Cricket 2.0
Page 1
CRICKET 2.0
INSIDE THE T20 REVOLUTION
TIM WIGMORE · FREDDIE WILDE
First published in 2019 by
POLARIS PUBLISHING LTD
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Text copyright © Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde, 2019
ISBN: 9781909715844
eBook ISBN: 9781788851886
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CONTENTS
AUTHORS’ NOTE
FOREWORD BY HARSHA BHOGLE
FOREWORD BY MICHAEL VAUGHAN
PROLOGUE: THE GIMMICK
1. NEVER FEAR THE AIR
2. SELLING THE PRINCE
3. GAYLESTORM
4. UP IS DOWN
5. SPIN KINGS
6. THE UNICORN
7. THE IMPOSSIBLE JOB
8. FROM WAR OF THE WORLDS TO KINGS OF THE WORLD
9. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
10. THE THRILL OF THE CHASE
11. CHEATING TO WIN; CHEATING TO LOSE
12. WHY CSK WIN AND WHY RCB LOSE
13. THE DEMOCRATISATION OF CRICKET
14. THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL T20 DYNASTY
EPILOGUE: 32 PREDICTIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF T20
APPENDIX I: AN INTRODUCTION TO T20 CRICKET
APPENDIX II: A TIMELINE OF T20 HISTORY
APPENDIX III: ALL-TIME T20 XI, 2003–2019
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Surrey won the inaugural Twenty20 Cup in 2003 with their captain Adam Hollioake appearing ahead of his time – identifying that sixes were the format’s most valuable currency. Getty Images
Australia and New Zealand’s players pose for a photo ahead of the inaugural T20 international. New Zealand’s players wore retro kit and wigs, treating the game as a bit of fun. Man of the Match Ricky Ponting said afterwards, ‘I think it’s difficult to play seriously.’ Getty Images
Yuvraj Singh hits the second of his six sixes in an over off England’s Stuart Broad. Yuvraj’s feat lit the touchpaper of three weeks that would transform India’s relationship with T20 cricket. ESPN Cricinfo
India celebrate winning the 2007 T20 World Cup – a result that laid the platform for the transformative success of the inaugural IPL season. Pakistan’s Misbah Ul-Haq is pictured in the background, despairing after his fateful scoop shot was caught by Sreesanth. ESPN Cricinfo
The IPL’s impresario, Lalit Modi, watches the opening ceremony of the tournament in 2008. Modi’s cult of personality was integral to the phenomenal early success of the tournament. ESPN Cricinfo
Sourav Ganguly (right) congratulates Brendon McCullum (left) during McCullum’s century in the inaugural IPL match in Bangalore in 2008. McCullum’s 158 not out was a landmark moment in cricket history. ESPN Cricinfo
Rajasthan Royals captain, Shane Warne, lifts the IPL trophy in 2008. Despite spending the least money and being the least glamorous franchise, Rajasthan won the tournament thanks to Warne’s leadership, smart recruitment and innovative tactics. ESPN Cricinfo
Giles Clarke (left) welcomes Allen Stanford (centre) to Lord’s, alongside West Indies legend, Sir Gary Sobers (right), ahead of launching the Stanford 20/20 tournament. Less than a year later Stanford was sentenced to a life imprisonment for a ponzi scheme. ESPN Cricinfo
Chris Gayle is the iconic player of the first era of T20 and the format’s most prolific batsman with more than 12,000 runs and 21 hundreds. His 175 not out, pictured, remains the highest score in T20 history. ESPN Cricinfo
The businessman, Venky Mysore (right), transformed Kolkata Knight Riders from one of the weakest IPL teams to pioneers, revolutionising their strategy on and off the pitch. One of his first moves was to sign Gautam Gambhir (left) as captain in the 2011 auction. ESPN Cricinfo
Kolkata Knight Riders lift the IPL trophy in 2014 – the second of their two titles in three years. KKR’s fortunes were transformed by the arrival of Venky Mysore as Managing Director who embraced analytics and with Gautam Gambhir as captain built a spin-heavy team with Sunil Narine at the centre of their attack. ESPN Cricinfo
Jade Dernbach despairs as AB de Villiers tears him apart in Chittagong in 2014. Dernbach bowled a nine ball over which cost 26 runs and ultimately his international career. Fast bowing in T20 cricket was the impossible job. ESPN Cricinfo
Brad Hodge was a bridge between the old-school finishers, who scored in unusual areas, and the new-age power-hitters, who were defined by strength as much as touch-play. ESPN Cricinfo
Lasith ‘Slinga’ Malinga is arguably T20 cricket’s greatest bowler. His unique round-arm action enabled him to bowl yorkers consistently. Getty Images
Kieron Pollard announced his talents to the world in the 2009 Champions League – in the tournament a number of the T and T players sported loud haircuts to help attract attention of IPL teams. ESPN Cricinfo
Trinidad and Tobago’s Samuel Badree transformed wrist spin bowling by bowling flatter, faster and straighter, bringing unusual accuracy to the art. Badree was a pioneering spinner who took the new ball and bowled primarily in the Powerplay. ESPN Cricinfo
Pollard roars into the night’s sky after completing one of the most significant innings in T20 history – his 18 ball 54 not out completed a stunning heist for Trinidad and Tobago and transformed power-hitting. ESPN Cricinfo
Brendon McCullum’s 158* propelled cricket into its new age that few came to embody as much as him – his fearless approach to batting encapsulated the format. Left, he scoops the world’s fastest bowler, Shaun Tait, for six in Christchurch, 2010. ESPN Cricinfo
Sunil Narine celebrates after bowling a maiden in a Super Over for Guyana Amazon Warriors against Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel in the 2014 Caribbean Premier League. ESPN Cricinfo
AB de Villiers is the most complete batsman to have played T20 cricket. He combined raw power and natural timing with 360 degree scoring. ESPN Cricinfo
Norman Mungaroo (centre) – founder of
a hugely popular windball league in Trinidad and Tobago – is flanked by Kieron Pollard (far left), Rayad Emrit (left), Sunil Narine (right) and Lendl Simmons (far right) – all of whom played in Norman’s league and represented the West Indies.
