Kiran Carlson's education is nearly complete

NICK HOWSON: Glamorgan's crop of young charges are led by a right-hander finally in a position to commit fully to cricket. The results could be sensational

PAUL EDWARDS: Are the margins of the season all that bad? I'm not so sure

Playing cricket has seldom been the priority for Kiran Carlson.

As the youngest player in English county first-class history to score a century and take a five-for, the scorer of two centuries and three fifties in the opening weeks of the new Championship season and a central pillar of a young breed at Glamorgan, it seems hard to believe that this isn't an individual simply delivering on his talent. But the truth is, Carlson hasn't even got started.

When the right-hander, aged 18 years and 119 days old, went to three figures for the first time against Essex in September 2016 (it occurred a fortnight after his off-spinner yielded 5 for 28 on debut against Northamptonshire) it was billed as the start of something special. The problem is, it was never likely to be, at least not initially.

Throughout Carlson's sporting development there has always been at least one eye on education. The adage that you're a long time retired is not lost on the Cardiff boy. 

"I've always been told that cricket is great, and my aim was to become a professional, but that it wasn't forever and you never know what is going to happen in terms of injuries, contracts, etc," Carlson, 22, told The Cricketer.

^{The century at Chelmsford in 2016 was meant to set Carlson up for life}

"Over the past few years, some of the people I've grown up playing cricket have retired, some have got released and moved on to other jobs. That puts professional sport into perspective and if you don't fit the mould and if you're done with and you can't offer anything more, you're out on your own.

"The PCA can help out but as soon as I saw the cut-throat attitude to professional sport it made me release it can only be temporary if stuff hits the fan and you're left with no job or income. 

"My parents were realistic. It was never a factor that I was definitely going to get a contract. I wasn't expecting to be a professional cricketer. I thought I'd be going to university, playing for the MCCU and potentially getting a contract for one of those years. I've stuck with it and I wouldn't have changed it."

Right from his formative years at Whitchurch High School, Carlson had it drummed into him that whatever his talent might deliver, there was no substitute for a proper education. As he embarks on attempting to emulate famous alumni such as four-time Champions League winner Gareth Bale, Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas and Wales and British and Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton, he has carried forward that ethos.

Those days at Whitchurch fully prepared him for what was to come. Aside from the world-class facilities, pupils are treated like elite athletes from the moment they are identified as talents for the future. Life at the top starts early.

"It is by no means a cricket school, and they wouldn't claim to be," Carlson explained. "It is a rugby and football school. Just the way they have high expectations from a sporting group. There were a lot of time constraints. You live by a strict regime of gym, training and eating what you need to eat. 

"You're brought up with an elite mindset even though it is only school sport. When I needed to go (Glamorgan) second XI training or play an academy game, they were very helpful and put on extra lessons. They understood that when people were in positions where they could progress in sport, they would help you through that process as much as they can.

"The facilities are great but there is a high level of coaching, trust, strength and conditioning, and nutrition. They would always prioritise education. If you were behind on work, you couldn't skip and go to rugby training. It was tough and a lot of work and you couldn't really do what other kids were doing at that stage. To be a 17, 18-year-old and growing up it was great."

Balancing his sporting desires with education has continued since leaving school. Over the last four years he has combined a career at Sophia Gardens with a business degree (originally civil engineering until he switched) at Cardiff University, something keenly supported by Glamorgan through their head of talent development Richard Almond.

Reviewing key reading material before and after play, writing essays while waiting to bat and missing matches to take exams have been all par for the course. Following those heroics at Chelmsford, 1,275 runs in 51 innings followed across over the next four years in the four-day format; perhaps not the return many would have expected but understandable in the circumstances.

The delicate balancing act comes to an end in a few weeks when three pieces of coursework are handed in and final exams - which will be staged after days of play due to Covid-19 - take place. 

"For me, I was always going to go to university," he admits. "I'm in my last year now I'd be much happier not doing my exams and concentrating on cricket but it's a sacrifice where I've had to miss games. It is rubbish at the time, and you feel like you miss out. 

"My career might not have progressed how I would have liked it to from my first couple of years when I wasn't at university. But in the long run, it has made me a better person, made me appreciate cricket more and I will definitely benefit from it in the coming years."

He added: "It has been a challenge, no doubt about that. I try and get as much work done as I can, and when I'm done, I'm playing cricket. There is no real in-between. 

"These months have been the hardest ones. You finish a days play and I am working, and when I am waiting to go into bat or there is a rain delay I'm going off to a corporate box and sitting on my laptop for a couple of hours. It does get mentally draining at times.

