Simon Milenko, is one of Lismore’s most famous cricketers. He has been on the television a lot lately playing for Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League, who just missed out on tonight’s final. He now lives in Hobart, five minutes from the city centre, which he says is a lot like Lismore, with its hills. He shares his story with Kristian Hatton.

I was born in Wahroonga in Sydney's Upper North Shore, on November 24 in 1988. We moved up from Avalon on the northern beaches of Sydney, to the Byron Bay/Lismore area. This was early in my life when I was only one. My folks had a place built in Eureka/Federal, because they wanted the country life and to get out of the city. They wanted me and my sister Lara (who is two years older than me) to have that nice sort of country life growing up, and they also wanted to get away from it all.

My parents (Susie and Alex) had a shop selling jewellery and giftware, and they transferred it up there (to the northern rivers area) pretty easily. I grew up in that farmhouse in Eureka and then later on in my childhood, we moved to another farmhouse that was in the same area too. Those were the only two houses growing up so it was pretty secure, I guess.

My life was idyllic growing up, running around the farm with bare feet and stuff like that, going to Eureka Primary in the country, just being a kid. It was always about cricket from the very start for me, because of my dad. My father Alex (Milenko) was my inspiration. He played a lot of first grade cricket in the northern rivers area. Like me, he’s a total tragic for cricket, and I grew up watching his games from the sidelines every time he played. My whole reason for playing cricket in the first place was because of him, and I could easily say he is my biggest idol with cricket.

I think I had a cricket bat in my hands when I was a toddler, however I played my first game of ‘kanga’ cricket when I was about nine years old. I didn't like it that much though and didn't play another game until hard ball cricket started in Under 12s. I’ve heard that Tom’s mum Berni (Cooper) has something to do with the younger ones (in the northern rivers), and I see Tom around a fair bit because he plays state cricket with Melbourne (Renegades). I hear the other Coopers are doing quite well with cricket and other things they do too. That doesn’t surprise me with their family.

The Gilchrist's were obviously inspirational to all us kids playing cricket, and we all used to pretend to be like them and do their trademark sort of motions, like how they bowled and batted and what they’d do in their celebrations. It was crazy later to meet some of these guys I grew up mimicking, and it was Stan Gilchrist who helped pull some strings for me to help me play in England on my gap year. A couple of people who were influential on my game at that time were my junior coach for (Trinity) high school, Gerry Benfield, and there was also my Dad’s mate, Rob Parkes, who took me through a lot of the finer points of the game.

Probably the hardest thing for me when I was a kid were those long bus-trips from home to school in Lismore and back. I remember going through my lunch a couple of time on the way to school. Lismore was the hub with sports for me growing up. Everything rolled out of Lismore, and there was more people and engagement with sports than anywhere in the area. I hear it still is like that.

For high school, I went to Trinity Catholic College. Because I went there, I obviously spent a fair bit of time around Lismore, and I remember times when my mates and I went up to Lismore Shopping Square to get something to eat when we had time and so on. I also played soccer for Eureka, Goonellabah, and for the Lismore Workers Under 16’s.

My favourite place to play cricket at that time was at Oakes Oval, which was a lovely pitch and when you played there, it really had that "big game” feel. The first senior team I played with was East Lismore or Eastern Division, I think they’re called. There was also the Marist Brothers Schools Tournament, where I had a fair bit of success as an up-and-comer.

Simon Milenko only enjoyed cricket with a hard ball from Under 12 level. Photo: Supplied

Playing in the UK, university and accounting work

After high school, there was my gap year between high school and university in 2006. Like I was saying before, Stan (Gilchrist) gave me the offer to play for a cricketing club in the UK, and I jumped straight on that one. I played with the Hambledon Cricket Club, which is like South of London in Hampshire. It’s a county on the southern coast of the UK. It was amazing getting an opportunity to play in that traditional sort of climate, which is obviously a lot different to hot summer days playing cricket in Australia.

When I got back to Australia, I went to Bond University at the Gold Coast, where I done my Bachelor of Commerce from 2008-2010. I just smashed through it the whole way and done three semesters a year. I got good and mostly average grades, but for me it was mostly about getting through it. It was kind of like learning to work.

Then I sort of went on to working in 2011, because it was the obvious thing to do after the degree. I started working for KPMG, an accounting and auditing firm. I got so much out of the experience and learned a lot about how businesses operate, which helped me understand how things work generally with business in the world. That time of my life was less about cricket than any other point of my life, so my game might have slipped a bit, but I always kept my training and game up.

