Leicestershire's new way forward: Colin Ackermann's grand plan to transform red-ball fortunes

NICK FRIEND: Ackermann began his tenure as Leicestershire's new red-ball captain with a thrilling victory over Lancashire. It signalled a blueprint for how the South Africa-born batsman intends to go about his cricket

With the return of county cricket and the introduction of the Bob Willis Trophy, the domestic game has entered a new, makeshift era – a red-ball competition squashed into a single monthlong spell.

This time next year, the hope is that all will have returned to something approaching normality; for English cricket, that means a County Championship season spread out over the course of a summer, with everything else packed around it.

When Colin Ackermann was appointed as Leicestershire’s new captain across all three formats, it was with that image in mind. The news was released on March 19, a solitary day before everything was put on hold and the shape of the campaign turned upside down.

And then, nothing. Nothing at all for four months; Ackermann, ready to lead a young side on its own new journey, was halted in his tracks. To pass the time during the lockdown that followed, he purchased mountain bikes for him and his wife, exploring different routes through Leicester and, by his own admission, opening his eyes to a different perspective. “Sure, I play cricket and I’m a professional cricketer but other than that,” he recalls thinking, “what other interests do I have when I move forward?

“Your cricket career has a lifespan and you need to think of things when you do eventually hang up the boots. I got into a few property webinars that interest me, so I suppose it helped in that way as well.

“Just looking back on it now, the break came at a good time. I just pressed the restart button in my career. I’d been playing cricket non-stop for the last eight or nine years, so it was nice to take a proper breather from cricket and not pick up a bat for four months. I’m ready to go for the next nine or ten years now.”

His first challenge is as the man in charge of last year’s least successful four-day outfit. Ackermann replaced Paul Horton as captain of the 50-over side midway through 2019 and already led the T20 side.

Last season was a struggle. In the four-day format, Leicestershire finished 126 points behind Lancashire, who ultimately went unbeaten en route to their promotion back to the top tier. They won only once and picked up fewer bowling bonus points than anyone else.

^{Ackermann has overseen a win against Lancashire and a defeat against Derbyshire in the Bob Willis Trophy}

At the same time, though, in Hassan Azad they possessed the division’s leading domestic batsman, as well as a growing, maturing core of young players. Those positives are where this new period begins for Ackermann; his appointment is not a stopgap to get in and out of this exceptional summer, but rather a more long-term move.

Thus, events of the next month are significant – not only for the purposes of this five-match tournament, but for what Ackermann hopes to build at Grace Road.

“I think we’ve banished that tag of being a smaller county,” he says of the culture he is trying to create. After all, losing is as much a habit as winning. “We see ourselves competing with the bigger counties. We have shown in the past that we are capable of beating them. It’s all about being consistent now and doing the basics for longer periods of time. We’re quite good at leaving out all the noise and just focusing on what we can control as a team.

“I don’t see there being any pressure on me. I don’t look at things in depth too much. I just try to contribute as much as I can. Moving forward with a young squad, I think it’s important to try to build a team. In the past, I think we’ve struggled to hold onto players, with clubs coming in and snatching them up. We want to try to retain as many players as we can by building a strong unit moving forward.”

Stuart Broad and James Taylor are among those who began their cricketing lives at the Fischer County Ground before moving on elsewhere. More recently, though, teenage off-spinner Nat Bowley signed a contract extension in July, while academy product Alex Evans penned his first deal with the club in December. Ackermann hopes that both cases are signs of a wider trend.

The plan, he explains, is to put in place a winning environment. Management speak, perhaps, but the quickfire structure of the one-off Bob Willis Trophy provides a tangible platform of sorts.

Momentum, he knows, is an overused fascination in the world of professional sport, “but it is so important to get on a roll”. And in this summer, there is an opportunity to do just that. Among the toils of a normal year, losing streaks can stretch out and feel almost interminable, taking on greater significance in the process. It is not long ago – between September 2012 and June 2015 – that the club went 993 days without a red-ball victory. Yet, this time around, Leicestershire know they could be three games from a Lord’s final.

“I’d like to think this gives us a benchmark to measure ourselves against,” Ackermann considers, highlighting the opportunity to play against top-level opposition in the shape of Lancashire and Yorkshire.

