Image Credit- BBL
Spencer Johnson had not played a professional Twenty20
match for a year, and he had recently started working as a landscape gardener.
He has only played in 20 official games and taken 17 wickets thus far. However,
he became an IPL millionaire on Tuesday.
Mitchell Starc’s record-breaking price tag garnered
most of the attention, but Johnson’s story—that he joined Gujarat Titans for
AU$1.78 million—may be more remarkable. He had entered at a base fee of 50
lakhs, or roughly AU$90,000.
“Eighteen months [ago] I didn’t have a state deal
or a Big Bash contract,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “I was
working as a landscaper and greenskeeper. So fast-forward 18 months, yeah it’s
definitely different situations.”
Not too long ago, it appeared as though Johnson’s
cricket career may come to an end. Following his 2017 one-day debut for South
Australia, he sustained a stress fracture to his foot and attempted for three
years to return to the field. Finally, desperate surgery was required.
“The surgeon said I’m not sure how this is going
to go, I’ve never done this operation before,” Johnson told ESPNcricinfo
in an interview in January. “And he was the best foot surgeon there was in
Sydney. So that was really scary.”
Johnson believed that his chance might not present
itself because there are only 30 abroad slots available in this year’s mini
auction. However, it was a good night to be a fast bowler from Australia. Pat
Cummins, Johnson, Jhye Richardson, and Starc sold for a combined total of over
AU$10 million.
“I think the longer it went, I guess you start to
lose a little bit of hope,” he said. “So the longer it was going, I
think the less chance I had. But at the end of the day I was in a position
where I was in the auction, and this time last year I wasn’t. So whatever
happened was going to happen, and anything would have been a good result.”