For years, Matt Homes worked for a photography agency, editing cricket pictures being his job primarily. An ardent club cricketer, the 58-year old Homes had his favourite players — the flamboyant English all-rounder Ian Botham and the stylishly brutal West Indian batsman Viv Richards. Botham’s pictures, Homes says, exude “emotions”; Richards “in coloured clothing during the World Series” was captivating.
While doing the desk job he loved from mid-80s to 90s, Homes couldn’t have imagined that one day he would be cropping the flaws and enhancing the skills of a young cricketer whose pictures would be splashed in newspapers across the world.
The Making of Jamie Smith, the hard-hitting record-breaking England wicket-keeper, is a story of a photo-editor turned coach following his passion and his ward’s unrelenting dedication.
Smith, the 24-year-old wicket-keeper in the Adam Gilchrist mode, destroyed the Indian attack in the second Test of the ongoing series at Birmingham. He had scores of 184 and 88 in the two innings, overall he hit 8 sixes and 30 fours. It is just a matter of time before he gets the IPL call. But before that the email that started it all.
At around the start of this century, Homes’ life changed. Following a take-over of his company, there was a switch in his work profile, forcing him to take a dramatic professional decision. He started a cricket training school for kids at Surrey’s Epsom town with a partner and called it the In-Touch Cricket Academy. It was in 2008, when his inbox received a message.
“Very much out of the blue, I got an email from Jamie’s dad, Lawrence, saying he had an 8-year-old who was very keen on cricket, keen to set up some one-to-one coaching. The only slot that worked for them and me was 7 am on Saturday,” says Homes to The Indian Express. For the next 10 years, this would be scheduled. The father drove his son to the academy, waiting there as Homes would take the young talented cricketer through a set of drills.
Homes’s training methods were a mix of old text-book tutorials followed by a session that would equip them to play the modern game. “From the time he was around 10 or 11, he would do drills for sweeps, reverse sweeps, ramp-shots, power hitting and also running down the wicket at quick bowlers,” says Homes.
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But aren’t coaches supposed to pull up kids if they play the ball in the air? “In England that wouldn’t work. You want to have kids booking on your courses; you have to make it more interesting to keep them engaged. Else, they would lose interest. It was clear with Jamie that he had to be challenged as a player,” Homes recalls.
At Birmingham, the stand-out feature of Smith’s batting was his audacity, the daring to jump out of the crease and wallop the ball over the bowler’s head. It was a stroke that had the Indians surprised and flustered but not Homes.
On many Saturdays, during those 10 years he trained Smith, it would be just the two of them, and the father, in an otherwise empty indoor facility. It was here that Smith would keep dancing down the track during the power-hitting session and the delightful sound of the bat connecting with the ball would echo around in the empty space.
What strokes Jamie played during the Birmingham Test took the coach back to those Saturday 7 am sessions? “There were a couple of shots – one, of course, is where he comes down the wicket and hits it over the top. I recall we used to do that in the hall many times and he would absolutely nail it. He would hit it back to the north of the hall and it would either miss his dad or the ball would come flying back at me,” says Homes.
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Smith too hasn’t forgotten the place that nurtured him. On his bat is the logo of the ‘In-Touch Cricket Academy’ and whenever at home he turns up at his alma mater. “We still keep in touch, he still comes down here over the winter and works with one of our other coaches called Mark Stoneman,” says the coach before talking about those early days.
“Even (while watching him) as an 8-year-old, we were absolutely amazed with the power, the clarity of mind and the shot selection, which is absolutely fascinating. He has clearly progressed beyond our expectations. He was probably a perfectionist … he’s got an inner quiet self-belief, a very humble lad. He comes from a very strong family background and he doesn’t forget where he’s come from.”
A young Jamie Smith (right) at the In-Touch Cricket Academy (coach in blue is not Matt Homes). (Photo via special arrangement)
Bazball, down Smith’s alley
From meeting his first coach who trained him to play aggressive unconventional cricket to the present day where he is part of an England team that plays positive cricket to win games – Bazball under coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes – things have perfectly fallen in place for the talented player.
“It really falls into his lap, really. The McCullum and Stokes philosophy has allowed Jamie to flourish without any fear of failure and just play his way, which suits him perfectly. But at the end of the day, he’s still got to go out there and execute, which comes down to the fact that he’s sort of ultra-talented and strong in mind. He has a very good self-belief, in a very humble and quiet way,” he says.
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And what about the talk that Bazballers can’t defend? “I don’t agree with that. I just think that’s the style of the squad and the message that goes out is that they want players to be positive. I think if they wanted players to play in a more traditional way, they would,” he says.
Ask Homes, the coach, if he can wear the photo-editor hat one more time. For ages, newspapers have dealt with the dilemma of using the usual picture of a batsman celebrating a hundred by raising hands or to one where the photographer had captured the grace or brutality of the bat belting the ball. Homes, the cricket coach, gives the expected answer.
“Someone just raising their bat is pretty dull. If I see a classic batting shot, I’m more than happy with that,” he says. Which Jamie frame from the Birmingham knock would he pick — amongst the ones where he is jumping down the crease, hitting it over the bowler’s head? “That’ll do for me, or him pulling it out of the ground for six. He did that a couple of times, didn’t he?” He truly did.
