Second XIs without being offered a contract, Currie thought that his chance had gone until he got a WhatsApp message from Sussex analyst Luke Dunning earlier this season asking if he could play in a second team game against Gloucestershire at Bristol. 

Currie did well enough to be invited back and, having performed consistently in Second XI cricket in the first half of the season, he received a surprise call-up for the LV County Championship match against Middlesex at Lord’s two weeks ago. 

He enjoyed a dream debut, taking six for 93 in his first bowl at the home of cricket, with two former England Test openers, Mark Stoneman and Sam Robson, providing Currie with his first two first-class wickets. 

Currie has since played twice more for Sussex, both against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, and is hoping that the initial one-month contract he signed on the eve of the Middlesex match will become a longer-term deal. 

“It’s been an absolute rollercoaster. I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet, even after having two weeks of it, it’s just so surreal,” Currie said. 

“Because it’s all happened so quickly, I’ve just been able to just get on with it without thinking too much about what has happened. I have tried to pause every now and then to try to take it all in, but I don’t think I can. 

“Where I have come from to playing at Lord’s and Trent Bridge is remarkable. I was warming up at Trent Bridge and Luke Fletcher came over and said: ‘are you that lad who took six wickets at Lord’s on debut? You must think Second Division cricket is brilliant, Lord’s then Trent Bridge,  it’s fantastic. Just wait until you have to go to some of the other grounds!’ 

“To be sharing the same pitch as players I have only seen on TV is incredible. It has just been the most amazing experience so far.” 

Until he made his first-class debut, Currie’s only previous visit to Lord’s had been as a 12-year-old when his parents took him and younger brother Scott – who is now in his third season with Hampshire – on a guided tour of the Home of Cricket. 

“The tour guide said: ‘you might get the chance to play here one day.’ As a 12-year-old you think: that would be great, but you don’t ever believe it’s going to happen,” he said. 

“On the first day against Middlesex I had to ask how to get out onto the ground. Walking through the Long Room and down the steps I thought: ‘This is me doing it now, not Ben Stokes, not Joe Root, this is me, a lad from Bournemouth.’ 

“Every time I stepped onto the pitch I was trying to do a 360 of the stadium just to take it all in.” 

Currie had a day-and-a-half to enjoy watching from the Lord’s balcony as Cheteshwar Pujara make a double hundred before he had his first involvement against Middlesex. 

After a tentative opening few overs on the second evening, he came back strongly on the third morning and took four for 16 in a memorable spell in the first hour. 

“After we got bowled out and had a session at them on day two and I struggled a little bit with my line and the slope,” he said. 

“But I showed glimpses that if I got it right the batsmen were in trouble. I had the night to reflect on it and I came back on day three quite fresh and with a few new ideas and plans. 

“It was just one of those spells where you go on a run. You get one wicket, that is a weight off your shoulders, then you get two, then three and four. They came so fast it was almost like London buses.” 

Currie might have got his chance earlier had he not suffered a hamstring injury in the warm-up before he was due to play a second team match against Surrey in 2019 and COVID not wiped out  the entire National Counties programme and most Second XI cricket in 2020. 

But Currie continued to put himself in the shop window by performing consistently in National Counties cricket and, unknown to him, Sussex were always monitoring his progress. 

“I can’t speak more fondly of the National Counties Cricket Association and Dorset because they have done so well to provide the link between National Counties and Second XI cricket which is the next step up to the professional game,” Currie said. 

“It can be difficult to get from a National Counties side just into a first-class Academy. But now they are really nailing that. 

“With the way the game is now going with the Royal London being played at the same time as The Hundred there is a need for first-class counties to have deeper squads and that depth can come from the youngsters playing National Counties cricket. 

“Performing for Dorset has given me the chance to put myself out there. To get noticed you have to put yourself in the shop window by playing in matches that are being watched by first-class counties. 

“The standard of National Counties has just gone through the roof. The white ball cricket, in particular, has been unbelievable.”