by Tim Wigmore
3) Shane Watson
At his best, Watson was one of the most dominant batsmen in the world and a superb fifth bowler with deceptive pace and an array of slower balls. Watson’s role in teams evolved through his career: bowling less as he grew older, he became more of a specialist batsman in his twilight years. When he did bowl he was a capable operator in all three phases. With the bat, Watson was most at home near the top of the order but fulfilled roles in the middle and lower order as well. Unusually for an Australian, Watson was a supreme player of spin, as reflected in him twice being named the IPL player of the tournament – something only Sunil Narine could match – as well as being player of the tournament in the 2012 T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka.
4) A.B. de Villiers (wicketkeeper)
Gayle was statistically the most dominant batsman but de Villiers was the most versatile. His classical technique, astonishing hand-eye coordination and spirit of élan produced remarkable results. De Villiers combined the power of the likes of Gayle and Warner with the 360-degree dynamism of Glenn Maxwell. He played the large majority of his innings at number three or lower; although this middle order role was the most complex position in T20, he could adapt to all circumstances and climes. De Villiers was also one of the world’s best fielders and could keep wicket.
5) Glenn Maxwell
Maxwell was a freakish batsman whose daring and risk-taking approach compromised his consistency but bred a high-octane method defined by wristy flicks, reverse sweeps, ramps and scoops. Not only was Maxwell’s technique unusual, but so was his mentality: a no-fear attitude, bordering on the reckless, enabled Maxwell to start in rapid-quick fashion, barely wasting balls before he got up to speed. The haste of Maxwell’s starts made him ideally suited to the middle order. Useful off spin and livewire fielding made him a superb all-round package.
6) Kieron Pollard
Pollard redefined the role of a finisher, transforming the position from one previously shaped by touch and placement to one founded on strength and power. A huge muscular frame, a clean bat-swing and an uncomplicated approach of hitting straight, hard and long combined emphatically. The destructiveness of Pollard’s approach did not make it any less calculated – with over 400 T20 matches, the Trinidadian grasped the nuances of the format better than most and chose his moment to attack clinically. Early in his career, Pollard was also a useful medium-fast bowler and throughout it he was a spectacular fielder, particularly on the boundary.
7) Andre Russell
Russell took what Pollard did to death overs hitting and then improved it. He was slightly leaner than Pollard which gave him greater dynamism around the crease which in turn widened the hitting arc to include cover point and shrunk the margin of error for the bowlers even further. Russell’s slightly smaller frame made him a better bowler than Pollard too – capable of speeds of more than 90 mph, he was a bona fide fifth bowling option when fully fit. With the ball, as with the bat, Russell was a risk-taker: he would bowl attacking lines and lengths in pursuit of wickets and could bowl in all phases of the game.
8) Sunil Narine
The only man who can rival Gayle’s longevity and consistency in T20 is the Trinidadian spin bowler Narine. After bursting on to the scene with an array of mystery deliveries which spun in different directions with no discernible change in action, Narine slowly evolved into a less mysterious but no less brilliant bowler. A suspension for an illegal bowling action forced Narine to adapt his methods, spinning the ball less but increasing his control with fast speeds, flat trajectories and short lengths. For close to a decade Narine’s four overs regularly cost only slightly more than a run a ball, lending his team precious control. His late-career development into an effective pinch-hitter, exploiting the fielding restrictions by hitting up and over the ring elevated his impact even further.
9) Rashid Khan
Before he had even played T20 cricket for half a decade, Rashid had established himself as a legend of the format. Rashid took the techniques of leg-spinners Shahid Afridi and Samuel Badree and fused them with a unique finger and wrist-spinning action to obtain the holy grail of bowling: a low economy rate and a low strike rate, dominating in leagues around the world. Rashid’s action made it nearly impossible to pick which way the ball would spin and his speed made it nearly impossible to play even if the batsman did. Rashid was also a very useful lower order batsman and a superb fielder.
10) Lasith Malinga
The king of T20 fast bowling. Malinga’s unique round-arm action enabled him to perfect the yorker delivery to an extent unmatched by any bowler to ever play the game. His low release point also contributed to his skiddy bouncers which targeted the head and neck of the batsmen, which in turn made the yorker delivery all the more effective. Early on in his career Malinga was capable of high speeds but as this side of his game dwindled he made up for it with experience and cunning. His dipping slower ball and late swing made his full and straight lengths even more dangerous.
11) Jasprit Bumrah
Malinga’s apprentice at Mumbai Indians, Bumrah found success with the yorker using an action almost polar-opposite to Malinga’s – underlining the scope for different techniques in the sport. Rather than a low-arm action Bumrah employed a high-arm release that speared the ball in towards the stumps and pads. Bumrah did not swing the ball like Malinga but he got movement off the pitch and was arguably even more accurate. A menace to face with the new and old ball.
12th man) Shahid Afridi
Afridi was in many respects the prototypical T20 player. He made his professional debut in the 20th century but was perfectly suited to cricket’s 21st century format. His fast, fizzing leg breaks inspired Rashid’s transformative method while his kamikaze batting of unadulterated attack was totally in sync with the 20-over format. For much of his career Afridi was good enough to be selected for his bowling alone but his batting, although inconsistent, could also be match-winning as well.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Writing this book – my first and Tim’s second – was an enormous challenge, not least because the very motivation for writing it was the relative scarcity of literature and analysis on the Twenty20 format.
