Field of his own

When Mike Young, Australia's fielding coach, came to Australia to play for the Queensland baseball team, his first taste of Test cricket was met with a kind of bemusement natural for young Americans.

"It was a Monday or Tuesday and I asked them when it was over. They said Friday. I said 'oh, my God'. We started talking about prizemoney and trophies teams win and they mentioned 'the Ashes'."And I said, 'You play for five days and might only tie or draw and all you win is some ashes'. I thought 'I hope Australian baseball is not like this'."

Well he has come a long way since then, and cricket has compensated what he couldn't achieve with baseball. The Australian players have given him the respect he deserves, chipping in out of their own pockets to pay for his own room during the 2003 World Cup. Read the full piece by Robert Craddock in The Courier Mail.