“I hated cricket, I didn’t really enjoy playing it, I just had to do it because it was a job.” Last week Tom Banton gave a revealing interview to Wisden’s Katya Witney about how he fell out of love with the game. Banton’s comments would have raised a knowing if rueful smile from every amateur cricketer across the land. Cricket has failure written through it. Anyone who has had a summer weekend ruined and the ensuing week blighted by a golden duck, a dropped catch or ignominious bowling spell will relate. So too, Banton continues, can his fellow professionals: “When you talk to everyone who’s played a lot of cricket for a long period of time, there are moments in your career where you fall out of love with it for a bit.”
Banton’s tale is one of immense talent that curdled as a result of burnout, a nascent career blighted by Covid quarantines, exorbitant expectations and the pernicious nature of social media. After a breakout season as a teenage scooping and sweeping sensation for Somerset in 2019, Banton was called up by England to play white-ball cricket at the end of the year. He didn’t set the world alight in his early international games but showed plenty of promise before the runs began to dry up and he was dropped after a series of low scores against Australia at the end of the 2020 summer.
A tall and attacking top order batter, Banton’s open chested, long-levered and destructive stroke-play, particularly through the leg-side, drew comparisons to Kevin Pietersen while his scooping and ramping was honed from watching Jos Buttler on television as a kid. In temperament Banton is more akin in personality to Buttler; in his mid-20s he still has a bashful, softly spoken and slightly bruised demeanour.
Despite finding himself in demand for franchises across the globe and being compared favourably to greats of the game, Banton cut an increasingly disconsolate figure. Covid quarantines took their toll, he went down with a nasty bout of the virus and the runs dried up. The weight of it all, the failures and the incessant, sometimes soul-sapping nature of franchise cricket seemed to cling to Banton like a shroud, his lugubrious nature becoming more pronounced. Highlights reels, county streams and post-match interview snippets revealed an increasingly doleful Banton, his once wide eyes dulled, hinting at a rising turmoil within. It was plain to see for anyone who watches the game regularly that here was a young man who was not enjoying playing cricket at all.
Banton, now 26, admits he used to read comments on social media, saying how “surreal” and ultimately unhelpful it was. One minute you’re being compared to your childhood heroes and the next you’re being eviscerated by Basil Fawlty himself – the Somerset “superfan” John Cleese memorably laid into Banton for choosing to play in the Indian Premier League over the Bob Willis Trophy final. (“Don’t mention the Kolkata Knight Riders, I mentioned them once and I think I got away with it …”)
Watching Banton’s interview I was reminded of the curious case of another cricketer – India’s Prithvi Shaw. Aged 25, Shaw is a year younger than Banton yet experiencing a more humiliating drop in form after a more visceral rise.
After breaking multiple records as a junior cricketer in India, many of which belonged to Sachin Tendulkar, Shaw became a run-scoring sensation. IPL deals and a Test debut followed; in 2018 Shaw scored 134 opening the batting against West Indies, becoming the youngest Indian Test centurion on debut.
It remains his only Test century; in the seven years that have followed Shaw has played four more Tests and his form and fitness have since fallen off a cliff, his remarkable rise now firmly overshadowed by an even starker descent.
What’s going on with Shaw? Is it an Icarus-like plummet? Much too much, much too young? Has cricket chewed him up and burnt him out at the grand old age of 25? How much of it is a result of the fickle and unknowable nature of form, the impossible burden and expectation on his once slight shoulders and now prematurely wizened face?
At the end of last year, a letter that Greg Chappell wrote to Shaw found its way into the public domain, which in its own way alludes to the sort of scrutiny and challenge he faces. Chappell came across Shaw when a talent scout with Australia while the youngster captained India to victory over them in the 2018 Under-19 World Cup, when Shaw was in the midst of his run-soaked ascent. His current lowly standing (dropped from the Mumbai squad and unpicked in the IPL draft for the first time) inspired Chappell to write a heartfelt letter.
