CRICKET
By LIAM DURKIN
“PETER Siddle’s got a hat-trick on his birthday!”
Yesterday (November 25) marked 15 years since Peter Siddle put Morwell on the map, after his extraordinary feat on the opening day of the 2010/11 Ashes series in Brisbane.
In one of Australian cricket’s most memorable moments, the former Latrobe player celebrated his 26th birthday in the best possible fashion, with his toe crushing hat-trick ball and subsequent raise of the umpire’s finger sending fans into delirium.
Much like his birthday neatly coinciding with a hat-trick, the 15th anniversary coincided with Siddle being home for the weekend.
The Morwell boy took time to catch up with family, and watched some local kids basketball.
Speaking with the Express, Siddle said while the anniversary hadn’t really dawned on him, it was impossible to escape the moment continuously replayed around this time of year.
“It’s gone pretty quick, it’s pretty crazy,” he said.
“I didn’t realise the extent of it at the time.”
His hat-trick started by drawing England great Sir Alastair Cook forward, knicking to first slip, before knocking over loudmouth keeper Matt Prior.
In came Stuart Broad, long before his role as the pantomime villain was established.
The planets may have aligned for Siddle, who was not only on a hat-trick on his birthday, but bowling to someone who it was later revealed was helplessly unprepared.
“England have got a problem, Stuart Broad hasn’t come out yet,” former Australian captain Mark Taylor quipped on commentary.
“Get ready to yell happy birthday Tubs,” the late, great Shane Warne added.
“When Stuart Broad was due to go in, he was still naked in the changerooms,” teammate Graeme Swann said in an episode of the Willow Talk podcast earlier this year.
“He’d had a shower, we lost a wicket and he was just strolling through and then Matty Prior got out and he hadn’t realised.
“We were literally helping him get padded up – one person one leg, one person on the other.
“He walked out, and if there’s ever been a definite, guaranteed hat-trick ball, it was Broady that day.”
Siddle said he wasn’t planning to bowl a leg stump yorker.
“In my mind it was – hit the top of off stump,” he said.
“I missed my length by six metres! The misjudgement ended up executing something special.”
Siddle, known for his animated appeals, let out a huge cry to umpire Aleem Dar, who adjudged three reds for leg before wicket.
The challenge system had just been introduced, meaning Siddle faced a nervous wait after England reviewed.
“The boys kept reassuring me it was out,” Siddle said.
Sure enough, the ball pitched in line and was going on to hit leg stump, ensuring Siddle’s place in Ashes history.
Back home, it was said the moment sparked an instant party at the house of one of his childhood mates.
Being Day 1 of a Test match, Siddle didn’t have the opportunity to celebrate, but said he was given free bottles of champagne when he went out for a ‘bowlers dinner’ that night.
Keeping his sense of humour, Siddle said he has “ruined everyone’s birthday” as nothing will surely ever top taking an Ashes hat-trick.
While he took more than 200 Test wickets and is certainly worth more than three balls, he said he was happy to be remembered for it nonetheless.
“As the years go on, that’s when you’re made more aware of it,” he said.
“Kids that wouldn’t have been alive, you walk past and they go ‘he’s got a hat-trick on his birthday’.”
Swann, who holds the record for most international wickets by an England slow bowler, declared the roar that greeted him after Siddle’s hat-trick was the loudest of his international career.
“I have never known noise like that, at the Gabba when I faced the double hat-trick ball,” Swann said.
“I walked out and the noise, all the noise (at the Gabba) is directed straight at the pitch. I’ve never known noise like that at a cricket ground.”
Siddle is still playing professional cricket in the Big Bash League, and has a goal to hit 150 kilometres this season – not bad for someone 41-years-of-age.
He says he is still as competitive as ever, and willing to put in the hard yards – attributes many Latrobe Valley youngsters could surely feel inspired by.
“I want to do well for my team. It works at any level of sport,” he said.
(NB: This is surely one of the greatest ‘where were you?’ moments. I was at boarding school in northern Victoria, and revelled in the brief uptick of Gippsland knowability. Before that, no one knew where Gippsland was, but thanks to Peter Siddle, I was at least able to say it was ‘where Peter Siddle’s from’. Huge thanks to Michael ‘Chunky’ Duncan as well for arranging this interview).
