James Kirtley: "The T20 Blast is an incredibly exciting tournament, we need to protect it"

T20 BLAST FROM THE PAST: KISHAN VAGHELA talks to the former Sussex and England bowler about the art of modern fast bowling in the 20-over format, when T20 cricket really took off and his fleeting England career

"I slightly adjusted, and luckily it stuck."

A description which James Kirtley uses to describe his stunning left-handed grab to dismiss Sourav Ganguly at Lord's in the 2002 Natwest Series, but one which is similarly applicable to the evolution of fast bowling in T20 cricket.

Kirtley, a former quick himself, coaches members of the current cartel of fast bowling talent at Sussex, such as Jofra Archer, Tymal Mills, Chris Jordan and Ollie Robinson, with the demand to expand their repertoire at an extremely lofty level.

Deemed a specialist in white-ball cricket, the slingy yet purposeful Kirtley possessed skills at the end of the innings which were nothing more than a rarity when the format kicked off in 2003. However, with the amplification of variations came an increased, unwavering demand to deliver them consistently.

"No one really tried to change a great deal of what they were trying to do until the final overs of the game when I was playing.

"The more and more T20 has evolved, so has the pressure on the bowler. Before it was all about the batsmen making mistakes, now it is all about the bowlers not being able to execute.

"Because batsmen are playing with less fear and are encouraged to express themselves, bowlers really are pressured, and you have to have some variation.

"You have to be able to execute and you need to adapt to either the player, the surface, or the boundary sizes.

"Those are all the things that as a coach you are looking to help develop in the players, so that they are not only able to execute their skills but also ensure that they are making those assessments and decisions."

Meticulous planning and reworking of ideas occur so that come the pinnacle moments of pressure, the assessments and decisions are made with pinpoint accuracy and in the most scrupulous manner.

Kirtley was that fabled 'big-game player', the man the captain turns to with a stern face yet sanguine outlook, and 5-27 in the 2006 C&G Trophy final and 6-34 on his England Test debut against South Africa, the best figures by a debutant since John Lever, were evidence that he produced when handed the chance.

^{James Kirtley had an England Test debut to remember}

"Ultimately it came down to the way at the time Sussex practiced and had a work ethic greater than any other county.

"I was practicing my skills more than any other bowler at Sussex, so I always felt confident in those big moments. It was an incredible place to be at the top of your mark and being the most prepared person for those moments.

"It didn't matter whether there were 3,500 or 32,000 people at Lord's, because you have put the work in you know you can deliver in those moments.

"Since retiring it is those big games I would always miss because that is the time to really showcase your talent.

"It is not like you tried any less hard in the other games, but [in the big games] you were able to cope with it [the pressure] and have a degree of clarity in your decision-making. That would put me in a position to execute."

That lucid approach may have worked for Kirtley when he was speeding to the crease, but there was less clarity as to why his international career was so short-lived.

After just four Test matches, 11 ODIs and a single T20I against Australia at the 2007 T20 World Cup, he would never wear England colours again. Despite the fact that the return of the usual cavalry from their injuries was inevitable, the cut-throat nature of international cricket was too stringent for Kirtley.

"There were a lot of injuries at the time when I played [against South Africa in 2003], so there were three or four bowlers that were tried in that series.

"Martin Bicknell came back, Kabir Ali played in one of the Tests in that series, Richard Johnson had played earlier in the year and Martin Saggers then played in the winter.

"But you knew the likes of [Matthew] Hoggard, [Simon] Jones, who was on the rise and [Steve] Harmison, who was just starting to deliver consistently and then went on to that West Indies tour in 2004 from which he never looked back from, were going to come back.

"You accepted it, but the question you could ask is whether four Tests was enough to judge me on. That would be the only thing I would query.

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"I don't have any problem with the fact that there were other bowlers around who were probably more in the system than I was, but whether it was fair to be judged after four Tests, I don't know."

While Kirtley feels that he was granted insufficient opportunities to prove his worth at the international level, there was no such dearth of match referees examining the legality of his bowling action throughout the majority of his career.

His England one-day debut in 2001-02 was overshadowed by his being reported by the match referee in Zimbabwe, and despite subsequent large-scale remedial work, he was reported twice in 2005 and again sent for remedial work at the end of the summer.

While the former fast bowler admits he would be reticent to return to some of the dark times he experienced during that period of working on his action, he is now reaping the benefits of the time out of the game from a coaching perspective.

"The benefit of the actual process and journey of the remodeling is enormous now, being a bowling coach.

"There wouldn't have been anybody who would have been more scrutinised than myself. I had to scrutinise my own action.

