Keeping it real

It took Brad Haddin seven years to win a spot in Australia's Test team and less than a fortnight to almost lose it. The chance nearly slipped through his slightly gnarled fingers when one of those digits broke during his debut in the West Indies in May. But vacant Test wicketkeeping spots have been rarer than terry-towelling hats in Australian cricket in recent years and Haddin was not about to let a snapped finger shatter his dream.

He had spent so long in Adam Gilchrist's shadow that when Gilchrist retired and Haddin had three months to prepare for his Test call-up, he planned meticulously to ensure it would be a success. That included ignoring the chance to play for big money in the Indian Premier League, instead getting himself physically and mentally ready for Test cricket. That made it all the more maddening when his right ring finger fractured.

"I'd be lying to say it wasn't frustrating," Haddin said. "But it's one of those things that you can't really let it get you down for too long because you can't really control what happens out there."

He ploughed on through the second Test before an infection added to the annoyance. There was a very real chance Haddin's career would stall at two Tests, and the selectors rushed the Western Australia gloveman Luke Ronchi to Barbados as a back-up. Haddin was only saved by a lengthy gap between games.

"After the second Test I sort of felt a little bit uncomfortable," he said. "I might have been touch and go for the third but we were lucky enough to have eight days off, which helped just get the infection out of the hand."

He knew how Ronchi felt. In 2001, Haddin was flown to India during a Test series but Gilchrist proved immovable despite having an injured hip. One-day caps have been more readily distributed, and when the finger began affecting Haddin's performance in the Caribbean he handed over the gloves to Ronchi for the limited-overs games.

Ronchi's athletic keeping and breathtaking strikes - he thumped a 22-ball half-century in the fifth ODI - may have closed the gap between the incumbent and the No. 2. Haddin insists his replacement's success did not faze him and he was fully prepared to give up his spot again for the now postponed Champions Trophy. His wife Karina is due to give birth on September 10 and regardless of where his team-mates are at the time, Haddin is planning to be right by her side.

"There was no way I was going to miss the birth," Haddin said. "I was always going to be there for Karina and it's something you don't want to miss, the birth of your first child. It hadn't crossed my mind. I was always going to be at the birth, as simple as that."

The thought brought a gentle smile to Haddin's otherwise weary face as he sat in the stands at Darwin's Marrara Cricket Ground after a draining strength and conditioning workout between ODIs against Bangladesh. His knees heavily strapped with ice, Haddin surveyed a ground that looked more like a small-town oval than an international venue, with plenty of grassy embankments for the locals to bring their own deck-chairs and sit and watch with beer in hand.

It would be a familiar sight for Haddin, who grew up in country New South Wales. His father is a carpenter who also ran a pub in the small town of Gundagai - population: 2000 - before the family moved to the marginally larger community of Queanbeyan, just outside the Australian Capital Territory. It was a thoroughly sporting family; Haddin's two younger brothers are now personal trainers and the three siblings have their own fitness company.

Haddin was fortunate to be virtually an ACT local when the Canberra Comets appeared in the domestic one-day competition in 1997-98. The team lasted only three years but Haddin was so impressive - he was the only man to make a century for them - that he was pinched by New South Wales after two seasons.

"That was one of the most important times in my cricket career," Haddin said. "A lot of guys at my age - I was 18, 19 - didn't have the luxury of being exposed to first-class cricket that young, and with the Canberra Comets coming in I was lucky. Just seeing the standard of first-class cricket at such a young age and I think it's contributed a lot to where my cricket has got to now."

Back in those days the incumbent Australian wicketkeeper, Ian Healy, was Haddin's cricketing idol. This week in Darwin, Haddin's glovework was closely watched in the nets by Healy, in town for his commentating duties, while the Australia coach, Tim Nielsen, gave Haddin some throwdowns.

Nielsen is the latest in a line of former wicketkeepers who have mentored Haddin, including Steve Rixon, and Trevor Bayliss, the occasional keeper at New South Wales. But Haddin is careful to remain his own man, a lesson that he learnt early in his career. It was reinforced when he came in for the incomparable Gilchrist in the Test outfit.

"You come in and you're replacing one of the legends of the game but it's important that you leave your own mark on the team," Haddin said. "You've got to make sure and be honest with yourself. Everyone brings different things to a side and you can't be something you're not. It's important just to be yourself."

And not to break too many fingers.