Quit fast bowling in year 9, and suffered IPL debut disaster: Michael Neser's journey to the baggy green

The story around Michael Neser’s elevation to the status of Test cricketer is in keeping with his unusual tale – one where he’s overcome many twists and turns to grab the baggy green he’s cherished since arriving as a young immigrant from South Africa.

Neser has been in the Australian squad for 16 straight games without getting into the XI and must have felt crushing disappointment when passed over for Jhye Richardson earlier this week.

But the unfortunate case of Pat Cummins’ withdrawal, due to being a close contact with someone who was COVID positive, has opened up Neser’s path to an Ashes debut.

Neser grew up in a small city called Irene in the South African highveldt and visited the nearby Centurion to cheer on the Titans at every opportunity.

His granddad was a doctor and owned three houses next to each other for him and his two daughters, including Neser’s mum.

The youngest of four children, Neser was also blessed with cousins and they would play backyard cricket for hours on end.

He came from a long line of doctors – his great grandfather was a doctor, as were both of his granddads. His father Chris is a spinal surgeon and mum Annelise is a dentist and they moved to Australia when he was 10.

Neser told me in a 2019 interview that the move happened soon after a traumatic event in their homeland.

“Once we were involved in a car accident,” he recalled. “I think a drunk driver ran a red light and smashed into our car. We all stumbled out of the car in shock and tried to regather ourselves. Once we went back into the car to get our goods they were all gone. We’d actually been robbed.”

Neser quickly fell in love with his new home on the Gold Coast.

“I’ve always felt we were so fortunate we could emigrate to Australia and I’m so grateful that my parents made the move,” he said.

“It wouldn’t have been easy for them, and it was a big move to make, but they uprooted their life in South Africa and came to Australia practically for us kids.

“At first I actually thought I was going on a holiday. It wasn’t until a couple months later that it sunk in that I was actually in Aus for good.”

They settled at Miami Beach.

“I hadn’t really experienced the ocean much before, so I loved going to the ocean every second day,” he said. “It was a big change from where we’d grown up, quite relaxing, right next to the beach.

“I found it quite easy to fit in. Playing cricket meant it was easy to make friends, and it’s why I play cricket still to this day – the, friends and the company.”

But Neser’s big breakthrough as a cricketer almost never happened with injuries striking early.

“I bowled quick when I started out then I suffered stress fractures in my back when I was in grade 9, and had given away bowling pace altogether until I finished school,” Neser said.

He focussed on batting and made the Queensland under 19s as a batsman who bowled off spin, but found it boring and started bowling pace again once he finished high school.

Soon after he was bowling pace in a grade final for Gold Coast at Allan Border Field and dismissed Jimmy Maher, leading to a rookie contract with the Bulls.

“So I got my breakthrough as a pace bowler, but I had this concern in the back of my mind the whole time,” Neser said.

“I remember the first couple of years worrying about my back because I feared it might go again. Then it did. I got stress fractures four years into my contract. It took six months to recover and I thought ‘here we go again’.

“Luckily enough, since then, touch wood, it’s been good. But in the early days it definitely played on my mind wondering if my back would hold up because it has been an issue for so many bowlers.”

Neser made his Sheffield Shield and one day debuts for Queensland in the 2010-11 season, and the next season played in the first year of the BBL with Brisbane Heat.

A year later he was playing with Adelaide Strikers and at the end of the season was away on a fishing trip with some mates in North Queensland when he got a call out of the blue from Darren Lehmann.

“Boof said ‘check your phone you’ve got a heap of messages, we want you to come over to the IPL.’

“I thought ‘oh shit.’ We’d been fishing all night so I was pretty cooked. The boat got back to the dock around 6pm and I got off facing an eight hour drive back down to Brisbane to pack up and leave in a day.

“I got back to Brissy after midnight, then flew out the next morning to get a visa and then straight onto India.

“I probably wasn’t as prepared for it as well as what I could have been because that was the last thing I was expecting – to leave a fishing trip for the IPL as a young kid.”

It didn’t turn out how he would like, playing just once for Kings XI in a sobering debut.

“When I got to the game and found out I was playing I thought ‘this is awesome’. Then I checked out the opposition and I was like ‘oh boy!’ They had Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers.

“My first over, I thought I bowled quite well. Then I looked up at the scoreboard and saw it had gone for 15. It just got worse after that and every over went the journey. I know this sounds silly but I actually thought I didn’t bowl that bad. I’ve felt I’ve bowled worse and gone for a lot less.

“I remember AB De Villiers reverse sweeping yorkers for four. Gayle hitting it miles. I didn’t get another game after that.”

Neser’s 0-62 were the worst debut figures in the competition’s history.

He’ll be hoping his Test debut turns out very differently.