Hello and welcome to Stumped, your intercontinental hit of news, features,
and debate from the quirky world of cricket. I'm Alison Mitchell, and I'm in the commentary box at
Lord's looking out over a sun-drenched ground at the moment. I've just seen the New Zealand captain
Kane Williamson come out and have a good feel of the pitch, right opposite his old teammate,
Brendon McCullum in England kit who came out and had a good feel of the kit as well. So,
it is a new start, a new England coach and new England captain in Ben Stokes. I'm just
back from commentating on the French Open tennis as well. It's a little bit of a switch for me,
but really excited to be here at Lord's. The international summer starts here in England.
You've warmed up, Ali. It's Jim Maxwell for the ABC in Sydney. Not much cricket going on
down here, other than they've just released the programme for next summer. And I think almost
every team on the planet is visiting Australia at some point. Certainly, South Africa is here for
some Tests with the West Indies and there's a lot of white-ball cricket as well. So, let's all get
ready to watch New Zealand play England. Looking forward to that.
Hello, I'm Charu Sharma for All India Radio in Rajkot in west Gujarat. It's very hot here right now but these T20 state leagues
and I'm about to do this Saurashtra Premier League are actually the birthplace for the draw hungry talent
bursting through to the IPL. So, I suppose the guys wouldn't mind the little bit of heat here.
And of course, all of Gujarat is still celebrating their fabulous first ever season winning the IPL.
Yes, Charu and Jim, great to have you along. Charu, you say the IPL because we're actually
gonna start with the shorter form of the game, albeit here at Lord's. We'll come to the Test
match in a moment, but a fairytale ending for Gujarat Titans in their first ever season in
the IPL and they lead the way throughout. They finished top of the table, 20 points from 10 games
in the league stage. And then they came up with the goods when it mattered most in the final,
beating Rajasthan Royals in front of over 100,000 spectators at that stadium in Ahmedabad.
And I'm joined by one of the standout performers from Gujarat Titans, a real star of the team;
South Africa batter, now IPL winner, David Miller. Congratulations, David. Welcome to Stumped.
How are you doing? Thank you very much, Ali. All good, thank you.
Where do we find you at the moment, post IPL final? What does an IPL winner do?
I gave myself 30 hours in India with the team. We celebrated and did a couple of things, and then I shot off to the Maldives.
I'm here for three days. Yeah, get some chill out time. I don't blame you at all. Tell us
about Gujarat Titans. What do you put this success down to? Yeah, I mean, it was an incredible season. But I think, you know,
the environment was a relaxed environment, it just seemed like everyone could sort of have their say
and feel a part of the unit led by the management, which was great. And then on the field,
I think there was key moments in T20 cricket that you always need. There were key moments that guys
put up their hand throughout the season, and, you know, that did what we needed when most expected.
I think there were nine or 10 different men of the matches throughout the 16 games. And you know,
often you get players doing really well, certain players doing really well throughout.
But this particular up hill, everyone contributed in some way,
and it was just a complete team effort, which is great to have. Yeah, Jim will come in in a moment,
but just first, that Ahmedabad stadium I mentioned 100,000 seater. What was that experience like
playing in front of that crowd? Yeah, it was definitely the biggest crowd I've ever
played under, well, in front of and it was, I suppose once in a lifetime experience. I mean,
I hope it happens again, in the sense that we play a final in Ahmedabad, but to play a final
in front of 105,000 people, you know, there's sort of, as you mentioned, a fairytale finish. So,
it really was a great season and then to have no support throughout the competition, in the
sense of spectators. And then having, you know, everyone supporting us for the final being at home
was quite a quite a special thing. I actually got a little bit emotional or not emotional,
but it's like you know, just took it in completely in the warm-ups. Looking around in the crowd and
just seeing you know, the mass of people that were actually there and just sort of hit me that
you know, we're in the IPL final and here we are, so it was a it was a very special moment.
