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Mark Wood: ‘IPL contract feels like a computer game – but it’s very real’
England fast bowler was happy with his form in Australia and securing a big-money deal with Lucknow Super Giants but is now looking forward to the West Indies tour
Outdoor fielding drills in Durham have left Mark Wood wondering whether he will land in Antigua next week with frostbite but, more broadly, England’s fastest bowler – consistently the world’s fastest on the speed gun – is hot property. Wood was the sole tourist to enhance his reputation during a chastening Ashes campaign, claiming 17 wickets, sustaining remarkable speeds, edging a duel with Marnus Labuschagne and signing off with a six-fer in Hobart. The market then spoke last Saturday with a £735,000 deal in the Indian Premier League.
The auction experience took a strange turn when Wood and his wife, Sarah, were forced to watch at home like church mice while their two-year-old son, Harry, took an unplanned nap. Lucknow Super Giants won out – Andy Flower, their head coach, getting his man – but the celebrations had to be muffled. “We were about to go away for the weekend for a wedding anniversary I missed in Australia but the IPL auctioneer falling ill on stage paused everything and delayed us setting off,” says Wood, en route to his latest tune-up in chilly Chester-le-Street.
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