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‘I GOT THE BALANCE BETWEEN TRAINING AND THE WAY I EAT VERY WRONG’ ETHAN BAMBER EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Will Macpherson Cricket Correspondent

ETHAN BAMBER has had an outstanding season. Aged 22, he has taken 48 wickets at an average of 20 in a County Championship campaign that has confirmed he is one of a number of green shoots emerging at Middlesex.

But when Bamber sent down his first delivery of the season, to Yorkshire’s Will Fraine in a friendly at Merchant Taylors’ School in March, he feared the worst for the summer ahead.

“I bowled the first ball of the match and it was a short, wide drag down. It got whacked to the boundary,” he recalls. “I thought, ‘oh my god, here we go again. Is this it?’”

Bamber’s mind was cast back to the difficult summer of 2020.

“Last summer, for a number of reasons both on and off the field I really struggled,” he says. “I wasn’t enjoying my cricket and I definitely wasn’t in a physical place where I was playing well enough to get picked. I played one game and I just felt so out of my depth.”

Bamber explains he has always “got nerves before cricket, good nerves”. But last year he did not. “I just kind of wanted to do what I needed to do and go home,” he says. Things were so bad he was worried he wouldn’t enjoy cricket again.

At the heart of the issue was his weight. “I’ve had some issues around a combination of training and eating, and a difficult relationship between them,” he says. “I am quite an obsessive personality, and I got the balance between training and the way I eat, whether I eat enough and give myself enough fuel to perform, and giving my body enough rest and recovery… I got that very wrong.”

In short, Bamber is 12kg heavier than he was a year ago — and in a far better state to bowl. He says the problem “was probably exacerbated by some things at home” and wants to thank Middlesex, who have “been so patient and understanding”. Bamber is unflinchingly selfaware, saying he knows how “privileged he is”, and that many others are dealing with similar issues in far more challenging situations. He also knows that it is an ongoing process.

Rather than wanting to get off the field as fast as he can, this summer a day of cricket “seems to fly by” because he is having so much fun. “This summer has been really enjoyable,” he says. “I’ve had a really good time out there with some of my really good mates. It’s been incredibly relieving to know that I am able to compete at this level.”

For Bamber to have been on the verge of falling out of love with the game is striking, because his self-effacing enthusiasm is evident throughout our chat. He throws in lines such as “it’s still slightly surreal to me that I’m a cricketer for my job” and that it “sounds nuts” that against Kent today he had a shot at 50 first-class wickets for the summer (he is also four shy of 100 career firstclass wickets).

He has been nicknamed “Mini Murts”, in honour of Tim Murtagh, but rejects the comparison, because “it’s a disservice to his 40-year-old opening partner”.

Since winning the Championship five years ago, Middlesex’s four-day cricket has been messy and inconsistent. But they have won their last four matches and, against Vitality Blast Champions Kent this week, can clinch top spot in Division Three.

Bamber is among a crop of exciting, local youngsters who have come through the Middlesex system together.

“I still feel like we are playing at Merchant Taylors’ in an Under-17s game,” he says. “There are the same jokes and the same relaxed feeling. Everyone really trusts each other because we have spent so much time together.”

Bamber describes himself as “much happier in myself” than a year ago. The same might just be true of his team.

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2021-09-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

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