Sussex’s new signing has shown enough promise to be the left-arm tearaway the country needs
Andrew Miller10-Apr-2015It’s a perfect April morning in Hove. The seagulls are screeching overhead, the thrum of the groundsman’s mower underscores the conversations on the pavilion’s wooden benches. It’s a scene that brings to mind Mrs Merton’s famous question to Debbie McGee. “So Tymal Mills, what first attracted you to the tranquil charms of Sussex by the Sea?””When the sun’s shining, there’s not many things going against it,” Mills says. “As a place to live Brighton is hard to beat, and from speaking to a lot of different people, apparently the wickets here are some of the quickest around. It all makes sense down here.”Left-Arm Seriously Quick. His new surroundings are matched by a new sense of purpose to his career, for Mills is wearing the knowing smile of a man whose attributes are in vogue. Never mind his modest career statistics – 52 wickets in 30 first-class matches to date, and only 25 more in the limited-overs game – this is a head-hunter of a fast bowler, the type of player with the technique-rattling turn of speed to trouble the very, very best.So far he’s shown his full potential only in brief glimpses. Alastair Cook memorably wore a bouncer on the shoulder during a nets session in Perth during the last Ashes tour and, prior to that, there was Mills’ televised wrecking-ball performance in Chelmsford in 2013, where, in a pre-Ashes warm-up against the full England team, he all but ended Graeme Swann’s summer with a savage lifter to the forearm.And yet, in keeping with that old adage of a player’s value going up in absentia, others, conveniently, have been stating Mills’ case on his behalf during the recent World Cup. As England plodded along with tactics that were two decades off the pace, let alone a handful of mph, it was a battalion of left-arm fast men from other nations who epitomised the sport’s new world order.Mills is an electrifying prospect, but one who hasn’t played enough•Getty ImagesThe Mitchells – Starc and Johnson – Wahab Riaz and Trent Boult, and even Afghanistan’s Shapoor Zadran, all made the tungsten-tipped point that in a batsman-dominated world raw pace is the best means for bowling teams to battle back.”Definitely,” says Mills. “It’s not just at the World Cup but the IPL and the Big Bash League too, but if you look at the British sporting mentality, we tend to have quite a safe approach across all sports.”But hopefully there will be a momentum shift and a change of thought towards being more aggressive, because that’s what I look to do and I know Sussex are going to embrace that here. They said that before they signed me, they want me to be an aggressive bowler, and hopefully that will continue.”One man who needs little reminding of Mills’ attributes is Sussex’s club captain, Ed Joyce, who experienced the flip side of that World Cup story. His Ireland team fought manfully to stay in the hunt for a quarter-final berth until the very last match of the group stages, but ultimately they paid the price for the absence of a cutting edge.”Wicket-taking is so important in all forms of the game but especially in 50-over cricket with five in the ring,” says Joyce. “The World Cup showed that if you didn’t have those guys who bowled with extra pace, you were cannon fodder. The best players, and even not the best players, were able to hit you where they wanted to, no matter what different lengths you bowled.Sussex coach Mark Robinson believes Mills’ challenge is to become consistent, especially in the four-day format•Action Photographics”However, with Tymal, we have to try and lower expectations. He has that extra pace, no doubt, and that’s hugely exciting for us, because when he clicks I doubt you’d face many quicker in the world. But, and it’s a big but, he’s hardly played.”It’s a valid caveat because eight months ago very little was falling into place in Mills’ world. Out of contract at Essex and out of action since July, one of the most electrifying prospects in the country wasn’t merely in limbo, he was in danger of short-circuiting entirely.It was during an otherwise unremarkable second XI fixture against Somerset at Bishop’s Stortford that Mills first experienced the “jolt of electricity” through his legs that sent the Essex medical team into overdrive.”I just hit the crease and had a massive shock around my waist and into my legs, and lost a lot of feeling and power in my legs,” he says. “That was obviously pretty scary, especially when it didn’t get much better.”In the circumstances, ignorance was relative bliss for Mills, for whom an appointment with one of the country’s leading neurologists led to a two-month bout of tests and scans to determine whether he was in the early stages of developing multiple sclerosis.”I had to have scans on my brain, scans on the whole of my spinal column, which showed up a lesion on my spinal cord, and a lumbar puncture as well. It wasn’t a particularly nice time in my life, but the doctor only really told us what he had been looking for once everything was better, which was probably a bit of a blessing.”Mills took Cook’s wicket in the pre-Ashes warm-up match between Essex and an England XI in 2013•PA PhotosThe cause, in the opinion of the specialist, was a virus on the spinal cord that had been creating the signal changes in Mills’ nervous system. And while the issue had been resolved by the autumn, the clean bill of health came too late to save his career at Essex.For all his raw promise, his chequered medical record meant that the club had been understandably reticent in committing to a new deal. The delay opened the door for Sussex to come calling, and a new chapter of Mills’ career is set to get underway against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl on Sunday.”I didn’t know too many of the lads here but that didn’t bother me,” he says. “But I knew Robbo [Mark Robinson, the head coach] because he was my Lions coach on the Sri Lanka tour the previous winter [2013-14], so I wasn’t going into it blind.”For his part, Robinson was impressed by what he saw on that tour. “He played in two of the three ‘Test’ matches and threatened the batter and the stumps on unresponsive pitches.”He’s an outstanding person too, and outstanding people always have a chance, but we’ve got to be careful with him. We don’t want to hold him back, but we’ve got to manage a young man who, in November, didn’t know if he’d ever bowl again.”T’s challenge is to get the consistency needed, especially in red-ball cricket. You want players who can change a game, who can open games up, and that’s what real pace can do, especially on good wickets. But you need a balance as well. No one will survive going at a lot an over, especially if the other end is doing the same.”Nevertheless, Sussex have an enviable reputation for bringing the best out of their signings, the most recent example being Chris Jordan, who had been treading water at Surrey before going into overdrive on the south coast. And Jordan’s endorsement proved an important factor in Mills’ decision to switch clubs.The Brighton boys: Ajmal Shahzad and Mills were welcomed by Sussex after being discarded by their previous clubs•Getty Images”I spoke to CJ a lot, because I got to know him pretty well when we roomed together in Australia last winter. He had nothing but good things to say about the club and I can only echo that now that I am here. You get to know everyone around the ground, they pride themselves on being a family club and I’ve definitely felt that since I’ve moved down in November. I’ve bought a place here and hopefully I’ll be here for a long time.”Robinson believes that that family feeling is fostered by the club’s desire to keep punching above its perceived weight, which in turn requires its players to keep proving themselves on an individual basis. With Ajmal Shahzad also making the move to Hove after a nomadic period since his flirtation with England in 2010-11, Mills is not the only bowler with a point to prove this summer.”We’ve signed two players who we wouldn’t have been able to sign unless something wasn’t quite right,” says Robinson. “If Aj was going brilliantly at Notts he wouldn’t have been allowed to leave and if Tymal was going brilliantly at Essex he wouldn’t have been allowed to leave. We know we have to bring players in and hope that the environment that the players themselves create here brings out the best in them.””Yeah, I don’t want to try and change who I am as a bloke or as a cricketer,” says Mills. “We’ve got a really good bowling attack here, we complement each other well, and when everyone’s fit we’ve got all bases covered to match any side in the country. A complete change of scenery will be good for me, they seem confident in my role here and hopefully I’ll be given a good environment to do what I do best.And maybe, just maybe, that environment will sharpen the sort of razor edge that England’s attack is crying out for as it adjusts, not before time, to the sport’s new realities.
