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In the shocking world of Twenty20 cricket, any bowler who can stop the batsmen from swinging their arms and clearing the boundary line to guide their team to victory is a prized commodity.
England star Sam Curran is an expert at the kind of tight, laser-accurate bowling under intense pressure that wins matches and World Cups. It’s often a test of both courage and skill – Curran has both in spades.
The 24-year-old was England’s best player, having won the T20 World Cup in Australia last month, though Curran modestly claims 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 is adept at ‘death bowling’, where the aim is to prevent batsmen from swinging on the crucial final pitches of an innings.
It is therefore no surprise that Curran has commanded the highest auction price ever in the hugely lucrative Indian Premier League tournament.
This is the world’s brightest, boldest and richest cricket competition, where franchise teams offer millions for the world’s best players.
On Friday, the Punjab Kings paid a whopping £1.85m to secure Curran’s services for next year’s event, following a fierce bidding war involving various rivals.
It confirmed Curran’s position as one of the most exciting – and most marketable – players in world cricket and stands to earn a personal fortune in the millions from this and other short-form tournaments.
Curran sold for a record £1.85 million at the IPL auction and expects to earn millions from franchise tournaments during his career.
Curran is a deadly accurate pitcher, but he’s also worked extensively on his hitting to now be considered an all-rounder. A master of all cricket trades.
He is also something of an oddity in that he enjoys the tourist aspect of cricket. The demands of the players are more grueling than ever, with weeks and months away from home and family.
But Curran and his glamorous girlfriend Isabella -or Issy- Symonds-Willmott have embraced this globe-trotting look, regularly posting Instagram snaps from different countries.
Issy and his mother Sara were in Australia to watch him play for England in the World Cup group stage, before Curran and his girlfriend flew to Thailand for 10 days off before their next assignment.
Curran and his girlfriend Issy in an Instagram snap earlier this year: she was in Australia to support him during the World Cup.
The couple enjoy the globetrotting 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 took second place in the main prize.
After England beat Pakistan to lift the T20 World Cup and Curran was named player of the tournament, he was, in every way, the life and soul of the celebrations.
Sam’s father Kevin played cricket for Zimbabwe and Northamptonshire.
The party started in the Melbourne Cricket Ground locker room until they were finally thrown out at 1:30am. That’s when Curran ran up and down the aisle of the team bus, leading his teammates in song.
The after-party in a room in the team hotel continued until well after dawn and it is probably no surprise that England lost the one-day series with Australia that followed immediately after.
Curran is just one part of an extraordinary cricketing family. His grandfather Kevin played for Rhodesia and his father, also Kevin, played and later coached Zimbabwe.
Sam was born when his father played county cricket for Northamptonshire, but part of his upbringing was in Zimbabwe until Robert Mugabe confiscated the family farm as part of his program to redistribute land.
In October 2012, when Sam was 14, his father collapsed and died while jogging in Mutare. He was only 53 years old.
That left mother Sara without a home or money, so she took her three children to England, where they studied 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 cricketing gifts were quickly recognized and surprisingly all three are professionals.
Tom, 27, also plays for England and Surrey, while Ben, 26, represents Northamptonshire.
The brothers, fans of sports, also played golf, rugby, tennis, hockey and squash growing up, with much sibling rivalry, but cricket would win the affections of all three.
It was Tom who replaced Sam in the England squad for the 2021 T20 World Cup when he suffered a back injury that would keep him out for seven months.
Sam was just 17 years and 16 days old and still studying hard when he made his senior debut for Surrey in a T20 match against Kent in June 2015.
Curran poses with his player of the tournament award after the T20 World Cup final
The injury-enforced layoff allowed Curran to reflect on his career up to that point and where he wanted to take things. The gym work he did to strengthen his body has served him well.
One of the objectives that he set for himself during that time was to improve in the so-called ‘bowling of death’, those decisive launches that short-form games balance on.
He took nine wickets over the last five overs in the World Cup, conceding an average of 6.56 runs per over, which is excellent and very frustrating for batsmen.
“I really enjoy the pressure, I love the challenge of being in that situation where hitters are trying to hit you as far as they can,” Curran said. The times.
Curran jumps for joy after taking 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 will be times when it doesn’t go well, but the World Cup was one of those tournaments where it went very well.
With that can-do attitude, Curran is unlikely to feel the pressure to be the most expensive star in the IPL next year and there should be plenty more to come.
England manager Matthew Mott put it well after the World Cup win, saying: ‘There’s no ceiling for him.
“I think his hitting has more to do with it as well — he’s one of the best timekeepers on the ball we have and he’s a weapon on the field as well.”
“And apart from the whole cricket thing, his personality in the group is really contagious. He is going to be a very, very good player for England and could become one of the greats.”