In the big-hitting world of Twenty20 cricket, any bowler who can stop batters from swinging their arms and clear the boundary rope to guide their team to victory is a valuable commodity.
England star Sam Curran is a master of the kind of tight, laser-accurate bowling under intense pressure that has won matches and World Cups. It is often a test of both strength and skill – Curran has both in abundance.
The 24-year-old was England’s best player when they won the T20 World Cup in Australia last month – although Curran modestly says Ben Stokes played better.
England cricket star Sam Curran and his girlfriend Isabella Symonds-Willmott at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards ceremony in Manchester this week
Curran was instrumental as England won the T20 World Cup in Australia last month
The 24-year-old specializes in ‘death bowling’, where the aim is to prevent batters from swinging on the crucial final deliveries of an innings.
So it’s no surprise that Curran commanded the highest auction price in the hugely lucrative Indian Premier League tournament.
It is the brightest, boldest and richest cricket competition in the world, where franchise teams bid millions for the best players in the world.
On Friday, the Punjab Kings paid a whopping £1.85million to secure Curran’s services for next year’s event, following a fierce bidding war involving several rivals.
It confirmed Curran’s position as one of the most exciting – and most marketable – players in world cricket and he stands to make a personal fortune of millions from this and other shorter tournaments.
Curran sold for a record £1.85million at the IPL auction and earned millions from franchise tournaments during his career
Curran is a deadly accurate bowler but has also worked hard on his batting to now be considered an all-rounder. A master of all cricketing trades.
He is also unusual in that he relishes the sightseeing aspect of cricket. The demands on players are more grueling than ever, with weeks and months at a time spent away from home and family.
But Curran and his glamorous girlfriend Isabella – or Issy – Symonds-Willmott have embraced this globe-trotting aspect, regularly posting Instagram snaps from different countries.
Issy and mum Sara are in Australia to watch him play for England in the World Cup group stages, before Curran and his girlfriend jet off to Thailand for 10 days of downtime before the next assignment.
Curran and girlfriend Issy in an Instagram snap earlier this year – she was in Australia to support him at the World Cup
The couple enjoys the globe-trotting adventures that come with being a top cricketer
They also dressed up for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards ceremony in Manchester on Wednesday night, where Stokes was voted second in the main award.
After England beat Pakistan to lift the T20 World Cup and Curran was named player of the tournament, he was by all accounts the life and soul of the celebrations.
Sam’s father Kevin played cricket for Zimbabwe and Northamptonshire
The party started in the dressing room at the Melbourne Cricket Ground until they were finally kicked out at 1.30am. Curran used to run up and down the aisle of the team bus leading his teammates in song.
The after-party in a room at the team hotel continued until well past first light and it was perhaps unsurprising that England lost the one-day series with Australia soon after.
Curran is just one part of an extraordinary cricketing family. His grandfather Kevin played for Rhodesia and his father, Kevin, played for and later coached Zimbabwe.
Sam was born when his father was playing county cricket for Northamptonshire but part of his upbringing was in Zimbabwe until the family had their farm confiscated by Robert Mugabe as part of his land redistribution programme.
In October 2012, when Sam was 14, his father collapsed and died while jogging in Mutare. He is only 53.
Mother Sara was left homeless and penniless, so she took her three sons back to England, where they boarded at Wellington College in Berkshire.
All three Curran brothers are professional cricketers – Sam (left) and Tom (right) play for England and Surrey, while Ben (centre) represents Northamptonshire
Their natural gifts for cricket were quickly recognized and, remarkably, all three were professionals.
Tom, 27, also plays for England and Surrey, while Ben, 26, represents Northamptonshire.
The sports-mad siblings also played golf, rugby, tennis, hockey and squash growing up, with plenty of sibling rivalry – but cricket would win the love of the three.
Tom replaced Sam in the England squad for the 2021 T20 World Cup when he suffered a back injury that kept him on the sidelines for seven months.
Sam was just 17 years and 16 days, still studying hard, when he made his senior debut for Surrey in a T20 against Kent in June 2015.
Curran poses with his player of the tournament award after the T20 World Cup final
The enforced injury break allowed Curran to reflect on his career up to that point and where he wanted to take things. The gym workouts he did to strengthen his body helped him.
One of the targets he set himself at the time was to get better at so-called ‘death bowling’, the make-or-break deliveries where the short-form matches the swing.
He took nine wickets in the last five overs at the World Cup, averaging 6.56 runs per over, which was very good – and very frustrating for the batters.
‘I really enjoy the pressure, I love the challenge of being in that situation where the batsmen are testing you as hard as they can,’ Curran told The Times.
Curran jumped for joy after getting the wicket of Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan in the final
‘I try to thrive in those moments when the game is on the line. I know there are times when it doesn’t work out, but the World Cup is one of those tournaments where it’s been good.’
With that attitude, Curran is unlikely to feel the pressure of being the most expensive star of the IPL next year and there should be more to come.
England coach Matthew Mott put it well after the World Cup win, saying: ‘There’s no ceiling for him.
‘I think his batting has more in it – he’s one of the sweetest timers of the ball we’ve got and he’s a gun in the field too.
‘And aside from all the cricket stuff, his character is really contagious around the group. He will be a very, very good player for England and he could go down as one of the greats.’
