The Kyle Jamieson conundrum
Could cricket’s new economics hurt the Golden Goose? PLUS: The Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be
In February, after the raising of some paddles and the swing of an auctioneer’s gavel, Kyle Jamieson became an instant millionaire.
This was a GOOD thing.
The 2.04m pace bowler has been a sensation since bursting on to the international scene last year. In just eight tests he has pimped up an impressive pace attack, adding awkward bounce and movement to Tim Southee and Trent Boult’s swing, and Neil Wagner’s low-slung, nostril-flaring hostility.
The 26 year old’s development has been supersonic. In the space of one off-season, he came back to the team with a booming inswinger and a couple more clicks on the speed gun.
With the bat, he’s shown enough technique and temperament for some people to (prematurely) label him an allrounder, though at this stage he is a bowler who can bat*.
To add to the package, Jamieson has an aggressive streak on the pitch that he leaves at the white line, outside of which he becomes a thoughtful commentator on the game. In keeping with most of his teammates, he has a range of boilerplate answers to most cricket queries but he can also reach deeper.
Take this quote, which he gave in England as the Black Caps went about securing a rare test series victory against the hosts before crowning the greatest period in the country’s cricket history by beating India to win the inaugural World Test Championship.
“That [IPL] price tag brings with it expectations. At first, I didn’t think much of it but as people will have seen in the Australia series immediately after the auction, things didn’t unfold [as I would have wanted] and that was down to the magnitude of the situation. I wasn’t handling things as well as I could have. There is no textbook or manual to deal with that sort of thing. It certainly took me a while to process it all.”
The quote is impressive for both its vulnerability and self-awareness. It also leads to a central point: in the space of a couple of seasons, Jamieson has shown he can do it all - except perform in T20 cricket.
There’s no other way to put it. Jamieson has played 56 professional T20 matches and has shown little return on investment.
He goes for an eye-popping 8.6 runs per over and is even more expensive in T20Is (9.8 RPO), albeit from a small body of work. A bulging RPO can be offset by wickets if you’re a strike bowler, but take away his 6-7 for Canterbury against Auckland and Jamieson is only okay in this metric too.
In the Black Caps’ two warm-up losses to Australia (1-42 off 3.5) and England (0-32 off 3) ahead of the World T20, Jamieson has demonstrably been the weak link in the attack.
His biggest problem is, counter-intuitively, his biggest weapon. His height and bounce offers batters exactly what they look for in T20 cricket - leverage. Because he doesn’t have express pace like a Lockie Ferguson, batters are comfortable moving around the crease and getting themselves in funky positions to access all areas of the ground with scoops and shovels. At that pace, Jamieson needs a whole bunch of variations that he doesn’t yet possess to have a chance of stalling the world’s best players - the sort of variations that take time and patience to perfect.
Jamieson is much harder to defend than to attack, which is why the disparity between his introduction to tests and T20s has been so stark. He also gets paid a fraction for tests compared to T20, so if you’re in his size 13s, where would you look to make your performance gains?
Without wanting to go all Ian Chappell on you, tests are called tests because they provide the ultimate examination of your skill under the most pressure, but I’m not sure that holds any more under cricket’s still relatively new economic model.
That $2.86 million price tag Jamieson carries with him to the Royal Challengers Bangalore adds a burden I suspect he never carries with him into the test-match arena.
(And, yes, I get it - pity the poor millionaire and all that…)
It also puts subtle pressure on in different ways. I’m not sure Jamieson deserved his spot in Gary Stead’s World T20 squad, but I am sure that it would have looked weird if one of the world’s most expensive T20 cricketers was available and absent from the ICC’s showpiece event.
It’s rare that a gift like Jamieson comes along. The sense of anticipation when he gets a red ball in his hands is palpable.
I get a different sense when he is handed the white ball in a T20. I feel nervous for him and selfishly protective. I worry that confidence lost in one format will seep into another.
