Malan the toast of the nation as Radley relives his unlikely start
DAWID MALAN has spent the majority of the past five years carrying the drinks for the England ODI side.
But if he propels them to another World Cup win in India later this year, England should raise a glass to the hand of fate that turned him from a gap-year student into a white-ball cricket master.
Malan’s matchwinning hundred in the opening ODI against Bangladesh was his second in two innings for Jos Buttler’s side.
And he now looks a shoo-in for a place in England’s top order in a World Cup year.
All of which would represent a fairy-tale end to a story with a most unlikely start.
Ahead of the final ODI tomorrow, former England and Middlesex batsman Clive Radley said: “Dawid came over from Boland (South Africa) when he was still a teenager.
“He was going to do a summer’s work at Oundle School.
“A bloke who was chairman at Teddington at the time phoned me up and said that his mate’s son was a good cricketer, and was helping out at a school over the summer.
“I was head coach at the MCC at the time and he basically asked me if I would take a look at him.
“I told him we were full because we had 18 or 20 apprentice pros already on the staff.
“But I asked him to give me the lad’s number and said if we could fit him in for a match, we’d go for it.
“Anyway, we had a Second XI game against Leicester at Hinkley and in the warm-up one of our youngsters got injured.
“I called him, he came across and got there just after the game started. He got padded up just in time to go in at number three and it went from there really.
“The first ball he faced, he clipped off his hip for four and he looked very, very decent.
“I got straight on the phone to Embers (below, John Emburey, the then-Middlesex coach) and told him that they needed to sign him up before somebody else did.
“At the time I thought he would have been an overseas player but when I spoke to him in the lunch break, it turned out he had a UK passport, so everything just fell into place.”
Malan’s father was a dentist at a local hospital in South West London. His son was born in Roehampton before the family moved back to South Africa.
Now, with almost 100 appearances across three formats for his adopted country, Malan has established himself as one of England’s most reliable white-ball performers.
Without his contribution of 114 on a turning pitch tailor-made for Bangladesh’s attack, England would have fallen woefully short of the hosts’ total of 209.
Having sealed the series with a second win on Friday, England have a spring in their step in a World Cup year.
And Malan is no longer carrying the drinks.