^{Ackermann has taken over from Paul Horton as Leicestershire's red-ball captain}

A thrilling win over Lancashire in their first Bob Willis Trophy encounter – clinched with a chase of 150 inside 16 overs – was followed by a defeat against Derbyshire, unfancied themselves but still unbeaten.

Lancashire were without several star players, but Ackermann's own side also featured players lacking in experience.

“We also had a few younger players in our squad,” he points out. “If you compare the two, we outplayed them. It just shows that we have some really good young players in our squad and they can compete.”

It is among the quirks of these times, the consequence of a range of factors: three groups of six without the jeopardy of relegation, a 120-over first innings maximum, the second new ball after 90 overs rather than 80, the return of a contested toss.

All of it has led to a slightly different game – an emphasis on aggression, with the condensed round-robin phase placing greater emphasis on forcing a result where possible. It helped to inform Leicestershire’s chase against Lancashire, in which Ackermann smashed an unbeaten 73 off just 41 balls.

“It opens the game up a lot more,” he explains. “It calls for more attacking cricket. Say you bat first, on the second day in that morning session, you’re going to have to attack to post a bigger target.

“It also calls for a lot more spin bowling to protect the fast bowlers than in the past. And in the past couple of seasons, the ball has nipped around quite a lot, especially in 2018. And there wasn’t much spin bowled.”

Last year, Ackermann often played as the county’s sole spinner in red-ball cricket, with Callum Parkinson bowling only 64.4 overs in first-class. And while the Netherlands international is the unlikely holder of a world record – he took figures of 7 for 18 against Birmingham in the T20 Blast, he remains a part-time option and Leicestershire’s attack has been predominantly seam-heavy.

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Parkinson, then, has more than repaid the faith shown in him since August. His 43.5 overs against Lancashire cost just 62 runs, with five wickets counting as deserved reward. Three more followed against Derbyshire for the left-arm spinner; across the circuit, Essex’s Simon Harmer is the only spinner to have claimed more victims in the first fortnight.

Parkinson, though, is one of many in Leicestershire’s ranks benefiting from the Bob Willis Trophy. In the side beaten last week by Derbyshire, five were aged 24 or younger. Even Azad, 26 and already touted for higher honours, only enjoyed his breakthrough summer in 2019.

Across the board, there were 14 first-class debutants in the first round of fixtures – all of whom might have slipped through the net had the worst-case scenario struck.

“I think it’s crucially important that we actually got some cricket in this year,” Ackermann adds. “Looking back at April and May, I was wondering whether we’d even bowl a ball this season.

“If you look at players who are 20, 21, 22, this is a massive chunk of their development that they’ve lost out on. It’s so important that they’ve actually got some cricket in this season to help the young players develop.”

Ackermann, who spent three consecutive summers playing club cricket in Amsterdam between 2014 and 2016, has already lost a chunk of his own upcoming cricket. He was due to play for the Netherlands in this autumn’s T20 World Cup in Australia, which has now been postponed for a year as the global game deals with the impact of Covid-19.

The tournament’s cancellation was “a pity,” he admits, exasperated by an understanding of the volatility of life beyond full ICC membership.

“Looking at the associate nations, they play with such passion,” he says. “They go without playing cricket for such long periods of time that when they do play, the pressure is so immense to win.

^{Ackermann would likely have been part of the Netherlands' squad for the T20 World Cup}

“Because if you don’t qualify for that tournament, then you fall behind by a year or two. And then you have to go back and go through the qualifying process again. It’s high-pressure matches, which is fantastic.

“The national team train at such a high intensity. Because they don’t play cricket for a long time, when they do play it’s super-intense. The first time I joined them was in October last year and that was off the back of a County Championship season over here, so my body was a bit tired after six months of county cricket.

“When I got there, the intensity was so high that it was kind of a shock to the system. We were in Oman as well, where it was 36 degrees. But Ryan Campbell is running a really good ship there.”

Is it a culture that could be implemented back at Leicestershire as he looks to forge an identity for the team he now leads across all three formats? “I don’t think you can take it back to county cricket,” Ackermann laughs.

“To maintain that intensity over the course of a County Championship season, I don’t think it’s possible. You’d be cooked by May, unfortunately.”

This year, of course, there will be no such issue in that regard. Before Ackermann and his teammates know it, August will have turned to September and then to October. Winter will draw in and the wait will begin for a return to normality. And for a new captain, thoughts will switch to 2021 – he hopes – with a dose of positive momentum in tow.

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