The itinerant batter has made a splash in three leagues and thrown his hat in the ring for more – a journey he hopes will lead to an England cap
Matt Roller16-Dec-2023It was the week that laid bare how franchise leagues have changed cricket for good. Monday: open the batting for Sharjah Warriors. Tuesday: fly to Dhaka. Wednesday: debut for Rangpur Riders. Thursday: off. Friday: second game for Rangpur. Saturday: fly to Karachi to link up with Peshawar Zalmi.”It was nice to be wanted,” laughs Tom Kohler-Cadmore, reflecting on the whistle-stop tour of South Asia that saw him represent three different teams in four matches across nine days last February. “Ideally you’d be part of a team the whole way through a tournament: in Bangladesh, I met everyone and then went, ‘Oh, bye, I’m off again.'”I just love playing cricket,” he says over a Zoom call from Abu Dhabi, the first stop on another winter overseas, which will also take him back to the UAE, Pakistan, and maybe beyond. “If there’s an opportunity to go somewhere and prove what I can do, I want to take it. The experiences you gain from playing in different conditions has helped me round my game.”It means living out of a suitcase and in hotels for much of the year. “Most tournaments are about a month. When you start to get that little bit of fatigue, you look up and you might be two games from the knockouts. Then you move to a new franchise, and there might be guys you already know and you get an energy lift… it goes by pretty quickly.”A generation ago, an uncapped 29-year-old English cricketer would have spent the off season hoping for a spot on an England A tour, or failing that, playing grade cricket in Australia. A generation before that, county contracts tended to span the six summer months: winters meant finding some form of alternative employment.”Before, you’d go and try to score a load of runs in grade cricket, or rock up in March for pre-season and hope it goes well,” Kohler-Cadmore says. “When I started, you’d be lucky to have two good overseas players sign for your county that you could learn from. It’s making me a better cricketer – and it’s an opportunity most people would die for.”He has spent the last three weeks sharing a dressing room with Andre Russell and Trent Boult, and opening the batting alongside Nicholas Pooran in the Abu Dhabi T10. “You seem to pick up little snippets in every competition you play in. You’re constantly evolving, understanding different viewpoints and adding things to your own game.”Kohler-Cadmore’s franchise, Deccan Gladiators, missed out on a third consecutive title with defeat in Sunday’s final, but he was the leading run-scorer, with over 100 runs more than his nearest competitor. Only Pooran has been more prolific in the tournament’s nascent history.Kohler-Cadmore (right) moved to Somerset from Yorkshire in 2023, where he won the T20 Blast title in his first season•Getty ImagesSeven years into its existence, T10 remains a fringe format. Most games are played to a backdrop of empty seats at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in the Abu Dhabi desert, the relationships between teams and the geographical locators in their names are tenuous, and it is difficult to pin down the market that the tournament is serving.But cricketers look forward to playing in it – and not exclusively for the pay packet. “It almost feels like you’re playing cricket as a child again: you’re just going out there and you’re just trying to hit the ball as hard and as far as you can,” Kohler-Cadmore says. “Last year I definitely took it into my T20 game. It is just that clear mind which gives you so much confidence.”I’d had a couple of T10 seasons where I’d done well and thought, ‘Hang on a minute, I’m averaging 30 and striking at over 200. Why don’t I just do that?’ It’s benefited me in other formats. When I walk out to bat, I try to simplify everything, go to my strengths and react to the ball. It clears your mind a little bit.”Batting with Pooran has informed that simplicity. “The rest of the West Indies power-hitters are all six-plus feet and hit the ball miles. Nicky’s not as stacked but his swing is the purest I’ve seen. If you bowl near his hip, it’s six over square leg; if you bowl outside off, he whacks you over extra cover; if you’re a bit short, he carves you over point.”The itinerant nature of Kohler-Cadmore’s winters – he hopes that the next few weeks might bring a replacement deal in the Big Bash, and has put himself forward for Tuesday’s IPL auction – stands in stark contrast to his new life in Somerset. He moved southwest last winter after leaving Yorkshire, and won the T20 Blast in his first full season with the club.”Taunton is quiet at the best of times, but it’s lovely down there and the boys make it a really special place. You spend so much time together that they become your best mates, not just work colleagues. Ever since I was at Worcestershire, Finals Day was such a big thing… winning the Blast was definitely the highlight of my career so far.”England have noticed Kohler-Cadmore’s form – both at home and overseas – and he was a late call-up to the second-string ODI squad that faced Ireland in September, though he remains uncapped. “It’s my dream to play for England,” he says. “I’ll do anything I can to keep trying to push my case.”At 29, he would be relatively old by the standards of most international debutants. “You want to be ready to perform. Instead of being a young, talented player but not really sure of everything, I’m in a good place that if I did get a call, I’d be ready to go and actually make an impact straight away; I would fully expect myself to be a match-winner.”
