Andrew McCullough and Brisbane Heat batsman Chris Lynn grew up playing junior rugby league together. On this episode of ‘Front-Row Seat’, the pair chat about Lynn’s $1.86 million deal in the IPL auction, backyard cricket and the time McCullough left him with stitches in his cheek.

0:55: I’ve had two [shoulder] recons on the left and then I popped the right out in Auckland … I got home and didn’t want to talk to a cricket person. I went down to Byron for six nights …

1:45: I don’t even need a physio now. I know exactly what to do …

2:42: If you’ve got a broken finger, you get hit in the finger when you’re batting … when you’re trying to hide, the ball just follows you around …

3:00: McCullough: When did you get to that stage when you thought, ‘cricket’s for me?’ Lynn: Probably when you ran over the top of me and I got a couple of stitches in the cheek mate …

3:52: I get around the Brisbane teams, whether it’s the Reds, the Broncs, the Lions … I switch off from cricket and watch footy and that’s what keeps me fresh and motivated …

5:03: From a fitness point of view they absolutely drill us. I’m probably the first bloke to whinge while we do it but I know for a fact, having batted for eight hours in a Sheffield Shield game, that my fitness definitely got me through that …

6:06: Going to India; whole different ball game … They roll the red carpet out for us but they also expect results. The added pressure of winning an IPL Championship is higher than anything …

6:52: You get to lay on the beach in Barbados and freshen up that way … They (Caribbean players) probably take ‘a good time’ to the next level …

8:40: The IPL Auction was pretty daunting because you’re seeing blokes going from $300 thousand to a million bucks in the space of 30 seconds and I knew I was coming up shortly …

10:26: The top four blokes (At Kolkata: Andre Russell, Mitchell Starc, Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn) have a question mark above their head about whether they’ll play or not … Worth about half the salary cap so there’s a lot of pressure on us to get fit and right …

12:19: Jacques Kallis is head coach. Personally, I think he has been the best player this earth has ever seen … Getting to work under him from a batting point of view is next level …

13:13: The best feeling in the world is walking off the field with a ‘not-out’ against your name and a win …

14:51: Guys like Gordon Tallis and Wendell Sailor, they can’t teach me how to play cricket but they can teach me how to embrace cultures, learn from opportunities, pick myself up when things aren’t going right or try and find my feet in a new environment … I try to learn off everyone, not just from guys in the cricket world …

15:43: In Twenty20, there’s not a great deal of it (sledging) … you don’t have time to do it. I don’t want to rub Virat Kohli up the wrong way because he could be bidding for me in an IPL team …

16:09: I haven’t closed the door on Test cricket … The worst feeling in the world is letting down your teammates … I’ve got to get my body right because it’s killing me at the moment, it’s frustrating …

17:03: I’ve seen the death of a good mate – Phil Hughes. After seeing that, it’s about what you want out of life. How do you have the most fun and enjoy that? For me now, that’s Twenty20 cricket …

18:20: McCullough: I was always jealous of your Dad putting the bowling machine down the side of your house. Lynn: You were the other bowling machine!

19:59: We’ve got a new business venture. It’s a website called Playbook. Basically, it’s a really efficient way to find a coach, book a coach and pay for a coach in your area. It specialises in one-on-one coaching. The turning point in my career was having the opportunity to have a one-one-one coach … to give that opportunity back to kids now is awesome …

22:01: That mindset of playing the bowler and not the ball … In those early days when I did have a world-class bowler bowling to me, I played the bowler … I look back now and think, ‘why would I do that?’ …

Andrew McCullough is entering his 11th season with the Brisbane Broncos … and his first as a podcast host. Since suffering a season-ending ACL injury last year, McCullough has been reading books on sports psychology and leadership. His aim is to continue that learning process via the Front-Row Seat podcast, where he will sit down with some of the leading athletes in Australian sport to find out what makes them tick.