Many people have experienced the feeling of life being on hold during these pandemic times, but for Maitlin Brown it’s been a particularly painful and frustrating year.
The 24-year-old bowler felt the 2020-21 season was set to be hers but, four games into last year’s WBBL, Brown suffered a serious hamstring injury that put her career on hold.
Brown was playing for the Melbourne Renegades at the time but has now signed a three-year deal with the Sydney Sixers, coinciding with her call up to the Australian squad for the upcoming multi-format series against India, in which she has her sights set on a Test debut.
“I'm definitely not ruling that out and I’m definitely going to go for it and give it a crack, and I'd love to play Test match cricket,” said Brown.
“I think it's such a privilege, especially if we can get on the WACA, I think that really suits my bowling - nice, hard, bouncy pitch would be really fun to bowl on and if I was to get the Baggy Green it'd be a dream come true.”
“It's so exciting. When I got the phone call the other day I couldn't believe it, it sort of took me by surprise, coming from being injured to being psyched to being in the squad is awesome and I'm really excited.”
Brown is a particularly vivacious character but she admitted the injury and subsequent long road to recovery had taken a huge toll, both mentally and physically.
She remained in the WBBL hub after her injury, which helped her remain positive and she drew particular inspiration from her new teammate at the Sixers, Ellyse Perry, whose hamstring injury earlier in the year ruled her out of the T20 World Cup Final.
“It was great that she just so happened to be in the in the WBBL hub so I was able to just sort of chat to her and get a bit of an idea of what her journey sort of looked like,” said Brown.
“We texted back and forth, a bit of banter.
“If I was in the shop I’d send her a picture of a packet of him off the bone or something and we kept in comms throughout the whole sort of journey.
“We actually only just chatted yesterday and saying how excited we were to meet up and compare scars so that's a bit of fun, but she was really great support, sort of giving me a bit of an idea and someone who I could relate to really easily.”
Ahead of the WBBL, Brown will have plenty of time to pick Perry’s brain in the Australian camp.
While the 18-player squad is blessed with fast bowling talent, including the likes of Tayla Vlaeminck, Darcie Brown and Stella Campbell, the absence of Megan Schutt - who has opted out of the series to stay with her pregnant wife - means there could be an opening for Brown’s useful swing bowling.
“Obviously ‘Shooter’ swings it up front and then she's also really good at the death and I feel like that's very similar to what I do, try to swing the ball and hit some good areas at the front and then come in with the death so, yeah, I definitely think that's a position that I'll be eyeing off.”
While Brown, who plays for the ACT Meteors in the WNCL, is keen to resume her playing career, she found creative ways to keep her mind occupied during the long months of rehab that followed surgery, from designing a large scale 3d printed chair through to making rugs and leather wallets.
“It really sucked and it was definitely a bit of a roller coaster,” said Brown.
“I was stuck in the hub actually after I had surgery and had a lot of my mates around me and I thought that was a really smart idea because I really thrive off that so having them sort of lift me up and be able to bounce, bounce off them was really good but yeah, I guess it was really hard.
“When I left that and I was sort of on my own I felt really a bit lonely at times, hobbling around on my crutches, watching my boyfriend go out on the bike and and everyone else train.
“It sort of ebbed and flowed in terms of emotion, but I was really fortunate that I had a bit of a plan B and that was my industrial design which is what I've been studying for the last three years, so I was able to sort of channel my energy into designing and creating lots of really fun things and that sort of distracted me and made time fly a little bit quicker. So I was really grateful that I had that.”
The series is due to start on September 19th in Sydney but the current lockdown renders that scenario impossible and current border closures means Brown and her teammates are on standby to fly interstate and quarantine, once the fixtures are confirmed.
And after the setbacks of the past year Brown hopes her comeback is perfectly timed, with the India series to be followed by the WBBL, the Women’s Ashes, the World Cup in New Zealand and the Commonwealth Games in England.
“I definitely thought about last summer and obviously the unfortunate timing of the injury sucked, but everything at the moment seems to be lining up to be a really, really good comeback.
“It's really exciting, there's so many opportunities and so much cricket and I guess I'm just going to try to stay fit and take whatever opportunity I can.”
