‘My use of wrist all comes from squash’
Ryan Burl has come leaps and bounds since his early days, with his rise perfectly coinciding with the new-found ambition coming through in Zimbabwe cricket. The 28-year-old spoke about growing up with cricket and other sports and his view on the current generation of Zimbabwe players during an interview with The Daily Star's Abdullah Al Mehdi. The excerpts are below:
On Zimbabwe's current generation: When you start thinking of the legends, you think of the late 90s and early 2000s. You think of Andy Flowers, Heath Streak or Henry Olonga and Tatenda Taibu. But that was back then, I firmly believe we have our own legends now like Sikander Raza, Brendon Taylor, Sean Williams and great prospects like [Blessing] Muzarabani. So, I believe some years from now, people will call us the legends of Zimbabwe cricket.
On the atmosphere of Zimbabwe from a cricketer's point of view: It's amazing. Not everyone knows you but you are the talk of the town and everyone's talking about cricket. Everyone wants to go to the games and the stadiums are packed and we owe a lot to the crowds.
On that viral tweet about gluing the shoes back: It was the kind of thing which you don't expect to see go viral. I couldn't be any more grateful to Puma for stepping up and helping us out. They helped not just me but some of my teammates too and it's an eye-opener in terms of sponsors rallying behind us. Obviously we are not top five in the world but that's no excuse for the sponsors.At that time, [the tweet] was about giving insight into what us cricketers face in the background. I like tampering and fixing things and I am a bit of DIY guy at home, although not as good as my brother and dad. Cricket can be a bit of an expensive sport and we go through a lot of wear and tear.
On playing hockey and squash and how it helped in cricket: I think those kinds of sports contributed to the player I am today. You see my use of wrist and it all comes from squash. You see me sweeping and reverse-sweeping and that's basically hockey all over -- getting low down. To this day I play all the sports but I came to cricket because it's a team game.
On Zim coach David Houghton's work: We kind of all sat down and talked about the brand of cricket we wanted to play. We wanted to cheer up the fans and play positive cricket to bring in the fans. It doesn't work all the time but works sometimes. It happens that you go for 180 but manage just a 100. But being defensive and getting 140 means you still lose the game. So that's what we discussed as a group.
On his experience with Mashrafe: He's a legend of Bangladesh and has an extremely calming presence. He's one of those guys who gives you full belief and backs you hundred per cent. I was originally put down to bat at five or six but there would be an instance when he says: 'No I want you to go at four and want you to express yourself, be confident and enjoy yourself.' He makes integration easier.
On becoming a leggie: You have less space in the garden and sometimes you bowl spin. I used to open the bowling with Sam Curran in Zimbabwe but then one day I told the coach I'm done with seam. Watching Warnie, Stuart McGill and Kumble and you start to bowl the flipper or the slider. It's a proper art form.
On whether leggies are diminishing: It's a weird one since I haven't seen a leggie in Bangladesh. But you look at the T20 rankings, at one stage there were six of seven leggies up there like Adil Rashid, Rashid Khan, Ish Sodhi. It might seem like a dying art and it's high-risk and high-reward thing but you might also get wickets. I discussed grips with others such as Rashid and bringing unpredictability to the field set-up. It's like a community of leggies and we speak to each other. Batters are always trying to figure us out so we're trying to stay ahead.