Fabian Cowdrey Q&A

A question and answer session with the Kent all-rounder…

Q: Last year you walked away from your degree course at Cardiff University to concentrate on a career in cricket. Was that brave or foolhardy?

A:I’ve had no second thoughts about it and am really enjoying my life as a professional cricketer. I was adamant that I wanted to leave my studies and I’m sure that, almost a year on, I’d still have done the same thing now. I’m really enjoying attacking this career. Sure, professional cricket has ups and downs, but most jobs do. When you’re in a good place you make the most of it with runs and results.

Q: So, has full-time cricket been tougher than you envisaged?

A:It’s a funny one, because some days and weeks it’s not tough at all – it’s just great fun. But if you start going through a rough patch and maybe aren’t picking the ball up as quickly as you had been then problems start to arise, but generally it’s more of a mental challenge to forget the bad and stay focussed on the positives. That’s the element of professional sport that is noticeably tougher than I’d expected, but I am enjoying that challenge in a perverse way.

Q: Do you play other sports?

A: I seem to be best at the hand-eye co-ordination sports. It’s tough to find the time now, but Sam Northeast, Sam Billings and I used to play a lot of racquets together. I also love hockey, but haven’t really played much since school.

Q:Who do you turn to if you’ve had a bad day on the field?

A:You talk to the obvious people, my coaches and my family and, if things got really bad, we have a sports psychologist attached to Kent now, but hopefully it won’t come to that! There are lots of people to talk to if required, and that’s good, but in my first year I hope I can find my own place. I’d hoped I might force my way into the championship side at the start of this year, but we had a set team from the end of last season and I’ve had to bide my time.

Q: What do you do to relax and take your mind off cricket?

A:My brother Julius is a musician, a singer-songwriter up in London. He’s just released his debut album out, it’s called Shout Out to Me, and I’ve helped out writing a few songs and some lyrics with him. If he does well I may even earn some royalties! I’ve always enjoyed English and love writing, and it’s a perfect way for me to completely get away from cricket by having a group of friends who are into music rather than sport. Cricket can take over your life it you’re not careful, so it is important to get away from it some days.

Q:A question you’ve been asked before, no doubt, but is your famous cricketing surname a help or a hindrance?

A:I’m like everyone else on the staff. I still have to do everything I’m capable of to earn a spot in any Kent side, and it’s certainly no easier for me I can tell you. I sometimes get stick over my family history, but that mainly happened at school, the ‘look at you’ sort of stuff. But everyone has to prove themselves and perform. When things aren’t going so well I try to think how my dad [Chris] would have dealt with it because he would have gone through exactly the same things as me. I’ve been in contact with him a lot in the past two months. He just tells me to focus on the process and believe in how I’ve always gone about scoring runs and taking wickets, and to forget about the irrelevant factors.

Interview: Mark Pennell