Tymal Mills looks ahead to Sussex CCC's 2024 campaign

SussexWorld

Tymal Mills - newly appointed as captain of the Vitality Blast team - looks ahead to Sussex CCC's 2024 campaign, in conversation with Will Hugall

Transcript

00:00 Right, well thank you very much for joining me, Tamal. Big season ahead. Obviously for

00:04 you at the moment, you might usually be in India enjoying the lovely weather there, but

00:09 you're enjoying the lovely weather in Hove today. So what have you been working on this

00:13 winter and how have you been enjoying it?

00:15 Yeah, I've had a really busy winter. I played fit for winter, which has been great, kind

00:19 of continuing that from last summer. It's been up and down, if I'm being honest, in

00:23 terms of my cricket. I had a tour to the Caribbean with England before Christmas, which was a

00:29 tough one. It was tough for all the bowlers, the scores were pretty high, but I'd still

00:33 like to have performed a touch better there. Then went to ILT20 in the UAE in January,

00:39 and again didn't probably bowl quite as well as what I would have liked to, but still used

00:43 the chance to get some good training in and figure it out. And then come the PSL, I've

00:47 just come back from Pakistan now, I felt I was bowling more like where I want to be at.

00:53 So it's been a good winter in terms of exploration and staying warm, I guess. I haven't spent

01:01 too much time in England, which is nice. But ultimately, you always like to perform better,

01:07 but it ended well being part of the team of Islamabad who won the PSL. It's always great

01:12 to win tournaments while we play the game. It's been a good winter and I'm looking forward

01:18 to a little bit of time off now in terms of cricket training. I'm going to have a bit

01:22 of a break and then I'll have a nice long lead in until the blast starts.

01:27 Absolutely. And you mentioned exploration there. Were there any new balls or new techniques

01:31 you were working on over the winter?

01:34 Always working on things and sometimes it's a case of less variation as opposed to more.

01:39 So yeah, just working with different coaches. That's one of the good things that franchise

01:43 cricket offers is the chance to work and get different eyes on your bowling, different

01:47 coaches, different opinions, working with different players. So I've enjoyed that aspect

01:51 as always. I guess I won't give away too many secrets ahead of the blast. But I'm confident

01:58 of where I'm at. I still feel like I'm bowling at a good pace. The body's been good. And

02:03 just looking forward to adding the captaincy element in there as well.

02:07 Absolutely. And as you say, the captaincy is something new. It's something that you're

02:11 going to be drawing on various people for advice from, I imagine, over the next few

02:15 months. Who has really inspired you as a captain in the past?

02:18 I don't know about inspiration. I think it's just, as you say, about learning. The one

02:23 thing is I've played for so many franchises around the world. I've played for so many

02:27 different captains. So naturally you get a feel of which captaincy style you prefer and

02:32 what you feel has served well. I've played under Owen Morgan quite a few times in both

02:39 franchise cricket and for England. And he's obviously lauded as a brilliant captain and

02:44 somebody that I felt captained me really well. So I'm sure I'll try and touch base with him

02:48 maybe over the next couple of months before I start. Just to get any tips or any pointers,

02:53 pick his brains as much as I can. I think it would be silly not to do that and speak

02:57 to him just about little things both on the field as well as off it and then dealing with

03:01 people as well as dealing with cricketers.

03:04 But yeah, as I said, I'm fully committed to it and really looking forward to it. It's

03:09 something that excites me and at this point in my career I feel I'm ready for. I've been

03:13 here a long time now. I love playing for the club. I want to do well for Sussex. I could

03:18 have easily just gone into the last year of my contract and played things out or just

03:24 focused on just bowling my four overs every game and standing a fine leg and then whatever

03:29 happens happens. But I want to do well here. I want to repay the club. The club have given

03:35 me an awful lot in the last 10 years in terms of support when I was injured or have been

03:39 injured, sorry. And they give me support all year round. I'm not just here for May, June

03:47 and July to play in the blast. I'm here, you'll see me here in October, December, November,

03:51 January, April. I'm here. I live up the road. My kids are growing up here. My daughter starts

03:56 school in September. So this is where I want to be and I also want to do well. I don't

04:02 want to be part of a team that's not performing to the best of their ability. I'm really excited

04:09 about what we can potentially achieve when the blast starts.

04:11 What would a good season in the blast represent for you? Would it be qualification just out

04:17 of the group? Would it get to the finals day? Or what are you actually aiming for?

04:21 I want to win. I want to win the blast. It's a competition I'm yet to win. We lost in the

04:27 final and have lost a few semi-finals and quarter-finals over the year. So I want to

04:33 win and that's what I'm saying to all the boys. We want to have the mentality to win.

04:36 We want to be thinking bigger than potentially we are. We aren't a team full of international

04:41 players or franchise players, but I certainly want all the players to carry themselves that

04:45 way and have aspirations to be that. Looking at the wildcard draft for the 100, I want

04:49 our players to have strong blast campaigns and put their names in the hat for that. So

04:54 yeah, we're thinking big. There's no point in turning up and wanting to just get an extra

05:01 win on last year. You want to qualify for the quarter-final and that's the first port

05:04 call and then you're in to knock out competition. So yeah, 100% we're all in on wanting to qualify

05:12 and anything other than that will be a disappointment.

05:15 And just a few quick ones. In the blast, who's going to be the top run scorer for us?

05:19 Good shout. Top run scorer in the blast, look out for Tom Clarke. He obviously got a good

05:26 opportunity last year at the top of the order. A year under his belt, maybe the first half

05:32 of last year was still figuring out maybe T20. But by the second half, he started to

05:37 make some good strides. And I've just been speaking to Daniel Hughes, who's our other

05:42 overseas player for the blast. Maybe somebody that not everybody will be overly familiar

05:46 with but a very good player over in Australia. He's really excited to be coming over here

05:51 to play in the blast this summer. He'll be coming fresh, having a bit of time off after

05:55 a busy Australian summer. So I know something he's really looking forward to. So keep an

06:00 eye out for those two at the top of the order.

06:02 Brilliant. And who's going to be top wicket taker?

06:04 I'd say, I think myself.

06:07 Yeah, I hope so.

06:09 You know, aside from me, again, Nathan McAndrew obviously is coming back to play T20 for us.

06:14 Again, he's really excited. I know he spoke about last year how he was probably playing

06:19 all forms for Sussex. And he said by the time the blast came last year, he was a little

06:26 bit burned out. He played and bowled a lot of overs in the championship in the first

06:30 block early season. So I know by the time the blast came around, he was a little bit

06:34 tired. Whereas this year, he's coming now to play in the blast first and then he's going

06:38 to play championship cricket following that. So yeah, I'm hopeful that Macca can have a

06:43 really good impact with the ball.

06:45 Perfect. And just a final one, who's going to be the team DJ?

06:49 Team DJ? Olly Carter. He'll keep the boys going.

06:53 Perfect. Thank you very much, Jamal.

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