Morrant Young Gun – Mason Crane, Hampshire spin bowler
Sussex may have failed to recognise Mason Crane’s talents but he didn’t escape the attentions of Raj Maru – who did his old county Hampshire a favour by alerting them to the burgeoning leg-spinner.
Four years on Crane, now one of Hampshire’s brightest prospects, can count Kumar Sangakkara as his first professional wicket and the 18-year-old will never forget Maru’s intervention.
“I bowled spin from the very start, they tried to make me bowl straight but it came out as leggy!” said Crane, who signed his first professional contract this week. “That was at Worthing and within a year I was in the Sussex U10s squad, and I took to it naturally.
“But I didn’t make the U14 county squad, so my school coach at Lancing College, Raj Maru, introduced me to Hampshire.
“It was absolutely awful being told you’re not good enough in a team that you’d been in for the last four years. But I worked hard and doors opened again at Hampshire.
“Raj has been awesome for me throughout the years, the way he helped me to change my action in certain ways so when I had a growth spurt it didn’t affect the way I played.”
It’ll take a while for Crane to match the 615 wickets Maru plundered at Hampshire – but he’ll certainly never need reminding of his first.
He turned up at the Ageas Bowl for the t20 clash with Surrey expecting to be a waterboy but left with a scalp to brag about, as Sangakkara slugged a full toss into Joe Gatting’s reach.
“It was unbelievable, I’d thought I’d only be coming along to carry things,” added Crane, who snared another golden oldie in Vikram Solanki before finishing with figures of 2-35. “But they looked at the wicket and though it might spin. It was quite surreal as you saw Jason Roy standing there and he whacked a couple and you think, ‘wow, what am I going to do when I get a go?’
“It helped that I got a bowl early on – Sangakkara hit me for four with my first ball to him – but in the second over I got the wicket. I didn’t expect to bowl the full four overs either, I thought it’d be a breaking-in process.
“My last over was quite expensive but for my development that’s good, if it’d all gone to plan I might have thought the game would always be as easy – it really was a reminder to knuckle down.
“I think I’m bowling really well at the moment, I took five wickets against Sussex at the start of the month which was pleasing because I could feel the ball coming out nicely.”
His progress has caught the eye of England, his call-up to the U19 squad’s tour of Australia in April coming hot on the heels of his appearances in the U17 development squad last year.
Crane added: “I think my best trait is the revs I get on the ball and the number of variations I have, you can always work on your accuracy.
“I always want to spin it both ways. The googly came first and I’m developing a slider, I always tinker around and see what else I can bowl.
“I didn’t bat much when I was younger but I’ve learned to take it very seriously. The higher level you get, the lower down the order you go and I’m working really hard to score as many runs as I can. I got a second team 45 recently so I can help out a bit.”
This piece originally featured in The Cricket Paper on Friday July 24, 2015