When I met with Max Holden, Lancashire home was looming large as the season opener for Middlesex. However a shared memory from Middlesex’s away game at Old Trafford in 2019 proved immediate common ground. The day before that match, a group of Middlesex players, including Max, a passionate Arsenal fan, had gathered in the Hilton Hotel bar to watch Watford play Arsenal. Watford conceded a goal within the first 10 minutes to a Ben Foster goalkeeping howler and barely seconds later their talisman Troy Deeney gently brushed a stray elbow against Lucas Torreira. An Oscar winning over reaction from the Uruguayan saw Watford not only 1 down, but also reduced to 10 men. For the next 80 minutes, Watford absolutely battered the Gunners, alas without scoring. Max was relieved with the hollow victory and your correspondent who had been at the same bar was distraught. Let’s just say that Max was a model of restraint and decorum throughout, whilst I left no doubt where my colours were nailed. To my eternal regret fellow Watford fan Steven Finn was not on duty for Middlesex at that match, so I was a Hornet conspicuously alone.
Did Max remember the match and the Watford lunatic? Most certainly he did! Lets just leave that one there and move onto talk of cricket.
From the Dubai Desert to London NW8
Max has moved from a successful IL20 stint in Dubai under the desert sun and to Lord’s in April. Not quite polar opposites, but certainly a big change climactically. “Different formats but still great preparation so after the chance to reacclimatize at Lords I’m ready to go” said Max when asked if that transition was at all difficult.
The Dubai sunshine had certainly suited Max, who scored plenty of runs for the Vipers, including a top scoring knock of 76 at the packed Dubai Stadium final. Alas the Vipers just missed out to the Dubai Capitals. Perhaps shades of Max’s Blast campaign for Middlesex last year when rapid fire knocks of 85 off 42 balls vs Essex and 121* at home to Kent were both stand out performances in losing causes.
50s vs Hants and then Surrey in Middlesex’s warm up matches suggested changing format and weather would be no impediment to Max’s run scoring and so it proved against Lancashire where a first innings 69 and then a superb 184 set up a winning chance that Middlesex fell just short of converting.
An extended contract for Max to the end of 2027 speaks of the county’s faith that his runs will deliver great victories rather than heroics in vain. For Max the contact is certainly great to have, but he was adamant that although there might be some sense of extra security as a professional sportsman every game regardless of contract status is “approached with full focus and a belief that you will do well and be at the top of your game”.
27 year old Max’s Middlesex full debut was 8 years ago in 2017, so how, I wondered, had he and his game changed since that debut. Whilst acknowledging some ups and downs and tricky times, Max also felt there had been very positive development. “Certainly in my white ball game, if you had asked coaches 8 years ago whether I was likely to play so much white ball cricket, that is not a direction they felt I was headed!”
The only problem for Max and Middlesex last season’s Blast was that when Max hit top form, others failed to back it up and force wins, which Max conceded, with a wry smile, was “frustrating”.
Whilst in 4 day cricket Max conceded there have been more ebbs and flows, he feels that he is now a more rounded player with a sound technique that can succeed across formats. His 69 and near match winning 184 in the season opener versus Lancashire at Lords would certainly suggest that he does!
Just how great is the Kookaburra effect?
This season we are going to see a later introduction of the Kookaburra ball into the championship, whereas last year Max was able to reap its benefits early, smashing 211* at Northants in a massive stand with Nathan Fernandes. For Max, it was not just the ball, but the slower early season wickets that made batting that much easier and “gave a batsmen more time and the chance to benefit from less zip” too. Whatever the ball or the conditions, Max’s belief is that honing a solid and trustworthy technique is the key to success.
Max now fit’s into the senior player category at Middlesex and whilst focus on his primary job of scoring runs, he is keen to use the experience and ups and downs that he has face to guide younger players in the team. This year, of course, Middlesex await the arrival of one particular senior player in the form of Kane Williamson. For Max this “has given everyone a boost and shows the ambition of the club and where we’re looking to get to”. “The opportunity to watch of player of William’s stature go about their business is certainly one to relish” he said.
Max’s personal goals for the season are, he says, to “face every ball with the right focus”, which, along with all Middlesex fans, he hopes will see the club achieving promotion back to Division One of the Championship and competing in the upper end of the Blast.
If Max Holden can continue to score big runs and one or two others can hit form at the same time, then those ambitions may well be realised. As for his beloved Arsenal, as I write, they have secured a Champions League semi- final place, so that’s not to shabby either.
Listen to the full interview with Max here:
