WODONGA-born Andrew McDonald was yesterday packing surfboards for the waves of Ocean Grove and nutting out plans for New Year’s Eve when he received the phone call to tell him he had been picked to play for the Australian Test side at the SCG on Saturday.
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The 27-year-old Victorian all-rounder, who grew up in Albury, has been drafted into the national squad to replace the injured all-rounder pair of Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson.
If he plays, McDonald will become only the Border’s second Test cricketer after Steve Rixon made 13 appearances for Australia from 1977 to 1985.
“I was shocked and over the moon and just really excited about the prospect of being able to play for Australia in Sydney. It really was left field,” McDonald said.
“I feel confident in my ability. Obviously to have been performing for Victoria I think we are probably the benchmark of the domestic competition at the moment and I think that is going to hold me in good stead.
“I think I have held down the No.5 or 6 spot when Cameron (White) has been away for Victoria so I have batted in the top five and six in shield cricket and I think that is going to hold me in good stead if I do get the No.6 spot for Australia, or wherever that position may arise.”
Plans for a New Year’s Eve on Victoria’s surf coast with wife Keely and his mates have now been put on hold.
He was surprised, but so too is most of the country after Australia lost a series at home for the first time in 16 years and had Watson and Symonds sidelined on a dramatic day at the MCG.
“On December 30 I didn’t think I’d be sitting here talking to a press conference, talking about playing for Australia,” McDonald said.
“A few of my mates were organising New Year’s, we weren’t sure what we were doing yet, but I’ve had to tell them they’re on hold now.”
Having played junior representative cricket in NSW, including for the state under-17 side, McDonald was brought to district cricket in Victoria by North Melbourne while still a teenager.
A compelling offer from a university side in Sydney nearly saw him lost back over the border before Neil Buszard, at the Victorian Institute of Sport cricket program, contacted Melbourne Cricket Club to see if the well-resourced club could sweeten an offer to ensure the talented athlete was not lost.
“We knew he was a gifted player and it would have been remiss of us in Victoria not to have done all we could to try and keep him here and develop him. Fortunately Melbourne was able to work something out with him and he came here,” Buszard said.
McDonald is the third Victorian player in the past year — after Peter Siddle and Cameron White — to have emerged from the VIS cricket program which was scrapped partly for not developing enough players worthy of the national team.
