BUBBLE BURST
Being locked up for global T20 leagues is crazy insists Banton
TOM BANTON says he is happy to miss out on T20 paydays around the globe if it means avoiding spending days locked in a hotel room.
Just 24 hours after England assistant coach Paul Collingwood opened up on the difficulties of bubble life, Banton gave his own perspective.
And he insisted that he could continue to turn down offers from T20 leagues in order to concentrate on England and Somerset – if the alternative is solitary confinement.
“People won’t actually understand it until they’ve done it, but I remember having to go to the IPL in Abu Dhabi and having to isolate for eight days in my hotel room and then I was allowed out,” said the 23-year-old.
“After a time it just takes its toll. I was like, I want to be able to live my life and not be stuck in a hotel. In the end it was too much for me.
“I pulled out of the Big Bash because you had to sit in a hotel room for two weeks.
“That means this whole tour, you would have still been in your hotel room, plus another few days, and it’s just crazy to think that people would even do that.
“For my mental health it was the best thing to do.” Banton had a
fantastic debut Big Bash with Brisbane Heat in 2019 but pulled out early from the 2020 edition, citing bubble fatigue, and did not take up the final year of a two-year contract in the latest tournament.
In addition, he has chosen training back at Somerset over potential stints in the Pakistan Super League and Indian Premier League.
England’s tour players have enjoyed a relatively unrestricted visit to Barbados this month, with the freedom to go out.
Opening batsman Banton responded with a career-best international knock of 73 on Wednesday. But it came in a losing cause as England went down by 20 runs to the West Indies to trail 2-1 in the five-match series.
He is now aiming to put himself firmly in the picture for Eoin Morgan’s World T20 squad in Australia at the end of the year by helping turn around this series.
Stopping the West Indies’ power hitters will be difficult but Banton believes England’s attack are capable of doing it.
“Just seeing how far they hit it, it was just pretty scary to be honest but I think we have to be clever with our bowling plans,” he said.
“The bowlers had great ideas, they maybe didn’t execute as well.”