Hello and welcome to Stumped, your intercontinental hit of news, features and debate from the
quirky world of cricket. I'm Alison Mitchell back in England, bracing ourselves for Storm
Eunice to hit as soon as I stepped off the plane, pretty much, but also Stuart Broad
has expressed his frustration, well confusion and anger at being left out of the England
squad for the West Indies. We talked about that on last week's show and indeed,
he's not happy about his possible England future now, as well. But also imagine my surprise
when I turned on the television to watch the IPL auction to see Charu Sharma in the hot
seat. More on that to come. Hello, it's Jim Maxwell from Sydney, here.
Keeping an eye on the IPL auction and the guest auctioneer, Sheffield Shield cricket,
Australia beating Sri Lanka in T20 and of course New Zealand off to a red-hot start
across the ditch against South Africa. Well, hello both of you. I tell you why Stuart Broad
is upset at missing out on that tour to the West Indies, because they've forgotten how
to play cricket. In India, it's turning out to be a terrible series for them. I'd much
rather watch Sri Lanka because they're playing a reasonable brand. Well, you know, there
I was returning from the coffee plantation last week. You remember that I did the show
from Mysore; somewhere along the way we stopped and then I got back home. It was supposed
to be an average, unremarkable, weekend with the family. Then I get a phone call and then,
what can I say? It led to some pretty dramatic scenes over the weekend.
So, you weren't at the auction anyway? I presumed that Hugh Edmeades collapsed - thankfully he was okay - and you
just got sort of hauled straight up. How did it happen? The shortest end is that I was
at home having lunch with the extended family and I got a call from Brijesh Patel, who's
a friend of mine. He's the chairman of the IPL, but much more a friend from Bangalore;
he's run the Karnataka State Cricket Association for many years. He said: "Charu, where are you?"
And I said: "At home." He said: "Can you get to the ITC Gardenia immediately?"
And I said: "Well I suppose I could. What's the problem?" He said: "Well, you know our auctioneer, unfortunately,
has just collapsed. He had an incident," and so he said: "You've got just enough time to
put on a suit and get here as quickly as you can," which I did. And then one just sort of
carried on because it's like a little river that you immerse yourself and just go with
the flow. I don't want to undermine or underestimate the auctioneer's job in a sporting scenario,
but really, it's pretty elementary because the players are the centre of attraction.
And you just have to go along with the auction book. So, it wasn't traumatic at all.
But it would seem that a lot of people didn't really expect it of me. So, that was the funny
part, but anyway, Alison. Jim, I mean, it's really about the players. And if you're in the auction
at seat all you need to bother about is what's the next team coming up?
You don't really get carried away with the figures; it's all for the players and it's
all one fuzzy couple of days. I don t remember who went to whom and for how much!
That could be a problem for the next five minutes of this podacast!
I've done a little bit of homework for the show, so... The most expensive buy, I won't put
you on the sport, Charu, but India's Ishan Kishan - the wicketkeeper/bat. He was bought
by Mumbai Indians, who showed a whopping 15.25 Cores, or just over $2million. Then we had
England batter Liam Livingston becoming the most expensive foreign player in this year's
auction. He was signed by Punjab Kings for $1.5million! Which team do you think has done the best out of it?
The whole purpose of this TATA IPL mega auction was the fact that there
are two new teams and how do we equally, or provide all the teams have an equal opportunity
with an equal purse? So that's the purpose of the auction, really. It's a mature league.
Later on, I'm sure that there will be fewer and fewer auctions or maybe none at all in
the future, but to ensure that the two new teams had a similar go at the equitable distribution,
that's why there's a big auction. I think the purpose has been served because players
have been pretty evenly spread. Of course, the earlier teams did manage to get a few
and the new teams had the choice of getting a few players before the auction. But having
said all of that, it does seem like some of the usual suspects: CSK, although it's an
ageing side; Mumbai Indians always pull something out of a hat; and KKR are pretty well served once again.
Jim, it was really interesting to watch the Aussie cricketer Tim David join
the Millionaire's Club because he was bought by Mumbai Indians for $1.53million, which
is more than the sale price of star names like David Warner and Pat Cummins! We've had
Tim on Stumped before, of course, if you remember him telling us a bit of his back story. But,
yeah. What did you make of that signing Jim? Well, not all that surprising. I mean, we
should give credit to his place of birth who haven't performed brilliantly on the world
stage as yet. Maybe it's going to happen. He was born in Singapore, but has spent most
of his life in Perth, of course, and no doubt at the Australian selectors will be having
an even closer look at him as we move towards the T20 World Trophy later in the year. But
there's no doubt he's the kind of player that can turn a game in a couple of overs.