Something that I'll always cherish forever. David, Jim Maxwell in Sydney. You certainly played a huge
part in the Titans success; an average of over 68 - the best of anyone in this season's IPL, including
32 from 19 balls in the final. How do you feel about your form? And, you know, from an individual
point of view, the way you expressed yourself? Yeah, Jim, it was a very nice season. I mean,
I just enjoyed it throughout the season. I got given a complete run throughout, where I find
myself in the last four or five years in the IPL sort of not really getting too many games. So,
it was nice to get bats from the word go, and, you know, told upfront that I'm going to be, you know,
playing most of the games, in fact, all of them. So, it's nice to have that assurity to just go out
there and do what I know I can do. I have been feeling really good the last couple of years with my
personal game. So, it was just really nice to, to do it at the IPL where, as I said, I haven't
played too many games. So, it was a special season. And I think being in the middle order
for what I really enjoyed is, you know, I happened to be there for four or five games, you know,
finishing the game off, and that's what I sort of strive to do being in the middle order,
seeing the guys home, and everything sort of aligned and went really well.
You've stated that you've changed your mentality or approach, how to manage failure, and that's resulted in this
great improvement. Tell us a bit more about that experience.
Yeah, definitely. I mean, like I said, I've been around for some time now. And I think, you know, you would expect
to get better as a player over the years if you're not wanting to learn and wanting to
keep working hard. And I think, like I said, the last couple years, I've really sort of
found out what works for me, and sort of my blueprint towards the shorter format. And really
just trying to implement that in every single game. You know, you never guaranteed success,
but I think if you are doing the right things more often than not and understanding what works
for you and what you need to do, you most probably will be more successful than not. So, I think it's
just about trying to start afresh every game and stick to the process. And you know, really just
work out the situation and scenarios. Chasing or setting is pretty key, so you're just trying
to sort of stick close to that. Hi David, this is Charu Sharma and I'm in Rajkot. If I can take
you back to the auction, it's been very up and down for you in the IPL and the value, if I may say
so was dwindling over the years. And then on day one, unsold. Was the Miller household watching?
What was your thought at that point of time? I actually wasn't, I was playing in a
T20 competition in South Africa, local T20. And we were playing a doubleheader that day, and I was
I think like 12th or 13th on the IPL list. And I'd sort of just... I think I missed it by
about 20 minutes, half an hour, because obviously we had to hand in our phones.
So I only sort of got the news four hours later that I wasn't selected, and I'd scored a nice 50 that
game as well, so it was quite nice. But then to hear the news that I wasn't in the IPL, I was
pretty gutted, but fortunately got picked up the next day. And yeah, so I wasn't watching.
David, settle this for us. There's a lot of talk about how a first-time franchise has gone on to win. So,
from your perspective, since you've been around the block a bit in terms of number of franchises,
does it really make a difference? Because there's a school out there that says, 'well, these guys are
professionals doesn't matter who they play for,' but does it really make a difference at all, which
team you're playing for in terms of management or ownership?
Yeah, I definitely do think so.
You know, there's certain teams that do really well for a reason. I think it's about managing
players in the right way, getting the best out of the players and finding out what works as a team
and finding out you know, you can't necessarily compete against other teams by what they do with
their strengths. You know, you've got to play your strengths as a team, work out what the strengths
are, and sort of go down that path and let the game unfold as it goes. But definitely management,
leadership, all of that kind of stuff really does make a huge play in a successful season.
We can't leave out Mr. Leader himself, we are talking about leadership of Hardik Pandya. Now
he was elevated to a captain and come out of the shadows of Rohit Sharma. So how was your
relationship with him? How was he with the rest of the team? And do you think is the right man to
perhaps lead India in the times to come? Yeah, I really enjoyed getting to know Hardik. I knew him
from before just playing against him in various different games and tournaments. But it was great
to get to know him. I mean, he's a big, large kind of character. You know, he's a match winner and
it was just nice to get to know him on a personal level. I actually find out he's incredibly humble,
down to earth kind of guy, you know, very caring towards the whole unit, and I think challenged
a lot of guys in different ways, but also just brought everyone together in a very unique way.
I think he's got... well, I know, he's got incredible leadership skills, he's got that presence, that
aura that one would need. So, it was great to play under him and just get to know him as a friend.
And I really do wish him all the very best for you know, whatever comes his way with Indian cricket.
And if it may be leadership, etc, etc. David, you mentioned the T20 series you've got coming
up internationally wise, you battered mostly at five for the Titans, you're usually at six for
South Africa, are you sort of gunning for a little bit of a rise up the order?
