Interview: Sam Hain and Olly Hannon-Dalby

Sam Hain and Olly Hannon-Dalby first met at Edgbaston in 2013. A tentative first chat by the dressing room water fountain. More than a decade later they are Bears best mates.

It was pre-season in 2013 when Hain and Hannon-Dalby first met.

Hain was a 17-year-old “prodigal son” (Olly’s words!) having flown over from Australia to sign his first professional contract with Warwickshire.

Hannon-Dalby had been released by Yorkshire and was given a short contract by the Bears who saw a spark in the 6ft 8ins seamer.

They were unlikely best mates. But more than a decade later the pair are reminiscing about that first meeting over breakfast at a café in Edgbaston.

“We’d heard about this prodigal young kid coming over from Australia,” recalled Hannon-Dalby. “He was whacking Boyd Rankin and Chris Woakes in the nets, even though it’s seaming all over the place.

“I remember meeting him by the water cooler in the players’ viewing area, it’s still there now.

“Hi Sam, I’m Olly, nice to meet you pal. Let’s hope we have some fun, eh. He replied in a nervy, high-pitch voice. I vividly remember it. To be sitting here now, 11 or so years later and having become good mates, is pretty cool.”

Hain has gone on to be Bears’ leading T20 run scorer – 3,779 and counting – and a mainstay of Warwickshire’s middle order.

He’s also now one of the senior statesmen in a squad that includes lots of promising young talent like Jacob Bethell, Kai Smith and Hamza Shaikh.

“Yeah, that’s kind of crept up on me,” laughed Hain. “It’s weird. I’ll be 30 next year.

“You have greater responsibility as a cricketer when you get older; I hope to pass some of that experience onto the likes of Kai, Hamza, and the young guys coming through.

“But that mentoring or leadership role doesn’t come that naturally to me. I don’t like speaking up in team meetings, don’t like speaking up in front of big groups. I’d rather do it at the side of the nets, one on one.

“Your relationship with cricket also changes as you get older.

“Everything is new and exciting in the first couple of years. But then your work is judged on whether you score runs. You need to keep coming back to that love of the game and having fun.

“When you’re younger, you’re more aware of what can go right. But as you get older you’re more aware of what can go wrong.

“Initially there are lots of firsts: first game at Edgbaston, Lord’s, first 100, first T20 Blast game. So those novelties go as time passes. But we still want to keep getting better and improving and to do as well as we possibly can for Warwickshire.”

Hannon-Dalby – who’s taken 50-plus Championship wickets in each of the last three seasons – is coming towards the end of his Testimonial year. It’s an honour granted him as thanks for his unerring service to the Club on and off the field.

He added: “With experience you get more scars. The naivety of youth is incredible. I used to get obsessed with my action and technique.

“Thirty-five year-old Hannon-Dalby would tell that younger version of me to just relax, run in hard and wang it down there. Not worry about what’s round the corner.

“But we’re very lucky to be in the position we are, playing for a great Club like Warwickshire. We’ve a great group of mates in the squad, we love playing cricket. And in 20 years’ time we’re going to look back and think, that was all pretty cool.”