Our two newest contracted Stags couldn’t be more pleased for each other.

BRAD SCHMULIAN and BAYLEY WIGGINS have played a lot of cricket together in Hawke’s Bay, but when they were each offered their 2020/21 season contract, they had to keep it under their hat for a couple of weeks — from absolutely everyone.

“I was training with Schmoo at that stage, and I couldn’t even tell him!” says Wiggins.

When the day of the announcement finally arrived, the 21-year-old’s phone started to go nuts with all the calls and messages of congratulations.

“I got to tell my parents too, and Dad didn’t believe me when I first told him. He thought I was joking! When he realised I wasn’t, I think he was even more happy for me than I was.”

Waiting to bat for the first time on Super Smash debut at the Basin | MBUTCHER

Wiggins is the youngest on the list of 14 players contracted so far (with two more names to be announced in early July).

“It’s a pretty cool feeling to be professional, and I feel like it’s made all the work I’ve been putting in worthwhile,” says Wiggins.

“For the last three years it’s been a bit of a juggling act between training and work too, which has been tough at times fitting everything in. I don’t think much will change, I’ll still be working as hard as ever but it is pretty cool to know that now I’m paid to train.”

Motivating himself to put in the yards doesn’t sound like too much of a problem: during lockdown he was running 40km to 50km a week “just to stay fit and keep myself sane.”

Since the move to Level One, he’s been able to get back in the nets with Schmulian and Christian Leopard, before the Stags winter squad trainings start up in the next fortnight.

For Schmulian it’s also the first time he’s signed a season contract, although he officially came on board earlier this year when he joined the 2019/20 contracted list as a replacement player.

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At 29, the batsman and leg-spinner says it’s something he’s been working towards for a very long time — “probably since my late teens. I didn’t necessarily think it would happen, so to achieve the objective was very satisfying. I think it shows the value of perseverance.”

Schmulian spent lockdown in Auckland with his parents and sister, after Covid-19 scotched his plans to return to England for another off-season playing in the Bradford League.

“I haven’t had a winter since 2012, so it’s been a long time! Once Level One came in, I got back down here to Hawke’s Bay and have been coaching juniors at Havelock North, going to the gym and running, and training with Bayley and also [CD and NZ Under-19 rep] Will Clark.

“I first came down to CD a few years ago from Auckland [where he’d been Auckland’s club cricketer of the year] and I’m grateful CD gave me the opportunity to show I could play at the first-class level.

“In some ways a contract doesn’t change anything: you still have to put the hard work in, to be a consistent player. I think I’ll still have the same values, and train just as hard — but financially, it does give me that freedom to fully commit to my cricket to be as good as I can be, and focus on the job at hand.

“I think it also gives you a bit of extra confidence, which is always a good thing in cricket.”

No article on Schmulian gets too far before his New Zealand record 203 on first-class debut for the Stags gets a mention — a magic afternoon that broke a stat that had stood since the late 1800s.

That was in late 2017 and ironically he hasn’t hit a century since, but got close a couple of times last summer with five half centuries from 10 first-class innings, as well as a maiden Ford Trophy half century, an unbeaten 61* against ND.

“I was really pleased with my consistency in that I was contributing a 50 pretty much every second innings with the bat,” says Schmulian. “I played different types of innings, and found ways to contribute, but I was annoyed to miss out on a hundred a couple of times when it was on.

“Bowling-wise it was nice to contribute too, but I want to be a lot more consistent and a regular option. I had more opportunities with Ajaz having been away [with the BLACKCAPS] and enjoyed taking a few wickets.”

Schmulian picked up eight for the Plunket Shield season at 24.00, with a best of 4-34, as well as picking up his maiden Ford Trophy wicket on debut at Lincoln — Jimmy Neesham, caught by the young sub.

But the standout game of the summer from his perpective was the Plunket Shield victory over ND at Bay Oval early in the season.

“It was a special victory for us because we had two debutants [Ray Toole and Jarrod Mckay] playing against a very experienced side that had Neil Wagner, Trent Boult, BJ Watling. We won it in the last session on day four and it was really satisfying to show our youngsters what it was all about and the value of sheer persistance.”

One of the other highlights for Schmulian was being out in the middle of Pukekura Park as Wiggins clinched his maiden Ford Trophy century.

“I was excited for Bayley. We’ve played together at other levels for a while and always talked about how good it would be to make these dreams come true. It’s nice to be in 'the office' together now, colleagues at this level and hopefully we’ll get to share some more good partnerships.”

After having scored a 98 the week before, Wiggins jokes that he was in the 90s “for about half an hour” in that game.

“There was absolutely no way I was going to miss out on that hundred! I was quite nervous, but it was good to have Brad there to talk to as I got closer.

“Coming into the Ford Trophy team, most of the guys hadn’t seen much of me. It was a good way to show I’m ready for this level. I wanted to show I wasn’t just a fill-in player and that they can back me to do a role.”

Wiggins has now had a taste of both Super Smash (his debut match in 2018/19) and The Ford Trophy as a keeper-batsman, and was keen to show he can add value as a specialist batsman as well.

“Whatever role I can play for the team. I like to keep everything simple and take it game by game, but I’m also working hard and I’m not going to stop pushing now that I’m contracted.”

“I want to be consistent and a ‘week-to-week’ player.”

Article added: Thursday 25 June 2020