Thundering Christian keen to prolong cricket comeback

Dan Christian wants his surprise comeback to extend beyond his Big Bash League cameo at the Sydney Thunder after rediscovering his love for cricket.

The 41-year-old has been named for three games since coming out of retirement for the injury-hit Thunder, for whom he is an assistant coach, and is now a chance to play in the finals.

Before returning to the pitch this month, Christian had not played a professional game since the 2022/23 BBL finals, but had been keeping fit playing grade cricket for UNSW.

The allrounder is old enough to be the father of some of his teammates: opener Sam Konstas was three months old when Christian made his professional T20 debut in January 2006.

But Christian has proven he can still mix it with the young pups, taking the wicket of recent Test debutant Nathan McSweeney and making an unbeaten 23 runs on his first game back against the Brisbane Heat.

A tougher outing against tournament heavyweights the Hobart Hurricanes followed, before rain denied Christian a third game against the Sydney Sixers last week.

But Christian's body has held up during a comeback he had first floated with Thunder general manager Trent Copeland six months ago.

"We had a conversation around about June or July that I was keen to get back into it," Christian said.

"On the back of doing all that training in the pre-season and playing grade cricket, I was hoping for an opportunity.

"I feel like I'm going OK. Mentally, more than anything, was the reason I hung them (the boots) up.

"I'd just had enough of the game, I think on the back end of all the COVID-19 bubbles and all the travel that had been going on over those couple of years, I just lost the love for the game. 

"Having a season off and going back and playing a bit of club cricket and getting back to grassroots cricket and really enjoying it again reignited it."

The fire is burning so brightly that Christian would be keen to remain in the BBL as a 42-year-old next summer, and is open to offers from overseas T20 leagues.

"I'm basically available to play now," said Christian, who has represented 19 different T20 teams in six countries.

"Wherever it may be, whether it's back in the overseas leagues or here in the BBL, I'm keen to get back into it whenever the chance arises."

For now, Christian is focusing on the Thunder's title push after the side surged from wooden spooners last summer to third on the ladder to finish the regular season.

Christian has the chance to win a fourth BBL title with a fourth different club, and is all-in on a Thunder outfit that hosts the in-form Melbourne Stars on Wednesday night.

"I've been lucky enough to play in some great teams in the BBL, and all the ones that I won it with were fantastic teams," he said.

"I think this team that we've got here are certainly as good as any of those."

KFC BBL|14 standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Total points PTS
1 Hobart Hurricanes Men HUR	10	7	2	0	1	-0.12	0	15
2 Sydney Sixers Men SIX	10	6	2	0	2	0.156	0	14
3 Sydney Thunder Men THU	10	5	3	0	2	0.34	0	12
4 Melbourne Stars Men STA	10	5	5	0	0	0.135	0	10
5 Perth Scorchers Men SCO	10	4	6	0	0	0.219	0	8
6 Melbourne Renegades Men REN	10	4	6	0	0	0.139	0	8
7 Brisbane Heat Men HEA	10	3	6	0	1	-0.831	0	7
8 Adelaide Strikers Men STR	10	3	7	0	0	-0.122	0	6

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

PTS: Total points