Peter Hatzoglou | Warne's Wisdom

Giving The Game Away

At just 24, Australian cricketer Peter Hatzoglou already has a cricketing CV to envy. The legspinner is one of the most exciting young players in the game, is a Big Bash winner, and has also had stints in the UK playing for Oval Invincibles and Glamorgan… However, his journey to the top is more unusual than most and not that long ago a career in cricket was not a reality for him.

In fact, Peter took a break from the game in 2016 to focus on his exams and he had been trying to carve out a career in finance. Post-exams he returned to cricket, but just to play for his local village team Sunshine Heights and as recent as 2019 he was playing in the Cheshire 4th division. He was even working for KPMG as late as April last year and a professional cricketing career wasn’t really on his radar.

That all changed rapidly though and just a year after playing in the Cheshire 4th division, Peter was making his BBL debut for Melbourne Renegades and receiving praise from cricketing royalty such as the late, great Shane Warne. A year after that and he won the competition with the Perth Scorchers and he's now a well-renowned figure in Australian cricket. It’s a remarkable rise from village cricket to BBL champion in the space of five years.

It was great to speak to Peter and hear about his incredible story and all the lessons he’s learned along the way - such as the importance of persistence, resilience and adaptability to change. He also speaks about the wisdom he received from Shane Warne who convinced Peter to come over to the UK and play some club cricket - which ultimately was the catalyst for him getting a Hundred contract with Oval Invincibles.

There's so much to learn from Peter's story and we loved chatting to him. We hope you get as much out of the episode as we did.