David Millns: "I've been hit three times in my umpiring career, twice by Darren Stevens"

In under a decade's time, David Millns will be considered too old under the ECB's regulations to still be umpiring in professional cricket. And yet, here we are this weekend, struck dumb by the perennial awe of Darren Stevens' longevity and the reality that the Royal London Cup final might well be the last hurrah, legitimately debating whether – unless there's a deal to be signed elsewhere – he is going out too soon.

In all likelihood, he will leave Kent 14 years after Millns, a former teammate, was added to the first-class umpires' list and 21 seasons after his own retirement.

There is no marker by which Stevens isn't simply a quite spectacular case, not so much a once-in-a-generation cricketer as a phenomenon who has spanned two – possibly three – entire eras on his own.

Millns was there at the start, together at Leicestershire from the beginning of the 1997 season, when Stevens made his debut, but a fan of his work somehow even beforehand. As professional cricket was then, coming up to 30 years ago, he was preparing for an England A tour of Australia when a coach pulled out sick from a school visit in Hinckley and phoned Millns to ask a favour. He did as was asked, led the session and was sufficiently impressed to depart with a name for Leicestershire's management team.

"One of the 16-year-old lads was Darren Stevens," he says. "It was January, 1993."

There is no logic to what has happened since: over the first 13 years of his career, Stevens took 140 wickets across all formats. Over the last 13, he's taken 738. By the time he had been entrusted to bowl by Kent, having hardly been given the chance to turn his arm over for Leicestershire, Millns had retired and was already umpiring.

But one way or another, their careers have continued to intertwine: when Kent first announced their intention to release him three summers ago, Stevens turned up to face Yorkshire at Headingley, smashed a double hundred and picked up a five-wicket haul for good measure. Millns was one of the umpires, with the best view in the house. "It was testament to the man's resolve," he recalls.

"A lot of players would have gone: 'Okay, thanks very much, I'll pack my kit up and take the rest of the season off.' But he didn't. That's the resolve. That's what's kept him going. It is remarkable that he's played to an age that was more akin to the 1960s, when players were still playing well into their 40s."

^{Darren Stevens and David Millns (both circled) in Leicestershire's 1998 squad photo (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)}

The rest was history: his county offered a sheepish admission that they had misjudged his mortality and tied him to another year. This time, though, it is the end: the 2022 Kentish farewell tour will be the last. It was revealed in early August that a difficult season stunted by injuries and a struggle for wickets on flat pitches would finish with the release of a player whose cult status has at times clouded a seriousness without which such durability would have been a non-starter. As Millns puts it: "You don't last as he's done by not looking after yourself and not giving yourself the best opportunity."

When England were drubbed in Australia last winter, his name was wrongly, lazily cited as a reason for the national team's struggles. "I disagreed with that," Millns tells The Cricketer. "Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad are once-in-a-generation. What Darren has done is something to be celebrated – something for players to look at and think: 'Well, if he can play until he's 46, then why can't I?'"

Last month, Millns stood at the Ageas Bowl as Hampshire faced Kent in the semi-final: six of the home side's line-up were under the age of 22, young enough to be sons of Stevens. Typically, he defied that suggestion, firstly by bowling 10 overs consecutively for a second successive round, but more memorably by later thrashing 85 runs in 64 balls. "He tends to rise to the challenge, Darren does," says Millns, offering a knowing chuckle.

"In that semi-final, he used all his experience, didn't panic and waited until he was in to press the button. He took responsibility and won them the game. The fact that he's still got that drive and desire just sums up his career."

Stevens is averaging 108.5 in this year's competition, still batting as he always has done, with the same mindset that was evident even in that secondary-school session. For Millns, that means "not thinking to leave as many balls as he can; he goes out there thinking to hit the ball".

He adds: "With professional cricket, you're always developing your skills but you're trying to maintain what you've already got that's been successful. The one thing with Darren over the years is that he's not changed his hit-ball mentality. If I'm going out there and thinking about hitting the ball, then you get yourself into a far better position. I think that's something that Darren has done for his entire career.

"Form is temporary, class you're born with. And that's what the man's got. It's not just about his playing; it's what he brings to the dressing room and how he handles himself."

^{Stevens and Millns embrace after the former struck the latter with a straight drive in Kent's win over Hampshire (Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images)}

The motivation for reaching out at this juncture stemmed from Millns' role in a particular episode of the remarkable, inexplicable Indian-summer win over Hampshire. Mid-heroics, Stevens drilled a seemingly inevitable boundary past the bowler, only for it to thump into the back of his former colleague. The pair embraced at the bowler's end in a jovial but strangely touching moment: the game pausing around the two oldest men on the field – Stevens is a year older than Millns' partner for the day, James Middlebrook – while everyone else watched on.

Thankfully, umpires get hit far less regularly than logically they ought to, given the power of batters, the weight of bats, the oft-obstructed view and the absence of reaction time. Indeed, Millns has been pinned just three times in his umpiring career: "Twice by Darren Stevens," he laughs, as if this is a badge of honour.

"Once was at Canterbury when I was at square leg and he pulled one out of the screws, and I lost it in the trees. I literally just turned and covered my head. The other week, I just didn't pick it up – I knew it was coming my way, so I tried to turn side-on. He said to me afterwards that he thought it was going to hit me in the head. He gave it a fair old clip.

"As the chase got tight, I was thinking: 'God, I hope me getting in the way doesn't cost them the game.'"

Stevens ensured that was never likely to be an issue, setting up Saturday's swansong in the process.  For that – and so much more – Millns holds out an enormous sense of respect for his ex-teammate and one-time protégé.

"My body fell apart when I was 35," he says. "But his contribution to the team has been absolutely all-round. I applaud him for that, and I applaud him for his longevity, but also for not just being focused on himself – he's a very unselfish player on and off the field.

"He knows that if he's helping young batters, then they could come through and take his spot eventually. There are players who won't help people because they're so focused on themselves. But Darren has brought that to every team he's played for.

^{The Royal London Cup final is expected to be Stevens' last hurrah at Kent (Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images)}

"I sincerely hope that he stays in the game. He has seen an awful lot of players: it's not just about what he's done on the field, it's what he's done around the dressing room and what he does for other players.

"I've always been very happy to be in his company, and his wife, Kate. He's just a solid bloke. People like him, who have so much of a skillset, have so much to offer.

"Whether he carries on playing or not into next season, who knows? You don't know what might turn up for him, but he can look back on his career and be incredibly proud of what he's achieved over the years, having not given up.

"If it is his last game at Trent Bridge in the final, then what a way to finish a career. Hopefully, it finishes with a winner's medal."

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