Craig Kerry
Canadian teenager Naeem Bardai is loving life on Australian turf.
Bardai, who turns 19 next month, has joined Hamilton-Wickham as part of a cricketing holiday in Australia during a year off between high school and college studies.

The wicketkeeper-batsman is playing his second top-grade match for Hamwicks, against Newcastle City, and took the gloves for the first time on Saturday, filling in for Mitchell Ray.

Although he is yet to make his mark with the bat, Bardai has shown Hamwicks enough to get a shot in firsts.

Not a bad effort for someone who had not played on a turf wicket before coming to Australia.

‘‘A lot of wickets back home are just synthetic or rolled matting, so it’s definitely a nice change to come here and play on turf and see how proper cricket is played,’’ Bardai said.

‘‘It’s hard having to learn about the pitches and when you see them, how to read them – if it’s going to be a bit slower or a bit nippy. But it’s coming along with more and more training every day.’’

Bardai plays with the North Shore club in the British Columbia Mainland Cricket League and came to Newcastle after making contact with Hamwicks all-rounder Sam Webber through a friend of his sister, Tanishah Bardai, in America.

He is staying with Webber and has picked up some part-time work through the club as he mixes his love of cricket with enjoying an Australian summer holiday.

‘‘I’m loving it out here, it’s amazing,’’ he said. ‘‘The weather’s pretty nice. It’s definitely different to Canadian weather. My mother called me the other day and she’d just left work and it was two degrees, so I’m kind of happy to be here.

‘‘Right now it’s just a bit of a holiday. I want to go back and study and eventually get my degree in business or law, but right now I just want to play some cricket and do some travelling.

‘‘I’ve got a year visa and I’m just seeing where cricket takes me. After this season I might go up to Darwin or over to England, I don’t know.’’

Bardai was brought up on the sport by his father Bashir, who is from Uganda but spent time playing cricket in England before moving to Canada.

Naeem said the standard of cricket in Canada was growing as more people from the subcontinent moved to the country.

‘‘First grade here is definitely a jump up in standard, as you’d expect,’’ he said.

‘‘Cricket over here is tough cricket. It’s challenging, you have to be mentally focused to play. Out here if you play a bad shot you’re more likely to get out than if you did back home.’’