I must be honest, I would like to bat higher up. But you know, saying that, in the South African team we've got a really
solid six batters. And I really do feel like in a international cricket, whatever sort
of role I get given, I'd like to overcome it in whatever way and best as I can.
It has been a fairy tale for you personally, unsold in the auction and now being an IPL winner. What goals
are you now setting for the remainder of this year alone? It's quite a difficult question, because
I generally like to try and keep things pretty simple. I don't like to overthink too many things,
so genuinely, for now, I just want to really do well for South Africa and have an extremely
competitive series there as a team in India. And I mean, I'm going to England for six weeks in July
and August and then I'm going to the Caribbean in September and then the World Cup at the end of
the year. So, there's quite a lot of cricket coming up. So, I think it's just trying to
not necessarily look too far ahead. Just trying to keep things pretty close and keep ticking off
the boxes as I go along. But yeah, I mean, it would be great to lift another trophy,
and that would be the World Cup at the end of the year. So, I mean, if you're talking about goals,
that's definitely one to look forward to and hoping that we can tick that box.
Yeah, we look forward to seeing you in action over here in the English summer, that's for sure.
David, congratulations on the IPL win and enjoy what is left as your of your Maldives break. It
sounds a wonderful! Thanks for joining us. Thank you very much, guys. I really appreciate it.
That is David Miller, IPL champion with Gujarat Titans. From white-ball to red-ball, let's turn
our attention to the Test series between England's men and New Zealand who are the World Test
champions, because the home of cricket here, Lord's, as I'm looking out across the ground,
they haven't managed to sell all tickets, which is unusual for the first few days of
the first Lord's Test of the summer. I went online this morning at eight o'clock well first, we were
told that almost 20,000 were unsold over the first four days. As of eight o'clock on day one,
I counted 422 seats that were still available for purchase. Charu, if you were visiting Lord's and
wanted to go to the cricket when you're in London, how much do you reckon you'd be prepared to pay?
And in particularly if you're bringing along an under 16 with you.
I'd probably give Alison Mitchell a call and say 'hey, you got a ticket for me?'
You know, certainly not anything near £100, and especially not for youngsters. I mean, they should
be at least 50% of whatever the ticket prices are. Well ticket prices are between, for the public
seats this is, £110 to £160. There are different ways of getting tickets. If you do it through
your county club, people were telling me that they would have got a ticket for them and their son
or daughter for maybe £70 or £80, but certainly in the days leading up to the game and this morning,
the only public seats left are between £110 and £140 and juniors the same price as adults. Now there is a
section where a certain number of concession seats were made available. MCC haven't been able to give me a
figure of how many, but they have said that on day four of the match, they are making a further 2000
concession tickets available to buy. Clearly at the moment there are no concession tickets left,
the only prices you can get are these £100+ prices with adult and junior tickets
costing you the same. So that's certainly putting off a lot of people, it seems. Jim, the MCC are
sort of partly blaming the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebration. I'm wearing red today, as
it's the start of a long bank holiday weekend, but you know, it's a double Bank Holiday. There'll be
people around London in particular have taken the opportunity to get out of town. Do you think that
is a reasonable excuse as to why Lord's isn't selling out for this first Test of the summer?
Well, from what you've been saying, it sounds like quite a few are going to be
there. Is the Queen going to be there? Well, they wouldn't tell us in advance if she was.
That's right. Well, maybe that's the surprise part of it the next couple of days because
she normally shows up to welcome one of the visiting teams at Lord's, but
it sounds like it's going to be, as they say in the classics, a bit of a ball tearer with
McCullum in charge and Stokes playing. You know, we might see England actually
chase a score in the final innings for a change or do something remarkable. Maybe those old duffers
with a new ball, Broad and Anderson will rip through New Zealand and
create a winning position for the home team. I think there's a lot to look forward to about this
match and I'm glad that I've got a seat in front of the television because I wouldn't pay £160 to go.
Well, that is all we've got time for this week on All India Radio. So I will say thanks to
Charu Sharma and Jim Maxwell and of course to you all for listening. Don't forget you can follow us
on Twitter. We're @BBCWSSport and use #BBCStumped, and check us out on YouTube as well. Go to the
BBC World Service's YouTube channel, and make sure you join us again next week. Bye for now.