The old cliche “never meet your heroes” has not come about without reason because often we are left disappointed when our real-life experience does not match the expectations we had built up from afar.
So, having previously heard that Eoin Morgan, former England World Cup-winning captain, could be a bit testy at times, I was naturally apprehensive when approaching him earlier this week in the commentary box at Boland Park.
I had nothing to worry about. In fact, the interaction was stunningly pleasant with Morgan coming across as humble, engaging and quite funny in fact.
Okay, the former England World Cup-winning captain is not exactly a “hero” of mine, but he was responsible for giving me the best quote of my entire 20-year journalistic career. It was in the bowels of Lord’s in 2019 after the greatest World Cup final ever — if not the best ODI ever — and with Morgan having just become the first “Englishman” to lift the coveted trophy.
Morgan, of course, was born in Dublin, Ireland, and due to the nature of the final, I asked him: “Had the luck of an Irishman taken England over the line?”
Morgan’s unfiltered response was the stuff of legends, and it went viral across the globe within seconds.
“We had Allah with us as well,” Morgan said. “I spoke to Adil (Rashid) and he said Allah was definitely with us. I said we had the rub of the green.”
He would go on to explain further how the diversity of that England team, with players having grown up in different cultures and countries, had actually been a cornerstone of their success at the World Cup.
And while I’ve already said that Morgan was never a hero of mine, I have always had great admiration for his “EQ” — emotional intelligence — and he has certainly brought this along to the studio during Betway SA20.
It has been enlightening listening to him convey his thoughts on the mic with his unrivalled tactical acumen also shining through brightly.
It’s been a far cry from having to endure one of his former England teammate’s ramblings and often lack of complete understanding of South Africa as a country and its unique challenges.
Morgan has also never been afraid to swim upstream. Long before Bazball, it was he that tore up the script and transformed England’s mediocre white-ball game into the most attacking and attractive brand of cricket that resulted in England becoming the only nation to simultaneously hold both the ODI and T20 World Cup crowns.
I therefore listened attentively to a recent candid interview with Sky Sports, where Morgan was once again quite forthright in his views.
“I think if the shortest format of the game did not exist, if IPL never happened, if no other franchise leagues in the world did not exist, I think cricket would end up dying in a ditch. The level of popularity would decline. Trying to sell a five-day game or just a one-day game in particular, to young kids now is very very tough,” Morgan said on Sky Sports.
“Selling things to your kids is very very difficult. But if you can have visibility on this magnificent product that exists to engage young kids in the game, that is your introduction and your pathway into going right. This is a beautiful sport that we play. You can learn so many valuable lessons in life through playing this sport. This is the shortest format.
“If you enjoy this you might also enjoy Test match cricket. So at an introductory level, I’m a huge fan of it and without it, I would see a huge decline in the popularity of the sport. So I think it was an adaptation to the change in generation of young people coming through and it’s thrived. T20 cricket has changed the game forever. I don’t fall for the argument that shortest format is eating Test cricket,” he added.
There’s no doubt South Africans may disagree after not having the opportunity to watch their World Test Champions on home soil this summer, but the reality is that there has not been such a positive buzz around cricket in this country that has been generated by the Betway SA20 for a very long time.
Every single evening at six stadiums around the country there are children having the time of their lives on the grass banks and on the terraces.
The fact that school has re-opened after the holidays has not made a smidge of difference.
Morgan has been a breath of fresh air. So has the SA20.