We were led, therefore, to search for answers and stories not from old books and accounts, but instead directly from the protagonists themselves. Writing Cricket 2.0 has seen us conduct more than 80 interviews with players, coaches, analysts and the game’s administrators. For this we are deeply thankful to those individuals who were not only generous with their time but pleasantly forthcoming and candid. Too often sportsmen are criticised for their interactions with the media but in writing this book we encountered nothing but warmth and an infectious passion for the game we all love.
This book is defined by the contributions of our interviewees, both on and off the field: Talha Aisham, Azad Ali, Jim Allenby, Manoj Badale, Samuel Badree, Trevor Bayliss, Sam Billings, Ian Bishop, Carlos Brathwaite, Dwayne Bravo, Virgil Browne, John Buchanan, Jos Buttler, Hassan Cheema, Aakash Chopra, Julian Cresser, Carl Crowe, Charles Dagnall, AB de Villiers, Cameron Delport, Jade Dernbach, Paul Dimeo, Ryan ten Doeschate, Rahul Dravid, Anthony Everard, Darren Ganga, Jason Gillespie, Sanjog Gupta, Martin Guptill, Joe Harris, Desmond Haynes, Tom Harrison, Joe Harris, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Adam Hollioake, Benny Howell, David Howman, Mike Hussey, Tony Irish, Chris Jordan, Murali Kartik, Simon Katich, Ali Khan, Rashid Khan, Lance Klusener, Sandeep Lamichhane, Justin Langer, Nathan Leamon, Evin Lewis, Jon Long, Chris Lynn, Richard Madley, Shuaib Ismail Manjra, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Brendon McCullum, Tom Moody, Peter Moores, Eoin Morgan, Norman Mungroo, Venky Mysore, Mohammad Nabi, Sunil Narine, Sean Newell, Paul Nixon, Jeetan Patel, Kieron Pollard, Ricky Ponting, Rovman Powell, Dean Plunkett, Ravi Rampaul, Stuart Robertson, Luke Ronchi, Pete Russell, Krishmar Santokie, Owais Shah, Renee Anne Shirley, Ryan Sidebottom, Lendl Simmons, Phil Simmons, Jeremy Snape, Washington Sundar, Gaurav Sundararaman, AJ Tye, Alex Tudor, Rehan Ul-Haq, Paddy Upton, Adam Voges, Ivan Waddington, Shane Warne, Dan Weston, Andrew W
ildblood, Kane Williamson, Chris Woakes, Julian Wood, Trent Woodhill, John Wright, Luke Wright, Adam Voges and Mike Young. Sincere apologies to anyone we have unintentionally omitted. A few others also spoke to us on condition of anonymity; we are equally grateful.
While most of these interviews were done specifically for the book, some were previously conducted as part of our journalism and are reused here. Any interviews that we used which were conducted by others are credited accordingly in the main body of the text. The websites ESPNcricinfo and CricBuzz have been particularly valuable, as well as various editions of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack and newspaper archives.
Both Harsha Bhogle and Michael Vaughan contributed fascinating, contrasting, forewords and we are hugely grateful for their time and insights.
We would like to give particular thanks to the sports management company Insignia Sports International and their managing director Eddie Tolchard whose willingness to help organise interviews with the many players his agency represents and efforts to put us in touch with additional players and coaches proved to be an invaluable part of this project. The same goes for Danny Reuben, the head of team communications for the England & Wales Cricket Board, who went above and beyond arranging interviews with those inside the England team.
Warm thanks are also due to the numerous friends, colleagues and family members who not only had the patience to listen to our musings but who were kind enough to read various chapters in their myriad different forms. So thank you to Adam Collins, Bertus de Jong, Ben Jones, Aleks Klosok, Jono McCrostie, Patrick Noone, Matt Roller, Izzy Westbury, Richard Wigmore and Simon Wilde for their help. We have also enjoyed reading, and discussing, T20 with journalists including David Hopps, Jarrod Kimber, Kartikeya Date and Peter Miller.
We are very thankful to my employers at CricViz and Tim’s at The Telegraph for allowing us to pursue this venture alongside our day jobs. The CricViz team – and especially their data scientist Sam Green – are due thanks for responding to countless requests for statistics and analysis. The CricViz database and the exhaustive global cricket website ESPNcricinfo were two indispensable tools, without which the book would have been considerably more difficult.
Some of the book builds on ideas previously explored in our journalism. Tim would particularly like to thank Rahul Bhattacharya, his brilliant editor on several articles about T20 for The Cricket Monthly, ESPNcricinfo’s digital magazine; ESPNcricinfo’s features editor Leslie Mathew; and Andy Fifield, the sports editor from The Daily Telegraph, who has always encouraged him to explore new avenues.
Tim and I are both very grateful for the support of our literary agent David Luxton who first believed in the idea before helping sell it to our publishers Polaris and to our editor Peter Burns for his ideas and enthusiasm driving the project forward. Naturally, any mistakes that remain are ours alone.
Finally, we would like to thank our family and friends whose support kept us going when perhaps even we doubted the sanity of this undertaking and who will hopefully now be pleased that we both have more time for them once again!
Freddie Wilde and Tim Wigmore
October 2019
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 pl
ayers 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
