Steve James: former England international Craig Kieswetter returns as mature thinker after taming himself
Craig Kieswetter is explaining his reasons for turning down the Indian Premier League both this year and last. In 2010, before he had played for England, a couple of franchises expressed interest in signing him outside of the auction; this year he was on the list until the day before the auction when, already “not quite comfortable” about it, a conversation with England team director Andy Flower made up his mind.
Driven: Craig Kieswetter is likely to be reunited with Alastair Cook opening the batting for England in one-day games Photo: GETTY IMAGES
By Steve James 8:00PM BST 14 May 2011
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“I want to play international cricket,” says Kieswetter, “and I want to do the best I can for England. That has always been my goal. When I play for England I want to be the best ’keeper in England and then the best ’keeper in the world. It’s that simple. There is no hidden side to it, like the money. It is all about being the best that I can be.”
Just check the desire and ambition. Yes, such a decision regarding the IPL might be a little easier for someone like Kieswetter, who admits he is fortunate to come “from a fairly wealthy family” and many might blithely dismiss this as typical South African arrogance, but I like it. Kieswetter is honest, well-spoken and utterly engaging. Goodness, this kid really does want to play for England again. It is etched in his every utterance.
And it is my understanding that he will return as opener/wicketkeeper when the short-form stuff begins against Sri Lanka late next month. But first he must recover from a thigh injury which worsened during his century in Somerset’s facile CB40 victory over Gloucestershire last Sunday.
He has a Grade 2 tear. “And Grade 3 is a rupture” he cautions, “so we caught it at the right time.” Until this injury setback, Kieswetter had been not so much nudging the national selectors as clipping them around the ears this season. He has scored two centuries and a 95 not out in his four CB40 innings, as well as averaging 42 in the county championship with one hundred.
And it is not just weight of runs, because, in truth, some of the opposition bowling has been thoroughly mediocre. Kieswetter looks a better batsman. Last year’s frenzy at the crease, as manic as a teenager on a night out, has been replaced by a calmer judiciousness. Standing outside leg stump and scything merrily through the off-side worked in the ICC World Twenty20, but it was a method of madness in English conditions.
Kieswetter made 38 in the first one-day international against Australia last summer, but thereafter managed just 102 in nine international innings. His game was in bits, but as he rightly points out: “It’s quite hard to work on technical things when you’re in the middle of a series.” Indeed it is.
He ended the season feeling rather “bitter”. The higher you go, the harder the fall. Becoming at 22 England’s second youngest one-day centurion (after David Gower) in Bangladesh, and winning the man-of-the match gong in the triumphant World Twenty20 final, is pretty high.
Kieswetter needed rehabilitation and found it with the England Lions, and more specifically their batting coach Graham Thorpe. First in Australia and then in the West Indies, Kieswetter was afforded the necessary time for both technical and mental reappraisal. “Thorpey came at it from a different angle,” he says, “He was technical but there was a lot of mental work too, about constructing innings and being more mature and responsible at the crease. It’s shown. I now don’t feel as rushed and as frenetic as last year.”
He’s also covering his stumps. “I look back at that Australia series last summer,” he says, “and I wasn’t really moving my feet. I was staying leg-side and playing with my hands. My technique just wasn’t strong enough to cope when you’ve got Shaun Tait running in and bowling at 100mph. I probably could have coped with 80 per cent of their attack, but the key 20 per cent that I needed to survive as an opener, I wasn’t able to deal with.”
Kieswetter can reflect humbly on the experience now. “It was a blessing in disguise to be dropped,” he admits, “I thought I could manage it mentally, but I couldn’t. This winter I have matured as a person and as a cricketer. When you play for England and do well, people start throwing things at you. That life is fantastic, but I think I lost track of the reality of scoring runs and taking catches, of what my job really was.”
He has matured. I watched him make 95 not out against Glamorgan recently. At the other end Peter Trego smashed 100 off just 59 balls. It was instructive that Kieswetter was content to allow his partner centre stage. “Two years ago I would have tried to have a biff with him,” he admits, “It wouldn’t have been good for the team. But I don’t see myself anymore as that out-and-out brash, hard-hitting player. I see myself as being able to adapt my game to the situation. That was the problem against Australia last year. I didn’t adapt. I was playing a Twenty20 role in the 50-over format.”
A word of concern, though. Kieswetter mentioned that last year he allowed “the smaller things to bug him” during his slump. I sense those could easily resurface. He was a little irked to cop some flak for his wicketkeeping last Sunday, and rightly pointed out that he was carrying his leg injury. But his keeping does need some work. Strangely he is more proficient standing up than back at the moment. His natural athleticism will eventually ensure he is a fine ’keeper, but he must continue with the graft too and ignore the criticisms.
Also there is the subject of his South African upbringing (with a Scottish mother). “For five years I’ve answered those questions and I think there comes a time when I’d rather people write about my cricket,” he says with some justification.
I was actually more interested in his time at Millfield School. He was only there for a term and a half after passing his matric at Bishops Diocesan College in Cape Town. But he played in a remarkable team at Millfield. Opening the batting was Kieran Powell, who has since played for the West Indies, at No 3 was Surrey’s Tom Maynard, Kieswetter was at four and Essex’s Adam Wheater at five. The captain was Somerset’s leg-spinner Max Waller and the opening bowler was Glamorgan’s Chris Ashling. Kieswetter never did finish his A-levels at Millfield, as Somerset swooped swiftly with a contract.
And now it seems England will swoop swiftly again. Neither Matt Prior nor Steve Davies has done enough. Kevin Pietersen will not be risked as opener in this country. There is no stand-out aggressive one-day opener in the shires. So Kieswetter is set to be reunited at the top of the order with new skipper Alastair Cook, a partnership first forged last year in Bangladesh. “On my debut in Dhaka it took me three overs to get on strike!” jokes Kieswetter, “But he [Cook] was very calm and good to bat with. I feel we can be compatible. I would just really like to be back playing for England.”
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