Why the tribe of freelance cricketers keeps growing
KOLKATA: “Professional Cricket player…Proudly South African”. That is AB de Villiers’s Twitter bio. Chris Gayle’s bio describes him as the “Universe Boss”. Apart from being a “Jesus follower, father and husband”, former South Africa captain Faf Du Plessis states that he is a “Pro cricketer”. So does Andre Russell on his Instagram account. All of them, barring de Villiers who decided on Tuesday not to come out of international retirement, are available for their countries in this year’s T20 World Cup.
But since none of them is centrally contracted by his board, he could still choose not to turn up for the ICC event. And this tribe of freelancers is growing, in number and profile.
The Indian board doesn’t allow it, but freelancing in cricket isn’t new. It was seen in Kerry Packer’s series in Australia and the T20 Indian Cricket League but it blossomed in the Indian Premier League, allowing retired and fringe foreign cricketers to sign up as professionals. If stars such as Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff have got obscene amounts, journeyman players like Brad Hodge, Dirk Nannes and Ryan ten Doeschate too made a splash.
The cricketers who benefited most were those who started freelancing in their 20s—Gayle was 28 during the inaugural edition in 2008, de Villiers and Lasith Malinga were 24 and Kieron Pollard (who had turned down a central contract at the beginning of his career) was barely 21. Consistently good performances not only made them a top draw but also gave them the financial security to speak their mind.
So when Gayle went on a selfimposed exile from international cricket just after criticising the West Indian board and coach Ottis Gibson post the 2011 World Cup debacle, he wasn’t insecure about fading from public memory. IPL had already taken care of that.
That period also saw Gayle in top form. He scored two centuries and had a strike rate of 183 in 2011, his personal best. In 2012, he hammered 59 sixes, the highest ever in an IPL season till date. Gayle’s stature as a T20 stalwart grew and the West Indies board realised they needed him more than he them.
Constant spats with the board notwithstanding, Gayle has always spoken of his desire to win a third World T20 title. “When I got the call and they asked if I’m willing and interested, I said: ‘Yes, I want to play for West Indies’… The bigger picture is actually to get three T20 titles under my belt. That’s actually the goal I’m setting in my head by winning the T20 World Cup,” Gayle said ahead of the T20 series against Sri Lanka earlier this year. Gayle is 41 and has ruled himself out of the 50-over World Cup in 2023 but maintains he could keep going till 45. “Forty-five is a good number. Yeah, we can target 45. Let’s target 45, that’s a good number,” he said last year.
The first casualty of age is fitness. But T20 cricket, where a batsman can compensate for the lack of singles with big hits and a pacer has to bowl only four overs, can offset fitness issues up to a point. That’s why Gayle is still in demand today.
The same reason works for Malinga, 37, who last played a competitive match in March 2020, as well. Last week, Sri Lanka’s selectors were still hopeful that Malinga would agree to play in this T20 World Cup even though the pacer is yet to commit.
De Villiers’s case is different. In good form and fitness in this year’s IPL, de Villiers has often looked indecisive about his international career in the backdrop of South Africa’s string of failures in ICC events. When he retired, de Villiers said: “I have had my turn, and to be honest, I am tired.” Even du Plessis had confirmed on R Ashwin’s YouTube show that de Villiers didn’t want to play international cricket because he didn’t have the drive anymore.
And yet there was this underlying desire to win a title for South Africa. Perhaps, that bubbled over just before the 2019 World Cup, creating an air of confusion and derailing South Africa’s campaign in ways they could never imagine. This time, talks of bringing de Villiers back were more constructive, with coach Mark Boucher playing a crucial role.
“AB has his reasons, which I respect,” Boucher was quoted as saying by ‘The Citizen’ newspaper. “He alluded to being concerned about coming in ahead of other players who have been a part of the system. I don’t think it sat well with him, which I understand.”