“The past doesn’t define you, Prithvi,” Chappell implored. “It’s what you do from here that matters. You’re still in your prime, with so many years ahead to make your mark.” Chappell asked Shaw to focus on his fitness – which has been a bone of contention among the coaches and captains he has played for – and to focus on a period of self-reflection. There’s even shades of Sun Tzu in Chappell’s “the pain of discipline is far less than the pain of regret”.
Whether Shaw manages to get back to performing in domestic cricket never mind scale the heights of his teenage stardom remains to be seen. For Banton the immediate future looks considerably brighter. Enjoying the game once more after a solid year for Somerset last season and recently showing glimpses of his exhilarating best in franchise cricket, he has been called up to the England one-day squad, and looks set for another tilt at international cricket.
From the weekend warrior slinging the bag back in the car boot with a curse to the young professional boarding a plane with a new sense of hope, cricket turns another face towards you the longer you can stay by its side.
Quote of the week
We’re doing this for all Afghan women. To tell them to be proud of themselves and that they are the strongest women in the world. Please don’t give up” – Shazia Zazai, one of the 19 female players who escaped the Taliban and made the terrifying journey to Australia with the help of the broadcaster and former Australian international Mel Jones, speaks in a new BBC documentary, Cricket’s Forgotten Team. The programme looks into the side’s story, speaking with both the players and those who played a crucial role in safely evacuating them.
Ansari enjoying life after cricket
“You can’t move away from something you did for so long without an ache. But I’m fortunate this is my choice – rather than a decision forced on me by injury or age. It happened over a long period as my competitive instinct was diminishing … I started to tire of the complete immersion demanded by cricket.”
The tales of Tom Banton and Prithvi Shaw also brought to mind the story of Zafar Ansari, the Surrey and England left-arm spinner who retired from cricket in 2017, aged only 25. When he made his decision, Alec Stewart, the director of cricket at Surrey who had known Ansari and family since childhood was steadfastly supportive. “It’s a brave and considered decision … he was always open and honest,” Stewart said.
Ansari obtained a double first in social and political science from Cambridge and went on to get an MA in history while juggling his cricket career. “When Zafar was reading a novel, the rest of our boys would be doing a colouring-in book,” Stewart memorably said.
A colleague of mine tells a similarly amusing story that came out of a Surrey pre-season training camp in a hot climate a decade ago. The story goes that during downtime, while his teammates could be spied larking in the pool or chained to their Call of Duty headsets indoors, Ansari could often be spotted on a sun lounger in the shade, engrossed in the London Review of Books. Post-cricket life has been a success: he was called to the bar in 2021. No not that one.
Memory lane
A record that lasted almost 47 years was surpassed this week. In 1978, Desmond Haynes struck 148 on his one-day international debut, which remained the highest score in the men’s game on debut until beaten by Matthew Breetzke against New Zealand on Monday. The South African became the first player to make 150 on his ODI debut, but the team still lost to New Zealand by six wickets in Lahore in a tri-series also featuring Pakistan. The right-hander made exactly 150 from 148 balls at the top of the order as the Proteas posted 304 for six. Haynes, meanwhile, ran none other than Jeff Thomson ragged in 1978, scoring 67 off his 10 overs, on his way to 148 off 136 balls. Haynes struck 16 fours and two sixes against Australia in St John’s, Antigua, and West Indies won by 44 runs.
Still want more?
“Bazball is sitting on a balcony, sun rippling across interesting sunglasses, sculpted beard, guns, chest, singlet, feet up no socks.” Don’t miss Barney Ronay on England.
Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly has joined the ranks of investors in the Hundred after paying nearly £40m for a stake in Trent Rockets. Ali Martin writes that while the auction has left counties flush, they’re no longer calling the shots.
And Australia capped a great summer with a nine-wicket defeat of Sri Lanka, confirming their first sweep in a subcontinent Test series for almost 20 years.
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