Dan Christian's debut for Corowa pulls a crowd of 500 at Ball Park

More than 500 spectators turned up at Ball Park to watch the Australian all-rounder play his first game since the Big Bash semi-final between Sydney Sixers and Brisbane Heat in February.

Christian, who's played elite T20 cricket around the world, winning seven titles and representing 16 different franchises in Australia, England, India, Pakistan and the West Indies, is one of the biggest names to grace Cricket Albury-Wodonga.

The 40-year-old admitted he felt 'raw' almost nine months since retiring from professional cricket but only had good things to say about his first experience in a Corowa shirt.

"I had a really enjoyable day," Christian said.

"The result didn't go our way but we had a good crowd and it's a great bunch of blokes here.

"I grew up in the country, at Narrandera, so when the opportunity arose to play country cricket again, I thought 'why not?'

"Just based on today - I know we didn't play that well and I know I didn't do as well as I would have liked - I'm happy I did it."

Having stepped off a flight from Sydney on Saturday morning, Christian was straight into the action against St Patrick's.

He bowled first change, Corowa having lost the toss, and picked up 2-38 from his 10 overs, dismissing Neil Smith and Mitch O'Brien.

"My last proper game was the Big Bash semi last year," Christian said.

"I played a charity game in Lismore in March with a few of the legends, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting, a flood relief match up there, but I haven't played for ages.

"I was over in the UK with the (Australian) under-19s for about five weeks, not much batting but did a bit of bowling in the nets with the boys.

"In terms of playing, though, I was pretty raw.

"I certainly got into the competitiveness pretty quickly.

"I was pretty happy the way the ball came out, I thought I bowled OK.

"I suppose your competitive juices take over and you get in the contest so it was quite enjoyable."

St Patrick's set their hosts a target of 220 and Corowa were 3/65 when Christian strode to the middle.

It was the moment the crowd had been waiting for but Will Keighran was reading from a different script, sending Christian on his way with a brilliant yorker first ball.

"It doesn't matter where you play in the world or what level it is, you can always get a good ball," Christian said.

"That's one of the beauties of the game and he bowled really well, that guy.

"They all bowled well, actually, it was a pretty impressive performance."

Christian watched the game sat next to his father, who had driven down from Narrandera to be there, but made time for the many young fans who came up asking for autographs throughout the day.

"You just pinch yourself," Corowa coach Jack Thomas said.

"I'm speechless, really. What can you say?

"He's a class act, a good person and so calm.

"You worry for someone, in those situations, that he's going to get spoken to a lot and approached but he's not fazed at all, he's a class act.

"He's been a well sought-after player for all those T20 comps for a long time and there's a reason why.

"We've seen that today for sure."

Christian, who's part of the Sydney Thunder coaching set-up for the BBL, will play at least four more games for Corowa.

"He's back next week so we go to Albury and we go again," Thomas said.

"They say cricket's a great leveller and we probably saw that today.

"We've got lots of things to work on but lots of positives too.

"St Pat's batted well at the start and we dragged it back.

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"We've got Angus Massey batting down at 11 - I know he's a young kid but he batted seven or eight for us last week so we had plenty in the shed.

"It's just about absorbing the pressure and knowing when to put it back on and we probably didn't do that after those two crucial wickets from Will Keighran.

"We rebuilt again but Matt Wilson got out and then Matt Grantham got out straight after and they were the two 'in' batsmen so you would have liked them to hold it for a bit longer.

"But that's alright, you live and learn, and we'll keep trying to play that positive cricket; upping the rate but just not the wickets."

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