IT WILL come as no great surprise that John Wayne Hast- ings is the son of a western movie buff, or that his grandfather nicknamed him Duke at an early age after the American film icon, or even that in his third season in Victoria he has become the State's very own action hero.
But there are some surprising things about Hastings that are not immediately appreciated by those who make ass-umptions based on one look at his 196cm, 105kg frame.
Ever since a dramatic growth spurt in his teens, Hastings has been pegged as a big brute of a fast bowler and a mountain of a man in the tradition of his unblinking, straight-shooting namesake.
In fact, there are more dimensions to Hastings than his hulking size suggests, qualities that have seen him emerge as arguably the Bushrangers' most valuable cricketer this season and earned him a place in the Prime Minister's XI for last week's tour match against the West Indies.
"There has been a little bit of an assumption over the years that I will just run in and bowl fast as I can, because I'm so big, but to survive at this level I've had to learn to be smarter, read the batsmen and the play a bit better,'' Hastings said.
Hastings spent his childhood in Londonderry, played junior cricket for Windsor Leagues and missed Hawkesbury's AW Green Shield squad because he was unfit, only to return the following year as a strapping 15-year-old that not only made the team, but performed impressively once there.
The growth spurt saw him develop into a strapping second-rower in the Australian Schoolboys rugby union team.
Fast forward to 2010 and the now 24-year-old takes his dogs to the Melbourne bayside suburb of Williamstown and drops a line in the water between games with Victoria.
He quit rugby at 19 and soon won a two-year NSW rookie contract.
"Moises Henriques was my main rival, and he has ended up captaining NSW this year in a few games," Hastings said.
"I was playing good cricket; I'd made a couple of hundreds and taken a couple of five-fors in grade cricket and second XI, but I wasn't getting a look-in.
''I didn't think anything of it until I got a call from (Vic coach) Greg Shipperd, who said 'we want you to come down, we think you've got something to offer Victorian cricket'.
"I jumped at the chance - I wasn't stale, I just didn't see myself playing any cricket at all for NSW.
"I really wanted to play first-class cricket, so I came down and worked really hard and eventually got my chance.''
His first-class debut, a tour game against India in 2007, was ruined by rain and he had to wait until the second half of last summer for another chance, against his old State.
He grabbed it with seven wickets, including a match-winning five in the second innings, but was squeezed out for the Shield final despite taking 16 wickets at 18.6 in three games.
His strength, it turned out, was not brute strength, but an ability to change his pace and mix up fast-medium yorkers with slower bouncers.
This season, he is the leading wicket-taker in the country in the Ford Ranger Cup and sits third on the list of Sheff- ield Shield bowlers with two rounds to play, with 21 wickets at 24.2 behind Queenslander Ben Cutting and South Aussie Peter George.
As a batsman, he has bloss- omed, too, and not just with the power hitting with which he and Aaron Finch chased down 300 against Tasmania at the MCG in November.
Having not passed 10 in the Shield before this season, he made 93 in Hobart and has 257 runs at 51.4 for the summer.
"It (the MCG run-chase) was a big moment," Hastings said.
"It was good for Finchy and I to finally realise that we don't have to leave it to Brad Hodge and David Hussey or Cameron White, that there's guys down the order who can do the job as well.
"Batting against Brett Geeves and Jason Krejza who have played for Australia, knowing you can hit them anywhere you want, that's a good feeling.
"For me, I suppose it was a turning point, knowing I can compete with the bat seeing as I hadn't shown it that much, and I haven't really looked back since.
"It's funny, really, because I have always been a batter.
"I scored a lot of runs in junior cricket and then I had a growth spurt when I was about 16 and people saw me as being this big fast bowler and batting took a backward step.''
In a matter of months, Hastings has moved from the fringes of the Victorian team into the thoughts of the national selectors.
"I sort of earmarked the PM's game at the start of the season, but at that stage I wasn't actually playing cricket for Victoria," he said.
"There has been a history of guys who get picked in that side going on to play for Aust- ralia, so it is nice to be thought of like that,'' he said.
"But I have to keep performing; I'm still learning, and I still see myself as being very young in the game.
"I would like to get a bit more pace in my bowling, and that will come from getting stron- ger and fitter ? there's a lot of room for improvement.''
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