Kevin Pietersen’s career was defined by his clashes with the ECB regarding making England players available for the IPL. Pietersen recognised the enormous benefits of the league to players but it wasn’t until after Pietersen had retired that the ECB relaxed their policy on the league. ESPN Cricinfo
Jasprit Bumrah (right) learnt from Lasith Malinga (left) at Mumbai Indians. Despite very different bowling actions both men mastered the yorker delivery and were a lethal pairing at the death. ESPN Cricinfo
Royal Challengers Bangalore owner Vijay Mallya was a hugely influential figure in the early years of the franchise, exercising a veto on selections and sitting in on team meetings. ESPN Cricinfo
Chennai Team Principal Gurunath Meiyappan is swarmed by the media during the 2015 IPL spot-fixing scandal that ultimately saw CSK and Rajasthan Royals suspended for two seasons. ESPN Cricinfo
De Villiers inspired a generation of players to score 360 degrees and no one was more effective at doing so than England’s Jos Buttler who broke new ground by unfurling such shots in the Powerplay phase when the field was up. ESPN Cricinfo
RCB captain, Virat Kohli, gives a team-talk in the 2019 IPL. As Indian captain, Kohli was one of the most powerful individuals in the game and his captaincy was rarely questioned publicly, but in private many believed he didn’t understand the nuances of the format. ESPN Cricinfo
One year after KKR owners, Red Chillies Entertainment, purchased the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel in 2015, the Trinbago Knight Riders won three CPL titles in four years. The Knight Riders were the first multi-team brand in global T20 cricket and shared many coaching and backroom staff and some players. ESPN Cricinfo
West Indies embark on a lap of honour after their 2016 T20 World Cup victory. The West Indies style of T20 cricket was defined by their muscular power-hitting from the likes of Andre Russell (left) and Darren Sammy (centre). ESPN Cricinfo
Carlos Brathwaite celebrates after hitting his fourth six in as many balls to propel the West Indies across the finish line against England in the 2016 T20 World Cup final – one of the greatest T20 matches of all time. ESPN Cricinfo
On January 1st 2017 the Melbourne Renegades asked Sunil Narine to open the batting to target the spinner Michael Beer – Narine scored 21 off 13 balls, the start of his radical transformation into a pinch-hitter. ESPN Cricinfo
Chennai Super Kings’ captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, is one of the defining figures of the first era of T20 cricket. Dhoni’s calm captaincy, tactical acumen and ice-cool batting was integral to CSK’s decade of dominance. ESPN Cricinfo
Thirty-six-year-old Shane Watson celebrates his hundred in the 2018 IPL Final. Watson was 0 not out off 10 balls but caught up later against weaker bowlers, displaying experience and calm that defined CSK’s victorious campaign. ESPN Cricinfo
The Jamaican Andre Russell was the prototypical T20 player, contributing with bat, ball and in the field. His 2019 IPL represented the most advanced iteration of modern power-hitting. ESPN Cricinfo
Nepalese leg spinner Sandeep Lamichhane followed in the footsteps of Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan in breaking into the major leagues from a non-major cricket nation. ESPN Cricinfo
To my dad for indulging my cricket obsession, and my mum and Fay, my partner, for tolerating it
Tim Wigmore
To my dad for introducing me to cricket, a constant source of joy for both of us, and for encouraging my T20 focus.
I have been fortunate that I have never had to look far for inspiration
Freddie Wilde
AUTHORS’ NOTE
Over the last few years, Freddie and I have had many – too many, others would doubtless say – conversations about Twenty20. For all that has been written and said about the game, we would often have questions that remained unanswered: about the skills of the game, culture and tactics, or how it was changing cricket off the field.
We wanted to read a book that would address these questions. As we couldn’t find it, we decided to try and write it ourselves. Over the last couple of years, we have interviewed more than 50 players, coaches and administrators involved in T20 in search of answers about everything from the art and science of batting and bowling in T20, where matches are won and lost, how T20 has democratised the game, how the West Indies built a T20 dynasty, and what the future will hold. This book is the result.
