Paul Nixon is taking a bit of English rock’n’roll with him to the Jamaican island famous for its reggae. The former England, Leicestershire and Kent wicketkeeper flies to the Caribbean on 22 July as head coach with the Jamaica Tallawahs.
Nixon is looking forward to playing his part in the inaugural Caribbean Premier League t20 (CPLt20) competition.
It’s wonderful to be asked in the first place and a great honour. Jamaica has got an amazing pedigree in the history of sport.
To go out there and to be working with the likes of Chris Gayle, Murali, Andre Russell, Vernon Philander, Jacques Rudolph, Ahmed Shehzad is going to be absolutely fantastic. I’m really looking forward to it.
It’s nice that a few English guys have been recognised. Matt Maynard, who’s coached with England before, is involved as well and Phillip DeFreitas is going to be coaching with the great Sir Viv Richards in Antigua. It will be nice to have a bit of English flavour as well out there.
I spoke to Michael Holding at Headingley and we had a little chat about it. His wife is one of the organisers. We had a few more calls and then I went out and spoke to Chris Gayle and then took the job which is fantastic.
I’m going out for six weeks and can’t wait to get into it with our first game in Guyana on 2 August.
It’s quite appropriate that you are our first big interview - your nickname was Badger because you were a little hyperactive. How will your character fit into the more chilled environment of Jamaica?
It’s a balance. I like to think of it as energy rather than being hyperactive!
I’ve got a lot of experience playing t20 cricket in England and around the world. There are a lot of strategies and a lot of formulas I’ve been involved with over the years and I feel I know what it takes to win a t20 competition. I was in five English domestic finals before, three won and lost a couple, with Leicestershire so there’s a decent pedigree for it.
Jamaica are keen to have a little bit of our knowledge and if I can add a little bit of energy to our practice and preparation then it’s going to be good.
Isn’t t20 just about hitting the ball long and restricting your opposition to scoring less runs? What kind of strategies do you bring to the CPLt20?
We look at breaking it down.
You study the opposition and their strengths and weak areas. Everyone now has got technology and stats and that preparation can almost win and lose a game. We’ve got an analyst who’s got stacks of information about players we’ll be playing against, stats on the grounds and he’s been involved with the West Indies team so he knows his stuff.
It’s coming more and more into the game now as people are realising things like 80% of people that bat first on certain grounds win, lose or whatever.
Over my years playing I learnt how to read pitches, learnt about when the death of an innings can start and when you can go hard and the importance of being flexible in t20 cricket. It’s all about planning to get it right on the day.
The CPLt20 have opted for franchises – are you a fan of that system?
It’s just what the West Indies needs.
I was brought up with the great West Indies sides of the 1970’s and 80’s, but the West Indies culture seems to have lost a little bit of love for cricket. Things have been kicking on around the world, but it’s stayed a little calmer there. It’s time now that the West Indies come to the party.
Thankfully the owners of Digicel have put a lot of money in and it’s going to be fantastic to have the opportunity to be there for a competition that’s not going to be scrimp and save. People are being looked after well, are staying in good hotels, inviting good players from around the world and it’s an opportunity for young West Indian guys to do well.
We’ve got players playing for other islands and it’s going to be just about cricket and not about the fierce, almost football mentality of only looking after people in your area, your team and your patch. It’s about being integrated and making young West Indians better players.
You have a mighty weapon in Chris Gayle as your skipper and big hitting opener.
He’s box office.
I’ve been speaking to him for the last few weeks in the lead up to the competition. We’ve been having Skype calls for many hours discussing teams – a first team, second team and even third or fourth teams when we were picking from the draft. We were fifth pickers in the draft, then the sixth pick in the next round and the first, second, third, etc after that so we had our plans on who we wanted.
Chris is up for it. He wants Jamaica to do well as he’s a very proud Jamaican. He’s the biggest star in world cricket at the moment and it’s incredible what he’s achieved in the last couple of years after having a bit of a adversity when left out of the West Indies side. He’s come back and wanted to prove people wrong. He’s done that and he’s now leading from the front in t20 cricket.
The draft was an exciting day – did you get the squad you wanted?
We were absolutely delighted.
I didn’t know a huge amount about some of the local players, especially some of the younger guys, but having Junior Bennett, who is the coach of the West Indies A side, really helped. We’ve got a nice balance.
Ravi Rampaul is a high class new ball bowler. There’s Chris Gayle and Murali who are two really experienced big game players who have played in the IPL. The likes of Jacques Rudolph in that middle-order, Ahmed Shehzad a really exciting and talented Pakistan batsman, Andre Russell who can bowl 90mph, hit the ball out of the ground and is an absolute racehorse in the field.
So we are in a good place. Our experienced players tick a lot of boxes and we are ready to rock’n’roll.
We’ve got a 10-day camp before we start and it will be a case of me getting to know the guys, get the group formed and put our gameplans into practice and come 2 August we will be ready.
The competition looks exciting and it’s tough to pick a winner…
It will be tight.
Many of the guys across the six franchises know each other really well so they’ll have knowledge of the pitches and grounds. That’s what they want. They want to make it so there’s not a runaway winner. They want to make sure every game is a big game.
Coaching is something you wanted to get into after retirement and this is a great opportunity…
I got offered a job at Leicestershire to be the batting coach and I was offered a job at Surrey a few months ago and it didn’t feel right at that particular time to do those jobs.
A six week commitment is much easier than a year-in year-out commitment so when it’s something new you want to get into it’s a nice starter hopefully for a main course sometime.
It’s something that excites me, t20 cricket, I know I’ve got a lot to offer especially having batted in that middle order where you are playing the situation of the game and it’s crucial we try and spread that knowledge around the world and make it a healthier competition wherever we go.
You were known for your reverse sweep. Is that going to be a Jamaican trademark now?
I don’t think it will be in the first powerplay overs with the players we’ve got, but absolutely. You look around and the reverse sweep shot now has just become a natural shot for players to play. If you practice it properly and you understand the shot then it’s just a normal stroke. It’s about the right bowler and the right commitment to the shot and the right technique. At some stage the guys will be doing it.
It was great to see Shiv Chanderpaul scoring a matchwinning 87 not out for Derbyshire in the t20 playing every shot in the book. And for someone who’s 38-years-old to have the dedication to push his game on to different levels that bodes well for the young West Indians, looking up to somebody like that.
Do you ever wish you’d been born 10-years later so you could have played in these t20 competitions around the world yourself?
I played football, rugby and cricket until I was 16. And then I was lucky enough to play cricket professionally – Lord’s groundstaff and then up to Leicestershire.
So these young kids in academies at 12-years-old with people wanting them to play one particular sport, for me they can learn great lessons from every sport. I just hope some of these young kids now don’t get burnt out by the time they are 26.
I had 23 great years that I loved and enjoyed some special times and achieved some great things. A couple of County Championships, three t20 titles and a Sunday League with Kent and I wouldn’t change that for the world.
Going away with England as well and winning in Australia, playing in a World Cup – it was amazing.
Twenty20 is fantastic, it’s exciting and flexible for the public, but I wouldn’t have changed anything.
I was lucky enough to play over four decades from the 80’s to 2011 and these guys now face different pressures again.
I wouldn’t change it for the world.
James Buttler
As the editor of World Cricket Badger he is intent on building the website to give quality coverage of the domestic game around the world.
He is also the presenter of the Cricket Badger Radio Show on Radio Yorkshire every Tuesday evening between 7-9pm UK time.
James was the full-time Media Manager at Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 2007 and 2010.
James is a published author, a writer/video contributor to many cricket publications and a complete cricket badger!
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