Sometimes it was full-on with auditing, and some nights I’d catch myself working on client portfolios at 3am at night. However, that has its rewards because you get the feeling of accomplishment afterwards when you finish those big ones, and you get monetarily rewarded well for it too. I feel that should happen for everyone who works hard at what they do, in an ideal world.

I am still thankful I was offered the opportunity with KPMG and I finished my work with them on good terms, and maybe when I get older I would think about getting into that kind of work again.

In 2013 I worked for Walz Construction for a bit, with the northern Queensland finance team. They’re like construction for the energy and infrastructure sector. I was starting to feel pretty filled out as a person with having more than cricket in my life too. I met my current fiancé Kim (Hart) through some mutual (friends) in Brissie and we hit it off pretty much straight away, so everything was really coming together for me.

Then the cricket sort of happened again, I got offered a state contract around the end of 2014. It was a no-brainer to sign the contract because my whole life and passion had been about cricket.

Present Day

Simon Milenko is an all-rounder: an aggressive middle order batsman and a medium pace bowler. Photo: Hobart Hurricanes

I had already played some pre-season with the Hurricanes whilst I was playing with Brissie, and then got offered a new contract with Hurricanes for 2016. Of course, I jumped on that. There’s no way I couldn’t because my whole life had been about cricket and this was my shot. So we packed our bags and headed down to Hobart. Just the feeling of heading off there was really exciting too.

So now I’m here in Hobart, playing my passion as my professional career, and it’s especially great being able to play to all the younger fans and help inspire their game. When you’re a professional cricketer, there’s not really time for any other kind of work or hobbies. There’s training, Pilates, meetings, coaching sessions, interviews, you don’t really have time for anything else, it’s all just cricket, cricket, cricket, and everything that’s in cricket. But obviously I love the game and wouldn’t have it any other way.

On the off-season, my fiancé Kim (Hart) and I come up to the Northern Rivers area once a year if we can, so we can go visit my folks, who still live at the farm I grew up at in Eureka/Federal. We also go see my sister over in Byron Bay, where she works as a wedding photographer. She’s had a beautiful little daughter named Cleo around half a year ago, and it’ll be awesome to watch her grow up and play uncle. There’s also our friends in Brissie and Kim’s folks up on the Sunshine Coast. I’m not much of a gamer, but I love kicking back and relaxing with a book, but pretty much only on holiday when I have time. My favourite genres are crime, thrillers and biographies.

Personal views on cricket

The newer T20 style of playing is awesome, I love it. Puritans may disagree with me here, and they have every right to as so far as their perspective is concerned. Don’t get me wrong – I love both styles of play and what they have to offer. Test cricket must stay around, not just because of its history but because it represents the ultimate sort of endurance test as a player.

However, as a modern player, I think that in many respects (T20) is the future of the game. The younger fans love it because they can go catch it after school, parents can catch it after work and it’s engaging, and the games are robust and compact with heaps going on, and it’s always close and exciting. The T20 style of gameplay attracts heaps of new fans to the sport, which we always need to.

Right, so then there’s how the Australian side are doing with cricket right now and that has a difficult effect on us all as professional cricketers. The national side is copping a bit of flack right now but let me tell you this: If you took the two best batsmen off each team internationally, I reckon it would be a different matter. Let me just leave it there … there’s not really a lot to say, things always change.

The future

Simon with his fiance Kim Hart. the pair plan to marry on April 28. Photo: Supplied

I’m getting married to Kim up at the Sunshine Coast on April 28. If we had kids, I’d love to be able to play their sports with them, like my dad did with me. Obviously, I wouldn’t force them to do anything and make their own choices. I feel that it would be kind of natural with the life I’ve had if they took (cricket) up.

When I finish my contract with the Hurricanes, we are heading back up north to live. Both my girlfriend and I have our roots in the south-east Queensland/Northern NSW area, and all our mates and relatives are still up there. We’re thinking maybe Brisbane, and maybe a bit more country after that. I don’t really know yet, it’s hard to say.

I’m not quite sure about my working future outside of sport yet, but things are looking bright and I’m going to have more than enough opportunity. The good thing about sports is that you meet new people all the time, and as soon as you mention what you do, people are really interested in who you are. I’m kind of thinking that I’ll end up doing something within the sporting industry, but hopefully I can also use my experience in business to my advantage.

Right now, I’m playing cricket and I’m not really thinking of retirement when I feel I’m at peak condition … I’m living the dream for as long as I can and I’m loving it.