Eoin Morgan – Behind the Boundary

I’VE NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT

ENGLAND’S WORLD CUP-WINNING CAPTAIN TALKS TO JO HARMAN ABOUT SHAKING UP THE SAFE CLOISTERS OF THE CRICKETING ESTABLISHMENT.

INFITTING Y ou’ve never been afraid to tread your own path… Who immediately springs to mind when you think about the great disruptors of English cricket over the course of your career? Straussy [Andrew Strauss] was one for me. He was always perceived as a guy who would be a good England captain, and do the right thing and everything would run quite smoothly, but being involved with him in the Test side at the back-end of his tenure, it was unbelievable to see the planning and strategy that went behind getting to No.1 in the world and winning away in Australia. It went against the curve to be able to achieve something like that. The Ashes in 2010/11 was a great insight into how really Right from the start of your career good teams work and what goes on behind the you’ve stood out as someone who scenes in order to produce something like that. thinks a bit differently and likes I had never seen that previously. to do things in your own way. Is

that reflective of your personality And then in his role as the ECB’s more generally?

director of cricket, how influential Yeah, I think it is. My point of view is always was he in the transformation of the different, I think. I see it as normal and ODI side? logical and there’s a thought process behind He had enough confidence to see the bigger everything that I do. It’s not necessarily going picture. In that role it’s always easy to say, with the group’s decision or playing the way ‘We want to win this, we want to win that’, everybody plays, because that’s what people but he actually did exactly what he set out to do. It’s because I see it as the right decision. achieve, and at the front of that was winning And I’ve always been like that. Since I was a kid the 2019 World Cup. Coming back to strategy and came across to London at 16, I’ve always and planning, he was brilliant with that as well. done things the way that I think is right, or the And being a great leader himself, he delegated way I’ve been taught to do them. One of my and empowered guys to fulfil roles and allowed biggest characteristics is that I’ve always shown them to grow within those roles. That was belief in my own ability, no matter how bad the the big thing that came across to me, and it form I’m in. I’ve always had the belief that I can replicated his captaincy. get out of it.

Being an Irishman who wanted to play for England was disruptive in itself. Were you single-minded in that ambition from an early age?

Yeah, I was. I’d spoken to my dad about wanting to play professionally and wanting to play Test cricket and he said that I couldn’t do that here and we needed to look at other avenues. I think I was 13 or 14 when we sat down with the Irish coach at the time and my dad told him, “Eoin’s said he wants to play Test cricket and would like to go to England if the opportunity ever came about. Eoin would love to play for England”. It was a bit foolhardy, or stupid, or courageous, or brash…

Did you ever have any concerns about being accepted as an England cricketer?

It was in my hands. Playing cricket in Ireland was a challenge in itself because when I was growing up it was certainly viewed as an English sport and looked down upon, so I didn’t ever really feel like I fitted in playing Gaelic football or hurling. I really enjoyed playing them but in the back of my head I’m thinking, ‘All I want to do is play cricket’. Then when I came across to Middlesex I felt like I was living my dream and didn’t really give much thought to trying to fit in.

The way you batted was different, too. Playing sweeps and paddles which very few batsmen were playing at the time. Were you always determined to embrace that otherness? Did you see it as a selling point?

The reason I started playing the inventive shots, the stuff that’s normal now, was that in order to get into the Middlesex T20 team everyone was saying that you’ve got to clear the ropes and you’ve got to pick the gaps. I could pick the gaps, but the gaps I picked were different. And I couldn’t clear the ropes. I remember playing a season of T20 when I was 18 or 19 at Middlesex and I was caught in front of the pavilion about three times. I thought, ‘I’m going to have to find another way here’. I already played the sweeps and laps but there’s a higher risk of getting out, and the judgment of what your coach would say and what people would think. Luckily they worked so I just stuck with them until I developed a bit more of a power game.

You were a vocal advocate of the Indian Premier League long before it was fashionable in English cricket. Did you always feel that was a cause worth fighting for?