"But they do help each other. Cricket, when I've got other stuff on, is put into perspective that I am in the real world and not in this bubble or untouchable. I'm still doing uni work like a couple of hundred people on my course. And when I am playing cricket I kind of relax and do what I love to do. 

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited for it to finish and to just have cricket to concentrate on. When I look back in a few years it'll definitely have made me a different person. It has taught me to manage my time when I do have exams and cricket and other stuff going on."

^{Carlson is developing into a batter equally adept at scoring through both sides of the wicket}

If recent months truly have been the "hardest ones", then it makes Carlson's return across the opening four rounds of the new County Championship season even more impressive. Indeed, they reflect a player whose shackles have come free.

Carlson has always been regarded as an elegant, classic stroke maker. Short in stature and once regarded as a wristy player that would clip through midwicket and punch down the ground, he now has an equally adept offside game with a cover drive to match anyone on the circuit.

After managing just 132 runs across the Bob Willis Trophy and T20 Blast in 2020, Carlson spent the winter remodelling his approach. He focused on getting on the front foot, putting pressure back on the bowler rather than waiting for the inevitable.

"I've gone in with a clearer mindset of what I am trying to do," he outlined. "I had a good winter, made a few tweaks technically and from a mindset point of view. By my own standards, I wasn’t performing at a level that I didn't want to perform at for the past few seasons. It is nice to perform at a level that I can and sustain it from here.

"It is more about being more positive in the way I approach the red-ball game. I got a bit stuck at the time thinking about how they were trying to get me out, and how I was going to get out. Instead of that, I have tried to shift that to how I am going to score runs. 

"I may nick off two or three more balls this year, but I know I am going to score runs playing a bit more positively than I have done in the past. I have cleared up my game in terms of how I am going to score runs, what areas. Good balls I am going to try and stop them but as soon as a bowler misses their length or line I am not going to hold back. I am going to try and be positive and score runs.

"I closed off my stance a little bit, got my hands closer to my body and it was more about finding my trigger where I could step and move my body into the ball. In the past, I have been a bit guilty of getting my feet stuck on the crease. I've got a more set trigger, set stance and I'm stiller when the ball is released, and I can move from there."

Carlson has started the season in glorious fashion, with five landmark scores in seven innings, thrusting him inside county cricket's top 10 run-scorers in 2021. Two hundreds came against Sussex, making him the first Glamorgan batter to double up for 16 years.

Clearing his mind and tightening his technique has produced immediate rewards, but these tweaks are all part of a process. He is now three years a vegan, returning lifetime best results in fitness tests due to high energy levels and a better understanding of how to look after himself. Aside from a dodgy moustache and an accompanying mullet, Carlson is starting to build his game around David Boon, whom he regularly studies on YouTube, making himself both adaptable but also gritty and steeled. It is hard not to hugely admire a young man with plenty of character.

Carlson wasn't born the last time Glamorgan won the County Championship in 1997. Roman Walker, Prem Sisodiya and Callum Taylor also missed the last title success, while Joe Cooke, Dan Douthwaite and Lukas Carey would barely have been able to hold their own heads up.

Only twice since the single division format was scrapped have Glamorgan been in contention for the top honour. Granted, 2021 might not be their year either with Yorkshire and Lancashire for company in Group Three and only two permitted to progress, but Matthew Maynard's young group - supplemented by Australians Marnus Labuschagne and Michael Neser - are facing a formative experience. The draw with Yorkshire, narrow defeat to Northamptonshire and victory over Kent suggests they're ready.

"We have a better team culture and an idea of what we want to do as a team," he said of the atmosphere in the Welsh capital. "A few guys and I who were very young two or three years ago have grown up a bit and found our feet in the team a little bit more. Obviously, we have players who have been around for a while now, so we have that mix of older and younger guys. 

"We have a big ambition as a team, and we know when we play our best we can beat anyone. It is about trying to find that consistency in performances. We're a process-driven team, we have goals that we want to in a game and if we meet those goals then the likelihood of getting a result is increased. 

^{Things haven't always gone Carlson's way since his breakthrough}

"We're not the finished article as a team, we put a lot of emphasis on wanting to be a competitive team in all formats but especially in red-ball. 

"It is a statement when teams can get results in red-ball cricket. We've put a massive emphasis on that and prepared a lot this winter. It is pleasing that all of our processes are working.

"It is definitely more of a challenge playing regularly against more classic Division One clubs but I have no doubt we will be up there with the standard of players we have. We're a bit grittier and more determined; if we're in a tough spot we can get ourselves out of it more than we would have in the past."

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