Doug Bracewell’s Test performances have been much better than his first-class ones so far. And his tough and disciplined upbringing should help him stay at the highest level

Andrew Alderson17-Dec-2011There is nothing accidental about Douglas Andrew John Bracewell’s rise to prominence in New Zealand cricket. The son of former Test player, now coach, Brendon, the 21-year-old has been immersed in the game since he could lift a bat and roll his arm over. He has three uncles – John, Mark, and his namesake Doug – who played the game at the first-class level, and a cousin, Michael, doing the same. Yet recent evidence suggests Doug is capable of standing on the shoulders of such giants, notably his 9 for 60 in Hobart to help New Zealand win their first Test against Australia in more than 18 years – even if the farcical public mobile-phone voting system failed to award him Man of the Match.Most of the world may not have seen Bracewell brewing as a future New Zealand cricketer. It seems an age since he made his first-class debut for Central Districts in 2008. He has probably been fortunate to be selected, given he isn’t centrally contracted and his first-class bowling record – 46 wickets at an average of 40.65 in 18 matches – in no way compares to the 16 wickets at 19.25 he has amassed in three Tests, which includes two of his three first-class five-wicket hauls.However, Bracewell is a case of New Zealand coach John Wright applying intuition and reaping the benefits of selecting an instinctive competitor over rivals who stack up better statistically.Bracewell grew up having to be physically and mentally tough to survive. His father ran the original Bracewell academy at Te Puna, just out of the Bay of Plenty city of Tauranga (he now runs a similar concept in Napier). Boys aged 10 to 13 would come in over the summer to train. Former Test cricketer Chris Kuggeleijn used to help Brendon with the camp.”It was pretty hard-case,” Kuggeleijn senior reflects. “They’d run 2km or so up to what was known as ‘Get Hard Park’, near the Te Puna rugby grounds. They’d run up hills, sprint and do shuttle runs from the 22-metre mark [on the rugby fields] to the goal line. I think the camp motto was loosely along the lines of: ‘Drop him off a kid, he’ll come back a man’.”It was an environment where you fended for yourself. You slept in bunks, and we always had a barbecue at night with meat, spuds and maybe the odd vegetable. However, you got no milk with your cereal in the morning if you’d bowled too much down leg side the previous day. There was plenty of fun too, like when Brendon would bring out a speed-ball radar for competitions.”

“What you see is what you get with Doug. He does not overcomplicate matters. He bowls a good length, a heavy ball, and keeps things simple. It’s no surprise seeing him succeed”Bracewell’s Central Districts’ coach Alan Hunt

It was not the most politically correct of camps. “It was about instilling discipline,” Kuggeleijn says. “We’d have rugby on the lawn after the cricketing day was done, and I remember Doug and Scott getting into a minor scrap. They had a choice: no ‘Test cricket’ the next day or take a light whack on the arse with a plastic stump in front of everyone. It was nothing drastic. Both dads – me and Brendon – gave each of them a paddle and we all got on with it. I don’t think it did anyone any harm.”Kuggeleijn remembers Bracewell as one of the bigger kids in his year, who “ruled the roost” – which probably came back to haunt him at the private Rathkeale College, where, New Zealand’s reported, he was expelled for attacking sleeping boarders in a dormitory in June 2007. The matter was referred to Youth Aid by the Masterton police but not taken to court.However, Central Districts coach Alan Hunt says Bracewell has been excellent to mentor. “What you see is what you get with Doug. He does not overcomplicate matters. He bowls a good length, a heavy ball, and keeps things simple. It’s no surprise seeing him succeed.”He enjoys life like any young man, but he’s not silly. Doug’s got the Bracewell hardness but he doesn’t say much on the field. He doesn’t get too emotional and he’s not much of a sledger. He just bowls. Doug’s quite worldly-wise and mature. His dad’s been an influence as a firm taskmaster. It’s almost made him 21 going on 31.”New Zealand allrounder Jacob Oram has played with Bracewell at Central Districts since the young bowler’s domestic debut, and led him on the odd occasion. He reiterates the “uncomplicated” theme.”He goes about his business and doesn’t talk or complain a lot; just head down, bum up. You can give him an old or a new ball, tell him to bowl anything from a yorker to a bouncer and he does it.”Hunt accepts he won’t have Bracewell available for the rest of the summer other than in the HRV Cup Twenty20 competition, starting December 18. However, he’s disappointed Bracewell doesn’t have a central contract with NZC. It means Central Districts picks up his salary tab.”I felt he should have been contracted to NZC straight away. It would have allowed us to contract another player. In the past they would have put him on an elevated contract, like Jamie How and James Franklin last summer, but that is not an option with the current budgetary constraints.”Oram says Bracewell is among those rare players who has a better record in Tests than at the first-class level. “I think it comes from having more opportunities to bowl and bat in a Black Caps environment, where he can immerse himself in cricket. He has good instincts and we’ll see more out of him. He’s a bigger talent with the bat than we’ve seen, although there was a glimpse against Australia A, when he made 73 not out off 79 balls. He can play off both feet. He’s suited to No. 8 or No. 9 at the moment, but could eventually sneak into No. 7 as a genuine allrounder.”