It's his power hitting coming in at five, six, seven. He can come in anywhere, really.
But that's what we have seen since the first played with the Scorchers, then moved to the
Hurricanes and is playing in the Pakistan Super League and making runs there. He's a
devastating, very, very powerful hitter. Big, strong, 25-year-old right hander. On those
small Indian grounds, well I think all T20 grounds are small now aren't they? They don't
seem to have much trouble in clearing the boundary and he excels at that, so have a
look and see who he's playing for in another seven or eight months' time. You might all
of a sudden like Dirk Nannes did years ago, jump from the Netherlands to play for Australia
and although he has played to Singapore, clearly Australia will grab him if he continues to
pound the ball like he has been doing. But even he must have been surprised. It's what
I call the "IPL Lotto for an exclusive club." You're not too sure which players going to
get the best prize, but there's some good ones there. Liam Livingstone, wow!
Yeah, he's a big hitter, certainly isn't he? That's part of the intrigue, isn't it? Who is going to
pull out those big bucks and sometimes it's surprising names who get the big bucks and surprising
names who don't. I was a little surprised when we're talking about the names who missed
out, Jim. When you look down the list, there are some pretty big names spinners, so: Imran Tahir,
Adil Rashid, Tabraiz Shamsi. Is this, do you think, just too much competition from
Indian spinners? When teams are looking at who to spend their money on for overseas
players, they can actually do very well with their local talent and therefore reserve their
overseas slots for more of the fast bowlers, the big finisher batters?
What's the quota, Charu? How many overseas players are you allowed to play in any one game? Five?
Four in the eleven. But you both have you made good points. One,
of course, only four are allowed, and two, yes Alison, it's because of the fact that the
local spinners obviously know local conditions so much better. If you are to have spare,
if I can use that term, overseas players, you can take nine or ten and then only four
are played. You want to pay a fair amount for four or five big stars, but you don't
want to pay too much, and the base prices are fair anyway for overseas players. You
don't want to pay too much for overseas players who are not likely to be getting a single
game. So, you can have complete that quota, if you wish, of overseas players with just
a few punts on some new players. But, you can't really afford to have more than five
well paid overseas players.
So, to finish off our chat Charu talking about player contracts, have you been signed up
for next year? No disrespect to the incumbent. Yeah, true. No, I have to say that once again,
Hugh seems to be fine. It was terrible tumble. I'm not so sure they need to pay too much
attention to auctions for the next two or three years, because as I said, there is not
likely to be any mega auctions. But, all I can say is that my number hasn't changed for
many, many years. So, if somebody wishes to give it a call, I'm happy to put on a suit
and tie and reach where it is! Next on the programme, we will head to Australia to speak
with former Australian women's captain Alex Blackwell. Now, over the course of her 15-year
international career, Alex captained her team to World Cup and Ashes victories. But away
from the field, life did bring some challenges. Alex was never afraid to call out hypocrisy
and challenged the traditional hierarchies of the game and she became the first out female
cricketer to play for the Australian national team and she has been a big advocate for women
and LGBTQ+ people in sports. Since retiring in 2019, Alex has continued
her involvement in the game as a board member, commentator, and now author. Alex's new book,
Fair Game, was published a couple of weeks ago and I caught up with her to discuss finding
her place in cricket and putting her story in writing. Al, it s really good to have you
on to talk about your book. I'm interested, first of all, has it come out the way you
wanted it to, and has it already had the reception that you hoped it would have?
It's turned out beautifully. I'm very happy with it. I think Megan Maurice who I wrote
it with has done an expert job guiding me to I guess, get the tone right. Because I
didn't want it to be all about hardship and challenges, but there's plenty of stories
around that and finding my place in cricket. But, yeah, the joy of the game and the magic
of the game as a kid, it was lovely to speak about that. And then also how the game has
evolved over the time I was a part of the Australian team. So, from amateur to professional.
The charm of the amateur years, but then the impact of professionalism and how far the game has come.
