Two titles, one broken leg: WA quick's wild freelance start

Two titles, two torn-up contracts and one broken leg. Jason Behrendorff's life as a T20 freelancer has had an eventful start.

Considering he has a titanium cable coiled around his spine, Behrendorff's suggestion the fluke blow that torpedoed his World Cup hopes earlier this year was the most devastating of his career is not made lightly.

"It was probably the most angry and the most frustrated I've been after an injury, because it was so freakish, and it was so ridiculous," the 34-year-old told cricket.com.au. "Coming to terms with that was really hard."

In March, around a month after he played all three of Australia's home T20 Internationals against West Indies, Behrendorff was batting in the WACA nets when he lost sight of a ball coming out of a throwing 'flinger'.

It struck him on the full on the left leg, above his ankle, missing his pad and shoe. "It literally hit me flush and snapped my fibula," Behrendorff said. The knock came three days before he was due to fly out for the Indian Premier League where he was set to take up a A$135,000 deal with the Mumbai Indians.

As Australia's reigning T20 International cricketer of the year, Behrendorff had good reason to believe more strong returns could earn him a ticket to the Caribbean for the ensuing T20 World Cup.

"The feedback leading into the IPL was basically all the main bowlers in contention for that World Cup squad were playing in the IPL," he said.

"So that was a great chance to play well, put yourself in with a chance, and for me it was a case of, 'Well, I've got nothing to lose'.

"I know I'm not one of the top three to be included in the squad. There was myself and realistically you're looking at Nathan Ellis, Sean Abbott, Spencer Johnson – it was probably the four of us competing for the one or potentially two spots left.

"I was hopeful that I was going to get a chance and playing well in the IPL was a definitely a ticket to do that."

As it turned out, there was only one spot and it was Ellis who got it.

Behrendorff meanwhile had told WA high performance boss Kade Harvey and coach Adam Voges of his intention to forsake the final year of his state contract, freeing himself up to play in overseas short-form leagues.

In the space of a few weeks, he had gone from being an Australia, Western Australia and Mumbai Indians cricketer to essentially being none of those things.

Yet, in the still early days of the final chapter of the left-arm quick's career, Behrendorff remains as bullish on his future as ever.

For one, he has hardly been cut adrift by the state he had been contracted to for 15 years dating back to when he first crossed the Nullarbor from Canberra as a 19-year-old, and is expected to feature in WA’s opening round of One-Day Cup matches beginning next week.

It has been an adjustment, however. Behrendorff flew himself to Brisbane during his recovery from his leg fracture to bowl outdoors on turf during the winter, while his first two freelance 'projects' were somewhat off the beaten path.

His first assignment, four months after his unfortunate net injury, was in Sri Lanka's five-team Lanka Premier League where he was one of only two Australians featuring. After a slow start, he was the standout bowler in the final, helping Jaffna Kings lift the trophy.

Four days later, he was wearing another team's uniform (like Jaffna, this one was also blue) in his first game for the Toronto Nationals in the Global T20 Canada. Again he was on the winning side in the decider, this time earning player-of-the-match honours with a haul of 3-8.

"I say to this to people jokingly – but semi-seriously – I've started my freelance campaign two wins from two tournaments," Behrendorff said of the dual successes that came within three weeks of each other. "So if you want to win, pick me up!"

Behrendorff was one of four Western Australians with international experience (along with Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Agar and Andrew Tye) to opt out of a state deal this year.

He believes others will do the same across Australia as T20 leagues become a lucrative alternative to the traditional pathway.

Red-ball cricket has all but passed him by, Behrendorff admits, despite a return to that format being one of the goals of the radical back surgery he underwent in 2019. Adjusting his own expectations on what he plans to get out of the back-end of his career has been a challenge.

"I think there will be cases of (players giving up state deals) going forward, which is a tough one, because, especially in Australia, the pinnacle of what young kids dream about is wanting to wear the Baggy Green," said Behrendorff, whose 126 first-class wickets came at just 23.85.

"That's something I certainly struggled with when I was coming back from surgery in particular.

"But my mindset has shifted a bit in that space. Just because I haven't played Test cricket, does that mean I haven't had a successful career? I certainly don't think so.

"I look at what I've been able to do – I've played two formats for Australia, I've played professionally for the best part of 15 years.

"Everyone's view of success is different and I think that's something that, going forward, guys will start to think about. 'What does success look like for me? What do I want to achieve?' That's something that's a natural evolution of the way T20 cricket is now shaping our game."

But Behrendorff hopes bigger things have not passed him by. Left-armers who swing the ball at pace are always in demand and if not for generational speedster Mitchell Starc, he might well have played more than 29 matches for Australia. The pair played five games together at the 2019 World Cup, but only once since.

Both turn 36 in 2026, the year of the next T20 World Cup, in India and Sri Lanka. Behrendorff holds out hope he will be in the mix.

"I love playing cricket for Australia," he said. "I actually had a good chat with Andrew McDonald the other day about what it looks like over the next period of time, knowing that there's another World Cup in 18 months or so.

"To get any opportunity to play for Australia, I'll jump at it. That's the pinnacle … if Australia say 'Jase we want you to play, I'll be there in a heartbeat'."