How England can dance to glory…
GRAEME SWANN fears England’s big hitters may never enjoy the fame he discovered on the ballroom floor.
In his pomp as an off-spinner, Swann was a member of the only England team to win a global limited-overs tournament at the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean nine years ago.
The side captained by Paul Collingwood in 2010, when Kevin Pietersen was player of the tournament, never enjoyed superstar limelight despite their achievement because the game disappeared from free-to-air TV in Britain 14 years ago.
But Swann, an ambassador for the ICC World Cup in England this summer, found celebrity recognition at every turn as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing last year.
And he admits the current crop of buccaneers like Jos Buttler, below, Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy face an uphill battle to command vast audiences like the waltz, foxtrot and tango of Saturday night prime-time dance competition.
Swann, who took 255 Test wickets before a chronic elbow injury forced him to retire midway through the 2013-14 Ashes whitewash in Australia, said: “For me, public recognition was tenfold when I did Strictly.
“Even when I nipped to the shop on a Sunday morning, there would be two families waiting outside wanting to take photos and it hit home how far terrestrial TV can reach.
“When there are 12million people watching you dance, you’re far more famous than you are for playing cricket – which is a shame, because I was really good at cricket. I was the best in the world at one point...and then they slated my cha-cha-cha.”
Asked if Buttler, scorer of England’s fastest one-day hundred – off 46 balls – in 2015, would enjoy superstar fame the Ian way Botham and Freddie Flintoff did, Swann said: “Probably not, because cricket is not as widereaching as it used to be with satellite television and things like that.
“You never know what’s going to happen, and with the BBC getting involved in The Hundred hopefully these players will get into more households.
“I hope these players do get superstar status like Ian Botham had when I was growing up.
“For the first time in a long while, I feel confident about England’s chances going into a World Cup – and I’m not just saying that for effect.
“During my playing days, there was a propensity to pick Test players who could do an OK job in one-day cricket rather than the crop of young players we’ve got now for whom the sky’s the limit.
“We have a fantastic leader – Eoin Morgan is the most impressive captain of any one-day side in the world – and that’s why we are favourites for the World Cup.
“Eoin has taken the team by the scruff of the neck and England have been exceptional.”