“Some people do recognise me occasionally and it’s always nice to have a chat about cricket.” Graham Napier has a few minutes between appointments. As a fire safety officer in Suffolk the 46-year-old former Essex all-rounder “goes everywhere, schools, cafes, barbershops, churches …” to install and service fire extinguishers. It’s not lost on him that as a player he was often the one responsible for pyrotechnics.
On a June evening in 2008 Napier blasted 152 not out off 58 balls for Essex in a televised T20 Blast match against Sussex. He broke the English record for the highest score in T20 cricket and equalled the world record for the most sixes, 16, in one innings. The knock caught the eye of England’s selectors but also those from further afield.
“I was informed that Mumbai Indians were interested in signing me for the second season of the IPL. There was lots of hype after that innings and people talking things up. It was a crazy time.”
It was a different time. Take the fact that Napier didn’t have an agent, “I hadn’t played international cricket and was on friendly terms with the hierarchy at Essex. I liked to think I could walk into the chief executive’s office to discuss contracts and that’s the way it happened. I didn’t need someone else taking a piece of the pie.”
Nevertheless, over the ensuing months a “go-between” sorted a deal between Napier and Mumbai Indians for the following season. Due to the rules in place at the time Napier was not eligible to be entered into the auction as he hadn’t played international cricket. He was signed for an undisclosed fee but the final amount was reduced significantly by Essex curtailing his availability; they wanted their man back on 1 May so he could help them defend the Friends Provident Trophy title. A different time indeed.
The 2009 Indian Premier League began on 18 April and ran to 24 May, Napier ended up playing just the one game for Mumbai, scoring 15 runs off 16 balls and taking one for 27 off his four overs.
“It was frustrating that I wasn’t allowed to be in the auction as I was the type of player that you could see two teams getting into a bidding war over, I hit it a long way and could bowl fast.” Napier pauses while climbing into his van to head to his next appointment. “The whole thing seems a long time ago.”
Napier mentions that he saw some of the Hundred auction this week “just out of curiosity”. One man who had more of a vested interest was Tymal Mills. “I came out later than I thought and so it was a lot of time being on edge and worrying that teams won’t have money left in the purse to pick you up.” The nervy wait paid off, Mills was picked up by London Spirit for £130,000.
At 33, Mills is a veteran of franchise T20 leagues around the world where his pace and skills as a left-arm bowler have placed him in demand. “I’m fairly grizzled,” he says on a train back to Hove where he is Sussex’s captain and all-time leading wicket-taker in T20 cricket.
After impressing in his first few white-ball games for England as a 24-year-old, Mills went to then Royal Challengers Bangalore for £1.4m at the auction before the 2017 IPL. “It was amazing, obviously, and it felt totally bizarre to watch it all unfold on the TV.” Mills was in Dubai playing in the Pakistani Super League at the time. “After the auction I purposely didn’t go down to the hotel buffet that morning, I peeled off a couple of close teammates – Luke Wright and Nathan McCullum – and we had a quieter breakfast as it all sunk in.” Presumably they let him pay? “I did pick up that bill if I remember correctly.”
In the end, Mills admits that he didn’t deliver on his whopping auction fee in 2017, his five games for RCB delivered five wickets before injury struck and curtailed his tournament. He was passed over in following years for the IPL but had significant success elsewhere. In the 2022 IPL, Mumbai Indians paid £147,000 for him and he took six wickets in five games.
“I’ve had real ups and downs with auctions over the last 10 years, they can be pretty bruising experiences. You get passed over, you get discarded … and it all plays out in public.”
Mills is well placed to give advice about what it is like to have a hefty price tag clanking around the neck. “I took James Coles for a drink after the auction last week,” he says of the 21-year-old, who plays under Mills at Sussex and signed for London Spirit for £390,000. The sum is a nosebleed inducing sum for an uncapped youngster, albeit one with huge promise. “He’s a great lad and brilliant to watch. I just gave him some advice on a few things that I’ve been through but I’ve got no doubt he’ll deliver and will also be playing for England very soon.”
The big question is did Coles get the round in? “We actually went one each … he can buy me one in the summer when he’s been paid.”
Back in Suffolk, Napier says he has no regrets about how things turned out. “Bear with me one second while I start up the van,” he says. Over the low rumble of the ignition he tells me he still loves the game and has worked as a coach at schools in Suffolk, he also runs a bat maintenance business as a “side hustle” alongside his fire safety work.
“It’s a different world now, I don’t wish to have my time again. A big thing for me was loyalty, not many people can say they played for the same team since they were 10 years old to retirement at 36.”
Does he really not have a pang of regret seeing the amounts of money that players who play a similar style of aggressive cricket to the one he played are now being traded for?
“Nah. Honestly. Maybe I could be on a beach somewhere right now and not about to go to Bury St Edmunds to install a fire extinguisher,” he says with a laugh. “But I’m really proud of my career and the experiences I had, the guys I played with, against and the things I achieved.”
Napier says a cheery goodbye and hangs up. A different world.
Comparing cars with Tendulkar
Remarkably, Napier hit 16 sixes in an innings for a second time in his career playing for his beloved Essex against Surrey in the 2011 County Championship. Andy Bull was at Whitgift school for the Guardian and witnessed the carnage that day:
“A day at the cricket has rarely been such a dangerous occupation. While Napier was at the crease the crowd had to scatter, duck and cover to avoid his blows. He made 196 and 176 of those were scored in boundaries. In total he walloped 16 sixes, equalling Andrew Symonds’ record for the most ever hit in a first-class innings.
“Even the people going about their business outside the ground on the Brighton Road were not safe. Napier thumped three balls out into the street, clearing not just the rope but the rows of spectators, marquees and boundary hedgerow. The third umpire had to pop back and forth like a broken cuckoo clock with his box of replacement balls.”
Napier spoke self-deprecatingly about these innings and also when comparing himself to the talents of the modern game. “They can play 360 degrees, I was good at smacking it straight or over midwicket, no chance I was getting down on one knee to ramp or scoop a fast bowler.”
He also tells a couple of very funny stories about his brief stints with Mumbai in the IPL. One about repeatedly being mistaken for team security when travelling around with the squad “at least it meant I must have looked in decent shape …” and one in particular about sharing a dressing room with Sachin Tendulkar.
“Sachin was into his cars and had just bought a Porsche 911. He told me he could only really drive it in the middle of the night otherwise he got mobbed. I’m sat there taking this all in when he turns to me and asks what I’m currently driving. ‘Err I’ve got a lovely little Ford Focus, Sachin.’ Essex had a corporate deal with Ford at the time and until that moment I thought I was a high roller!”
Quote of the week
“If you’re in, you’re in, and if you’re not in, no one cares about you.” Liam Livingstone takes a swipe at the communication and man management skills – or lack thereof – of the current England regime under Rob Key and Brendon McCullum.
Memory lane
On 18 April 2008 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, McCullum blitzed an unbeaten 158 for Kolkata Knight Riders in the first ever game of the IPL. “My life changed completely,” McCullum said afterwards. The cricketing landscape has too – 18 years later the 2026 IPL gets under way on 28 March and runs to 31 May.
Still want more?
Jo Khan tells the tale of a father and son duo who shared a huge partnership in Australian amateur cricket.
Ashes gagging orders and a storm in a teacup: Barney Ronay previews the new cricket season.
And Andy Bull on the first Pakistan player to be signed by an Indian-owned Hundred team.
… by writing to james.wallace.casual@theguardian.com.
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