Here is an excerpt of the interview:

Maitlan Brown is proof that children don’t need expensive, state-of-the-art equipment to become an elite cricketer: her first ‘bat’ was an old axe handle—which she points out didn’t have an axe-head attached to it!

The bowling all-rounder, who’s considered one of Australian cricket’s rising stars, said all she, her brother Reid and grandfather Norman Hatchwell needed for their backyard Tests was the old handle and a tennis ball.

‘Pop grabbed the axe handle when we wanted to play cricket one day and said, “Here we go, we can use this!”,’ said Brown, who grew up in Wingham, 325 kilometres north of Sydney. ‘You certainly don’t need to pay $800 for a bat to play cricket.

‘Those backyard games also helped me fall in love with cricket. I liked the competitiveness, but what really appealed to me was the fun. I also made so many good friends through cricket; people who I call my best friends. There are so many cool experiences available through the sport— last year I went on my first overseas trip, a tour to Sri Lanka and it was amazing.’

Brown’s early days as a club cricketer in Sydney meant her parents needed to leave home at 4am on a Sunday for a 650-kilometre round trip to Sydney so she could play for the Tigers.  She’d return home, exhausted, by 10.30pm and was up early for school the following morning.

When Brown joined the ACT Meteors in 2016, the travel time from home to cricket ground increased to seven hours—one way.

The 20-year-old confessed it wasn’t until she had to pay for her own petrol that she appreciated how much her father—who shoes horses for a living—and mother spent on fuel, so she could indulge her passion.

‘I’ll always be extremely grateful and thankful to my parents for driving me so far on those trips,’ she said. ‘It didn’t get easy for Mum when I got my licence because there were times when I drove to Canberra on my own that she’d be in tears because Mum was terrified I’d fall asleep behind the wheel on the way home. I didn’t have a contract with the Meteors then, and because I couldn’t afford to live there I’d drive down for training and match day. I don’t know who was more relieved, me or Mum, when I received a WNCL contract because it meant I could live in Canberra.’

Brown, who is studying industrial design at university—which she jokes means ordering smashed avocado at the café, wearing glasses without prescription lenses and drinking soy lattes to look the part— said she always gives her best to honour the township of Wingham, and her late grandfather.

Big Bash Superstars by Daniel Lane is available at all good bookstores now.