Carberry: happy at Hants

Things have taken off really well for me and obviously playing with Shane Warne was a big learning curve.

Michael Carberry
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England hopeful and part-time DJ Michael Carberry thanked Hampshire for getting him back on track.

The batsman dropped in on Cricket AM just two days after being named in the initial 30-man party for the ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan.

And after starting off at Surrey but struggling to get into their star-studded side and then moving to Kent, Carberry put his success down to life at the Rose Bowl.

"It's been a fantastic journey down there," he told Cricket AM.

"When I first joined in 2006 I didn't really know much about Hampshire or didn't know many people down there.

"Things have taken off really well for me and obviously playing with Shane Warne was a big learning curve.

"He's arguably the most charismatic person I've played with. But it was just his sheer knowledge of the game, his generosity as well and the main thing was just being able to sit down talk to him and pick his brain at a time in my career when it could've gone either way."

The way it has gone has already seen him smash a century for England Lions in India - even if his innings was curtailed by cramp.

Hunting

But he has already established a reputation as one of the best fielders on the county circuit and clearly has hands that were made for sweet music.

Away from the game he fills his time on the decks as a DJ and is equally at home at the top of the Hampshire innings as he is on the 'ones and twos'.

"I took up DJing about six years ago just purely because my best friend Richard used to DJ and I used to carry his bags for him," he explained.

"He gave me a bit of a crash course and I just fell in love with it. I've always been into music anyway, so going into record shops hunting for old records kind of gets you away from it all.

"DJing has got a lot of similarities to cricket. You're playing in front of big crowds all the time, the pressure's on and if you make a mistake playing cricket it can look a bit silly.

"Similarly if you make a mistake in a club on the records or with a bad selection, that can be party over!"

Opportunity

And the party might just get even better following his ICC call.

It is the reward for scoring more than 1,000 runs for Hampshire last year and that century for the Lions and as Carberry says, might just be the first step on the road to England recognition.

"It's good news. It's been a bit of tough season, so it's great to get a call-up," he said.

"It's definitely a sign that I'm moving in the right direction. Looking at how things have gone over my career, things at Hampshire have worked out really well and I've had a good couple of seasons down there.

"We (England) haven't don't too well have we? It's a fantastic opportunity for anyone out there doing well in county cricket. It's very, very open at the moment the way I look it and, so a couple of good scores and you're quids in really.

"I'd say at the moment the Test side has been quite settled for a couple of years now and the way players get integrated is generally through the one-day side.

"At the moment I would say the way is through the one-day side."