Was it quite a difficult and emotional book to write, because you address
all manner of subjects from difficulties within the dressing room, challenging times in the
dressing room, but your own of personal battles with your own sexuality when you were younger
and then within the cricket world as well? So, it moves from the personal into the cricket
and back out again. Was it difficult and emotional? Yeah, it was difficult to relive some of the
experiences. I guess I'm not alone when I say that I've experienced homophobia in sport.
I think our game of cricket has come such a long way to acknowledge and celebrate the
contribution of especially gay women. Hopefully more and more gay men can see that cricket
is a place for them. We know that through the "Out On The Field" study that was done in
2014, six thousand people participated from all round the world in this survey and they
were both gay and straight participants. Eighty percent of them have experienced or witnessed
homophobia in sport. Eighty percent. That's a big number and I think we've got a little
bit more work to do, but it's come such a long way. And it's wonderful to see so many
more players being free to be themselves. So, look it was difficult to relive some of
the stories, but part of why I wanted to write the book was to process what had happened.
A lot happened in my time in the game - 15 years playing for Australia - and there was some
element of healing, I guess, going through that process
and putting it down on paper and documenting that wonderful period of change. Our sport has
opened its doors to so many more people now. Has there been some response from those
who read your book and didn't perhaps realise some of the experiences you had in dressing
rooms, from perhaps people who were there at the time that it's maybe open their eyes?
Well, maybe. The more I hear people responding to the book. Mostly the comments have come
from perhaps past players or gay women who aren't in cricket, but the stories resonated
with them. That some of the things I stood up for her and spoke out about, they shared
similar concerns or feelings or experiences, but weren't in a position to speak up. Generational
change, society has changed now. So, I was in a privileged
position to be the first female cricketer to speak openly about these issues. I think
sports administrators will get a lot out of the book to understand the impact of perhaps
outdated marketing strategies that once upon a time were acceptable, but are no longer.
Sport's moved a long way, and also the fans that we're trying to target. They're different
people these days as well, and they have different expectations.
This is one anecdote in the book that you tell, isn't it, where marketing contracts
were awarded to a number of players who were perceived as typical, ideal, marketable cricketer
and you challenged that at the time. Can you just talk us through that particular experience?
Yeah. Look at it was an experience whereby I, through
my interactions with administrators in cricket, understood that they wanted to shift the image
so that mothers might want to bring their daughters. And in saying that, it was highly
offensive to someone like me because what they were saying was that having gay women
in the sport, out gay women was not something they believed mothers would want their daughters
to be around. So, to be told someone like me would not be a good role model was very
hard to hear. So, the marketing contracts at the beginning, there were limited numbers
so not everyone could have one, but I felt that the same trap we were falling into marketing
towards the male gaze of what the current, at the time, fan base of cricket was. The
fan base has changed and needs to change into the future, so that our sport of cricket continues
to be engaging for our younger population too. They want authentic stories. They want
to see themselves reflected in their national teams, and I think the way that the game's
promoted now, all the Australian players have marketing contracts. Not just a few and so
all are respected and remunerated for the promotional work that they do.
Do you think that the game does have enough diversity of thinking? Do you hope that a book such as
yours and your continual advocacy will make the improves that you want to see?
I think, Ali, that when our national teams are reflective of our society, that'll tell us that we've
got diversity of thought throughout our whole system and that we will be encouraging from
a grassroots level all the way through, different types of people. So, we want the talent pool to
be as big as possible and we don't want... Cricket, I guess, was built for men, played by men.
Women invented over arm bowling, but it's come such a long way...
At the first World Cup! Look, I think it's the best sport and I just think it's great
if all people can feel like it's a place for them. Here in Australia, we should be seeing
people of South Asian descent, our Sudanese population that's increasing, our Chinese
population that's very strong. That should be reflected in our Australian team and both
men and women. It's not quite there at the moment, so that takes time, though, and wonderful
to see some of our multicultural ambassador's. Recent debutant, Alana King, for example,
who's done a wonderful job in the Ashes. Thanks again for coming on the show.
Thanks, Ali.
That's former Australia captain Alex Blackwell on the release of her book, Fair Game.
So, that's all we've got time for on this week's Stumped. My thanks to Jim Maxwell and
Charu Sharma and to you for listening. We'll see you again next week. Until then, bye bye.