Tom Banton could be forgiven for getting ahead of himself when he arrives in Abu Dhabi for the IPL. He will be jetted in on a private charter flight, at the expense of a Bollywood kingpin. He will be ushered to the team hotel at the Ritz Carlton in the capital, where he will find opulence as standard. His contract will inform him he is making around $136,000 (Dh 500,000) for six weeks’ work, which is decent for a 21-year old. Or anybody, come to think of it. Already, he has been termed “like AB de Villiers,” and a “better version of Kevin Pietersen,” by various franchise coaches. All things considered, he will do well to guard against letting his head swell. But if he needs a reality check, he won’t have to look too far. When he gets to nets at Zayed Cricket Stadium, he will just have to glance over the sterilised fence to see the dad of one of his classmates at school. The same guy who gave him a lift to his first match in men’s first XI cricket, when he was still just 13, and captained him in the same game, too. And the same guy who made the call to cut him loose from the county where he grew up. Dougie Brown is now the <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/sport/cricket/dougie-brown-aims-to-unearth-local-talent-in-new-role-as-abu-dhabi-cricket-director-1.1072169">director of cricket in Abu Dhabi</a>, where Kolkata Knight Riders are based for this season of IPL. Eight years ago, Brown was playing the last of his seven seasons of club cricket in Birmingham, which he dovetailed with heading up the academy for county side Warwickshire. It was at that point he picked up a 13-year-old wicketkeeper batsman called Tom Banton, and gave him a lift to a Barnt Green first XI game for the first time. Getting chat out of teenagers can be a tricky business, even for someone as gregarious as Brown. “Any conversation wasn’t being stimulated by him,” Brown recalled of that particular car trip. The former Scotland and England international was certain, though, the young kid’s cricket would soon be doing his talking for him. “We had to get special dispensation from the league, because at that stage we weren’t allowed to play 13-year olds as it was considered to be too dangerous,” Brown said. “We told them he was definitely going to be better than the majority of players he would be playing against in a year – and at that minute he was probably comparable. He could handle himself in that environment.” It did not need a soothsayer to predict Banton was marked out for the top. Even as a 10-year old, he had scored a double century in age-group cricket, “which does not really happen,” as Brown points out. “He was a schoolboy prodigy, a phenomenal player,” Brown said. All of which jars – on the surface at least – with what happened subsequently. Brown knew Banton well. He was his captain in club cricket, his academy director at Warwickshire, and his eldest daughter – a fellow sports scholar – was in the same class as him at school. ________________ ________________ Despite all that, the coach believed Banton’s progress would be inhibited if he stayed where he was. “Having to keep him on the right path was challenging,” Brown said. “We used to have a lot of internal meetings about where he was at with his cricket and his attitude. "It was decided that, for his benefit and development, we were going to release him from our academy structure. “We knew it was going to be the biggest call we were ever going to have to make. “We knew we would live or die by this decision, but for his benefit, he should look to go and play cricket elsewhere. “He was thinking along the same lines anyway, and it all fitted in for him educationally, too.” Banton was released from Warwickshire’s academy, and moved two hours away to finish his final years of schooling in Taunton, where he joined up with the county side Somerset. Since then, he has gone on to play for the full county team, then England, as well as franchise sides in Pakistan, Australia and Abu Dhabi, with the IPL to follow from Saturday. KKR can’t wait for him to get here. Their team mentor David Hussey described him as being “phenomenal in the Big Bash,” and a “new version, or better version of Kevin Pietersen.” And Aaqib Javed, who recruited him to play for Qalandars in the Abu Dhabi T10 last November said Banton was like De Villiers, “he is that good”. Brown is not surprised by his development. He is sure the right call was made for all concerned back then because "taking that friendship element out of it, there was still a professional decision to be made.” “We knew we’d be left with egg on our faces, because we knew he’d be an outstanding player somewhere else,” Brown said. “But we honestly thought if he had stayed at Warwickshire, he could quite easily have been out of the game within 18 months.” For his part, Banton seems grateful for how things worked out. When he was interviewed by the <em>BBC</em> after making his England debut last year, Brown was one of the first people he credited for his rise. As for the lofty acclaim that has been coming his way in his budding career to date, he says he does not pay it much thought. He said he is just glad to be involved in a tournament as high profile as the IPL, saying it us “something I have been dreaming of since a very young age.” And as for those Pietersen comparisons? He is not paying too much attention. “Obviously, he is one of the greatest players to have played from England,” Banton said in an interview with KKR’s official website. “I have watched him while growing up and he was definitely an idol of mine. But honestly, I don’t like to think so much, otherwise you get too far ahead of yourself.” KKR start their IPL campaign when they play Mumbai Indians – the other team based in Abu Dhabi – at the Zayed Cricket Stadium on Wednesday, September 23.
