Mark Wood: ‘IPL contract feels like a computer game – but it’s very real’

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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“Harry was meant to sleep in the car but just conked out on the sofa before my name came up. I remember Sarah shouting – but also whispering – ‘Get back here now,’ as I was putting some dishes in the sink. After a quiet start to the bidding, suddenly it moved fast and the numbers went up.

“As soon as the final amount was confirmed Sarah asked what it was in pounds – I might have to freeze all our accounts so it doesn’t disappear. But we’re delighted. It’s a weird experience. It feels like a computer game – almost not real, like transfers on Football