‘A little sexier’: Jordan Silk grew up watching highlights of Ricky Ponting in the field, but the Sixers veteran is the new king of classic catches

Jordan Silk used to spend afternoons in the backyard filming him and his brother taking classic catches hoping to emulate what Ricky Ponting and Mark Waugh were doing for Australia, but none of the hours of archived videos will show anything quite as stunning as the grab he took 10 years ago to put his name up in lights.

The Sixers veteran will run on to his beloved SCG on Monday night when last season’s BBL finalists face the Renegades, and while most people in the crowd will be cheering on big hits, they’re also hoping to see some Silk magic in the field.

He grew up watching highlights of Ponting, Waugh and others in the field, but Silk now has his own compilation on YouTube featuring one-handed screamers, diving efforts and gravity-defying efforts on the boundary to prevent sixes.

“I’d often practise a lot at home where my brother and I would have a camera set up to try to take classic catches. I used to love that segment on the Cricket Show at the lunch break (when they’d show the best catches),” he explained.

“I took a real liking to that side of the game. The best bit of advice my dad gave me when I was younger was that if you’re short on runs or you’re not taking wickets then you’ve got to find other ways to impact games and contribute.

“I’ve always carried that mantra with me that I’m always trying to find a way to impact the game. I take that attitude with me into the field and it’s a big reason as to why I’ve been able to do what I’ve done in the field.”

Waugh described Silk’s diving effort to dismiss Chris Green in the Sydney Smash as a “freak catch”, but that one isn’t the best moment in his dazzling highlight reel which is led by a screamer at mid-on to get rid of Craig Kieswetter.

“My standing within the team at the time was a bit different because I was still quite new to it in my first season,” Silk said of his flying effort that saw him claim what is still regarded as the best catch in BBL history.

“I hadn’t really had the impact with the bat at that stage and I was hiding down at six or seven with the bat so people were questioning what I was doing in the team.

“I don’t like using the phrase ‘a coming of age’, but it was a really big moment in my Sixers career because it shone a fairly big light on my fielding and it gave me a lot of confidence that I could do it not just in a backyard but also in front of 30,000 people.

“That early exposure may have added some pressure to my fielding but it also made me hungrier to want to be a part of the Big Bash more regularly and to create more moments like that.

“The one running in (to remove Green) was probably a tougher catch on the look of it, but the Gabba one was a little sexier.”

That catch in early 2014 is one of 77 he’s had in the BBL – the most in competition history and three clear of Glenn Maxwell.

Plays like that perfectly sum up the BBL which may not have the high-profile Test stars we all love, but it provides young domestic cricketers with a chance to announce themselves on the big stage in front of millions of viewers.

Unheralded guys like Craig Simmons and Josh Brown have blasted centuries to dazzle fans, with Sam Konstas looking to follow suit for the Thunder after a terrific start to the summer.

“If you look through the history of the BBL, it’s often been the domestic guys who have put their name up in lights or have been the big reason why teams have had success,” Silk said.

“It’s that extra added attention around the Big Bash that we wouldn’t often get otherwise that really excited the domestic cricketer.

“Everything is heightened at this period and you’ve got an understanding that good or bad performances are highlighted to an extra level.

“It’s great exposure for young guys to what it could be like if you play for Australia in the future.

“There are guys who Australians are really keen to see in the BBL like Sam Konstas who haven’t necessarily had the exposure on television screens yet, but they now have the opportunity to show people what they’re about.

“As a domestic cricketer who has been playing Shield for quite a while now, you get quite excited by some of these kids that get an opportunity and do well. It doesn’t surprise you because you get to see them do it for their state.”