It is not a definitive history of T20 cricket, but the story of how T20 has changed cricket and our attempts to get inside, and deconstruct, the T20 revolution. We feel that now is the perfect time for this book –16 years since T20 was created at professional level – allowing us to reflect on all the changes it has wrought with the benefit of perspective.
So swiftly has T20 become part of cricket’s fabric that it is easy to ignore that, in terms of its global impact and fanbase, it is the most successful new professional sport to have been created this century, and for many years before. Yet we believe that T20 – its skills and strategies, and the opportunities and challenges it presents to cricket worldwide – remain poorly understood. Cricket 2.0 is our attempt to change that as T20 reaches a new level of maturity.
This book is solely on men’s T20 cricket. T20 has transformed women’s cricket too – quite possibly even more so – but that story deserves its own full telling, and there are others better qualified than us to do it justice.
Before we decided to work together, neither of us had considered writing a book like this individually. But we believe that collaborating together – combining Freddie’s experience of working with T20 teams as well as analysing the game in his writing, and my experience as a journalist writing about T20 both on and off the field – will make for a more rewarding book for readers. We have learned a huge amount in our interviews, research and writing of this book, sometimes reinforcing what we thought we knew, and other times challenging it and leading us to think anew. This is a book designed to be accessible both to T20 devotees and those with little previous knowledge of, or interest in, the game. We hope that, whichever applies to you, you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it.
Tim Wigmore and Freddie Wilde
October 2019
FOREWORD
BY HARSHA BHOGLE
There is a custom in almost all Indian families that parents bear the cost of their children’s education, their marriage, sometimes the honeymoon and, wherever possible, do what it takes to set them up in life. Without quite being stated, this comes with the assumption that when the parents are much older, having to live off their pension (if there is one), the children start looking after them. The power structure might change but through the harmony of the parent-child relationship, the cycle continues.
So what is this nugget of Indian culture doing in this foreword? T20 cricket benefited from the family of Test and One Day International (ODI) cricket it was born in, but it has grown and become rich and successful and the time has come for it to carry its ageing Test match parents along to extend their twilight years. If you live in England or Australia you might try me for treason – but you live in a little island of joy in a vast ocean. T20 has changed the way the game is played and taught, has altered lives dramatically, has welcomed more players into its fold and given them sustenance, and it has unlocked the value that lay dormant in cricket.
A year ago, I asked a senior executive in one of the leading stakeholders in Indian cricket what percentage of the total bid they would consider if they had to bid for Test match cricket alone. He let me finish my sentence and then said, ‘You mean, if we bid.’ I often wonder where our game would have been if T20 hadn’t appeared. It wouldn’t have been dead – cricket is far too resilient for that – but antibiotics and painkillers would have been bedside.
So is T20 really cricket? With its outrageous hi
tting and quirky bowling styles, is it the enemy of cricket as we knew it or is it the saviour of our game? I met a young man, representing a generation that will take our world forward, at a discussion on whether T20 would ruin our cricket, on how it needed to be curtailed to allow Test cricket to prosper and he rolled his eyes and said, ‘Your generation, na! When will you realise that the challenge to Test cricket comes not from T20 but from Netflix, from having the world at your fingertips on a handset?’
I love T20 cricket. I have ever since I first heard about it and a year later, in 2006, when I saw my first game. I wrote on 21 January 2005 that it was time to feel the fresh breeze blowing our way, that our generation had to embrace it or it would leave us behind. I loved the fact that it demanded different skills from its participants, not inferior skills. I was fascinated by the new mindset where getting out might be tactically better than hanging on, I enjoyed seeing a new generation of players recalibrate risk and I was particularly enamoured by match-ups and the chess-like manoeuvring of pieces.
Not surprisingly, existing thought was being challenged, leading to thrilling results. Getting out if your strike rate was suboptimal was but one. Players questioned why the space behind the wicketkeeper couldn’t be seen as a scoring area. The scoop to the yorker arrived, the foot began moving towards midwicket rather than towards the pitch of the ball. The bowlers responded with loopy bouncers and wider yorkers and a bewildering variety of slower balls. Catching around the boundary rope was revolutionised and 100 in the last ten overs stopped intimidating batsmen in a run chase because their mind now saw possibilities, not constraints. Entrepreneurs think like that. It is no coincidence that India’s young population has me enthralled by its approach to life.
In India we were lucky to see all this being played out before our eyes. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a giant laboratory where innovations are being studied. Some have likened it to a giant concert where the best musicians come, not just to play, but to jam with colleagues. The IPL made cricket outward-looking where it once prided itself on being exclusive and closed. For all its reliance on analytics, the IPL was also easy to understand and it took everyone along with it. More women started watching cricket, for example, and it became a festival with cricket at its core. The new demographics brought new advertisers and we grew aware of the value that lay within, much like an oil well that was deeper and richer than imagined. The rights went up from $900 million for ten years in 2008, to $1.6 billion for nine years in 2009 (when Sony bought the rights from World Sports Group, the original buyers) and then, from 2018, to $2.5 billion for just five years.