I worry that the thing that has made him rich will make him worse.
* There is an important distinction (in my mind at least). Allrounders must be able to score test centuries from positions 6-8 in the order. Bowlers who can bat (BWCB) are expected to supply handy runs and partnership value at Nos 9, 10 and, unless you’re a complete rabbit, 11. You can elevate from BWCB to allrounder status through sheer hard work, the best case being Daniel Vettori who spent the bulk of his early career and Nos 9, 10 and even 11 on a few occasions, before becoming the world’s best No 8, scoring four of his six test centuries from that position. Jamieson has the potential to do this, but is not there yet.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
ONE of the greats of her sport quietly slipped into retirement with Stacey Michelsen, 30, pulling the pin of her Black Sticks career after a staggering 296 tests, three Olympics and three Commonwealth Games campaigns.
Incidentally, the last tweet Michelsen posted was way back in January 2019 and I’m not sure things were ever quite the same for her once Mark Hager left.
Michelsen was one of the most dynamic players of her generation and would be one of the first picked for a Blacks Sticks all-time XI. Along with fellow great Kayla Sharland, they didn’t need an Olympic medal to validate their careers, but it feels cruel that they missed out all the same.
—
DESPERATELY awful news with the passing of Sean Wainui. No links, just profound sadness.
—
THE guillotine finally came down on Steve Bruce’s neck at Newcastle United, weeks after it was announced the club had been sold to a Saudi consortium. Bruce will never qualify as a managerial great, but football’s inherent cruelty is laid bare in this exclusive interview with the Daily Telegraph ($).
Some sample quotes:
“I think this might be my last job. It’s not just about me; it’s taken its toll on my whole family because they are all Geordies [from Newcastle] and I can’t ignore that.”
“By the time I got to Newcastle, I thought I could handle everything thrown at me but it has been very, very tough. To never really be wanted, to feel that people wanted me to fail, to read people constantly saying I would fail, that I was useless, a fat waste of space, a stupid, tactically inept cabbage-head or whatever. And it was from day one.”
Ouch.
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THE NBA has started and Ben Simmons, the wantaway Australian prima donna, is still behaving very badly at the Philadelphia 76ers, with the latest suggestions being that he is faking mental illness to stay away from the team. Obviously it is impossible to know for sure what is going on in someone else’s head but take it as read: mental health is not a joke.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
The All Blacks are back with a barely recognisable starting XV taking on an equally unfamiliar USA Eagles side in Washington DC. I did wonder whether potential fans in the US would be upset by the experimental All Blacks side, but I’m assured by someone who has spent a bit of time in the Stateside rugby scene that “they honestly don’t care who’s in the team; they just see the All Blacks and get into it”. It’s an attitude I could use more of.
USA v New Zealand, Washington DC, Sunday 8.30am, Sky Sport 1
The World T20 starts proper this weekend, with Scotland, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka joining the main draw from the qualifiers, with either Ireland or Namibia also progressing overnight. The tournament starts with a beauty, with Justin Langer’s Australia seemingly on a downward curve and South Africa on the way up. I’m not so sure. New Zealand starts their campaign against Pakistan on Wednesday.
Australia v South Africa, Abu Dhabi, tomorrow 11pm, Sky Sport 3
Liverpool and Manchester United enjoyed dramatic 3-2 victories in the Champions League midweek. They’re separated by a short stretch of motorway. They’re the two most successful clubs in England. The hate between them is real. Enjoy.
Manchester United v Liverpool, Old Trafford, Monday 4.30am, Spark Sport
Mercedes have got awfully quick all of a sudden. Can Red Bull and F1 championship leader Max Verstappen respond?
US GP, Austin, Monday 6.30am, Spark Sport
Early season NBA games can be a little exhibition-like, but count me as intrigued to see how the Simmons-less 76ers handle the challenge of the Kevin Durant-led title favourites.
Philadelphia 76ers v Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia, tomorrow 12.45pm, ESPN
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