"It was tough and incredibly dark at times, with the mechanics of bowling and having to change stuff, learning what the process is and what stages you have to go through.

"But now as a coach that is where I have a huge advantage having gone through those experiences as a player."

Nevertheless, with all the reworkings implemented, Kirtley had one last bash with England left in him. Or so he thought when he was selected alongside fellow T20 specialists Darren Maddy, Chris Schofield and Jeremy Snape for the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa.

However, the sole opportunity to deliver on the biggest stage of his career was a single over that disappeared for 17 against Australia.

Nevertheless, while the tournament was unsuccessful for Kirtley and England collectively, he maintains that a biproduct of India's tournament win was the emergence of T20 cricket as a credible third format, despite the initial indifferent attitude towards it.

"I don't think it really was [taken seriously] initially. If you look back to that World Cup, India didn't really send their major stars.

^{Kirtley credits the 2007 World T20 as the catalyst for the change in attitude towards the format}

"[Sachin] Tendulkar, [Rahul] Dravid and [VVS] Laxman weren't there, they played a load of youngsters. Not that it was taken too lightheartedly but it wasn't taken as seriously as it is taken now.

"Australia tried different types of kit, so there were lots of different things going on, but then after India winning it took off.

"That was the catalyst, that World Cup of India winning with a young, dynamic team was the catalyst for the Indian Premier League and suddenly it was a far more serious format of the game.

"People suddenly saw that there was a future in that format and there were real rewards to be had if you excelled in that form of the game."

The jury however remains out on whether The Hundred competition, which is due to run parallel to Blast and the Royal London One-Day Cup, possesses any such seminal value.

The newest format of the game is allegedly set to revolutionise and expand the borders of the game with eight city-based franchise teams who have already begun to appoint head coaches for both the men's and women's teams.

But Kirtley himself is more concerned with conservation attempts for the current competitions in the domestic circuit, particularly given that he is keen to build on what he has seen with his own eyes in the Blast this campaign.

"What we have to remember is that we have a blooming good format at the moment in the T20 Blast.

"Particularly this year, some of the games have been extraordinary and Sussex have sold out every single home game, showing that there is a real support for that format.

"The cricket I have seen first-hand has been outstanding, in the South Group there are some extraordinary players who are delivering or performing at the very highest level.

"The counties have got better at it and have created environments which have allowed players to express themselves. Phil Salt has this support and confidence from the coaching staff, the captain and the rest of the team to play as he does, and it is part of the evolving culture of coaching that has helped with that.

"It is alright for Tymal Mills and Reece Topley to focus in on 20-over cricket in the season. There isn't an expectation for them to have to play all formats. The spectators want to see the ball fizzing around at 90mph, they want to see the ball disappearing into the crowd.

^{Reece Topley is one of the many fast bowlers Kirtley is working with at Sussex}

"If you put all that together and players are encouraged to do that, and are incentivised to perform on the domestic stage, it is an incredibly exciting tournament to be involved in as a player and as a coach.

"I think we need to protect that. I think the 50-over competition is another one that needs to be protected in some way.

"That isn't to have a go at The Hundred but it is also a reminder of the two good formats, one that we are world champions in, and it could be looked upon as the least serious of the competitions next year in county cricket, and that for me is a shame.

"That isn't me being derogatory or to knock The Hundred, I just think we have a responsibility to look after those domestic formats going forward."

Kirtley is similarly forward-minded when it comes to preparing the bowlers for the current challenges that they face, but even he admits that those very tests are the ones he would relish if he was involved in today's game.

"It is easy to say that [that I would have preferred to play now]. At the time you were testing yourself against the best players at that time. The game was evolving at that pace. Of course, as a bowler, I would relish the challenge now, with these shots batsmen have developed.

"Can I outthink them, outsmart them, outexecute them? That is what I thought white-ball cricket was all about and with the added dimensions that batsmen have introduced into the game, why not be challenged in that way?

"I am not comparing myself to Glenn McGrath but those great bowlers 15 years ago would have adapted. They performed brilliantly in that era, but I am sure they would have developed the skills to still perform because the best bowlers do."

It is rather likely that the Australia legend is likely to come to mind when you utter the words "best bowlers" rather than Kirtley's. But it is the 44-year-old Sussex coach who is now in charge of streamlining the conveyor belt of the next generation of quick bowlers.

"He responded to every opportunity with an unrivalled eagerness," ESPNCricinfo state of Kirtley during his playing days. If such an assertion holds true of his approach to coaching, England's search for the next Jofra Archer may well be a fleeting one.

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