Cowan gets a cricketing high

Australia opener Ed Cowan is everything but your typical cricketer. He can write, he can tweet, he can do fancy finance stuff. He’s even fielded in a Test match before he made his first-class debut, against Pakistan in 2005. But he cannot remember walking out to bat in the second innings of his debut Test at the MCG last month. Cowan had been so enthusiastic in doing warm-ups on the second morning of the Boxing Day Test that he got a sore back, which required a generous dose of painkillers. “Having hurt my back, I now know what it is like to bat high, because I had so much codeine in my system I cannot remember walking out to bat,” Cowan told TripleM Sydney radio.

Cowan then went on to reveal that he was also down a few beers down when he was called out of the SCG Members Bar as a substitute Test fielder in 2005. “I had had a few earlier that morning, but that was later that afternoon,” Cowan said. “I was sober - I would have been able to drive home. They did ask me if I had been drinking, I said no. It was only six balls and I did not touch one so there is no need to get too carried away.

“So I have done both. I have fielded with a few beers under the belt, and batted with a few too many Panadeine Fortes in the system.” Now that is an achievement that will take some downing.