Smudgeball

GH on the new brew

Cast in a new mould?

One year, a player received a late call up to the Indian Premier League. He had not expected the opportunity, and on his way to India wondered how he should treat it. He had always been a proficient T20 player, an effective middle-order accumulator. But this season, he mused, would essentially a free hit, wouldn’t it? Why not treat it as such, abandon his inhibitions, and become like the carefree strokemakers he saw round him?

Except that when he began coming to the middle, it was harder than it sounded - he started, as it were, meeting himself coming back the other way. This other self told him to take care, to hold back, to push it an over deeper, then two, maybe three. Otherwise he might get out. Otherwise he might not be there to benefit from that little bit more reconnaissance. His initial commitment was overridden by a lifetime’s habit. He reverted to old ways. He played no more IPL.

I’ve been contemplating this story the last couple of weeks while watching Steve Smith reconnect with the Big Bash League. It’s five years now since Smith played in the IPL, where his hundred-and-three games for Pune Warriors, Rajasthan Royals, Rising Pune Supergiant and Delhi Capitals were spread over ten seasons, and he averaged 34.5 accumulating runs at 128 per hundred balls. Since the calls stopped coming, Smith has hung round like a lovesick swain awaiting a call from his ex-girlfriend. ‘I’d love to be part of the IPL again,’ said Smith last November, only to go unbought in the auction where Cameron Green fetched a record-breaking $4.2 million.