Yeah absolutely. Going to India and experiencing it for the first time in 2010 was just the best thing ever. I got to play with Steyn, Kumble, Kallis, Boucher, Pietersen, Dravid, rubbing shoulders with these guys and trying to take everything in. The most I learned in the shortest space of time was always going to the IPL. Watching different guys and focusing on different things, or seeing something that you didn’t think of. Or going there and being reassured that what you’re doing is the right thing and you just need to persist with it. Because it is the best tournament in the world. Right from the first time I went I was like, ‘How is everybody not seeing this? This is the future’.

Was it frustrating then that the first English players to sign IPL contracts were often characterised as greedy, rather than appreciating the development opportunities the tournament offered?

The first year I went I think it actually cost me money because the implications in our county contracts were so drastic, and I wasn’t on a big contract with Middlesex, and I wasn’t making a lot of money at Bangalore. When you say that to people

The most notable example of your ‘disruption’ is the metamorphosis of England’s oneday side under your leadership. How do you think you were able to spark such a dramatic change in such a short space of time?

I had my own ideas about how the team should play but none of that would have been possible without Straussy allowing myself, Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace the freedom to play around with what we wanted to do to achieve that. The style of play was the most important

thing, and selection was also extremely important. Channeling everybody onto the same page to achieve the same thing with 2019 in mind helped myself, TB and Farby a huge amount, because there was always a continuous message and it never changed throughout the four years. It was consistent and transparent. The selectors were on the same page, Straussy was on the same page, all the senior players knew exactly the direction we were going in and were able to drive that.

MY POINT OF VIEW IS ALWAYS DIFFERENT. IT’S NOT NECESSARILY GOING WITH THE GROUP’S DECISION OR PLAYING THE WAY EVERYBODY PLAYS, BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT PEOPLE DO. IT’S BECAUSE I SEE IT AS THE RIGHT DECISION. AND I’VE ALWAYS BEEN LIKE THAT.

they don’t believe it. They think, ‘ This lad’s pulling the wool over our eyes’. In the back of my head the longer-term picture was that if I always came back a better player, I would push to play for England. That’s how I saw it.

Did you ever consider that it could damage your England prospects, swimming against the tide like that?

I absolutely ran the risk of that. Particularly in my Test career. I was advised to come back and play county cricket and fight my way back in through that avenue, but the way that I actually got selected to play Test cricket was through international and other white-ball performances. I’ve only had one full county season. I think I was 22 and averaged mid-40s. I always felt that if I built my white-ball game that would impact my red-ball game.

Do you think England being so bad at the 2015 World Cup actually helped in that sense? There was no disputing that significant change was needed.

Absolutely. If we had limped our way to the quarter-finals or even fluked our way to a semi-final there’s no way there would have been drastic measures taken. I don’t think the job as MD would have been given to Straussy. I think Paul Downton would have been kept on and I don’t think a lot would have changed.

The fast-tracking of Jofra Archer into England’s World Cup plans wasn’t universally well-received, with some concerned that his late arrival could disrupt the dynamic of a successful team. Had you had in mind for a while that Archer would be part of that squad, and did you have any doubts about adding him to the group at that stage?

Everybody had their eye on Jof. Certainly, having played against him quite a bit for Middlesex, you earmarked him as a guy who could definitely play international cricket. I didn’t have any doubts about adding him to our preliminary squad, and then seeing how he was around the group. Did he engage? What was the reaction from everyone else? And the continuous question we asked ourselves: are guys adding value? Jofra certainly did.

Immediately after the World Cup final you said you’d asked Adil Rashid before Archer’s super over if Allah was with you and he’d confirmed that he was. You’ve said since that multiculturalism has made you stronger as a team. Do you feel like it’s especially important to emphasise that point in the current climate?

Absolutely. I think we’re the best sporting team in the country to embody diversity, change, and making things functional and productive in that way, to make a difference. Because we live and breathe it every day when we’re together as a side. I actually think we need to start talking about it a little bit more because it has become such an important part of society. Everyone this year was forced to look at where their moral compass was pointing and I think that within our side we take it for granted that we get on really well. We need to start telling individual stories a bit more and being more vocal about how we are as a group.

This article originally appeared in Wisden Cricket Monthly’s feature on the 21 people who have shaped English cricket in the 21st century.