‘I lost all love for cricket’, admits Middlesex star

Middlesex’s Dawid Malan has revealed how he fell out of love with cricket after a busy winter left him feeling mentally and physically burned out.

But the 28-year-old insisted he was fully refreshed ahead of Sunday’s opening County Championship game, having asked his county bosses to take two weeks off ahead of the new season.

Malan spent much of the winter in Dubai, playing 11 matches for the England Lions in December and January, before a further eight games for Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League, played in the United Arab Emirates.

The Roehampton-born batsman then immediately flew to South Africa, where his parents are from and where Middlesex were starting their pre-season training.

But Malan admitted the non-stop cricket – and the four months away from home – had started to take its toll.

He said: “I got back into the hotel and I just didn’t enjoy it. I was there for two days.

“I went to Angus [Fraser, Middlesex director of cricket] and said ‘I just need to get away’. And he straight away said ‘go’. Fortunately for me my parents still live in South Africa so I just went and stayed with them for two weeks.

“I suddenly lost all love of the game. It took me a month to get that back.”
Dawid Malan

“I was just happy to sit down and not actually see a cricket bat or a cricket ball. I think I struggled a bit in the Pakistan Super League, towards the end, and I just didn’t feel comfortable and I needed a bit of a break.

“Being away in Dubai for four months, I suddenly lost all love of the game and it took me a month to get that back – literally stepping away and getting away from cricket.

“I got tired and I needed a break. Four months non-stop in a high-intensity environment, with only a two-week break over Christmas, was quite tough, especially being in a different country and living in a hotel.

“You get mentally tired, you get physically tired.”

Malan flew back to the UK with his Middlesex colleagues and then had a few more days off, meaning the warm-up with Northamptonshire on 31 March was the first time he had picked up a bat in five weeks.

Middlesex’s first five Championship games 2016
Apr 17-20: Warwickshire (Lord’s)
Apr 24-27: Durham (Chester-le-Street)
May 1-4: Hampshire (Ageas Bowl, Southampton)
May 8-11: Nottinghamshire (Lord’s)
May 15-18: Surrey (The Oval)

But with the first Championship match of the season, against Warwickshire at Lord’s, on the horizon, Malan insists he is in good nick and looking forward to the challenge ahead of trying to improve on last year’s second place.

“Everything’s feeling fine. The rhythm’s coming and I’m enjoying having time in the nets and hitting balls, which is what I absolutely love,” he said.

“The boys are excited for the season. It’s always good to get back together and have a chat about the winter – what the boys got up to and all the funny stories and things that have happened. So the atmosphere’s pretty good.

“But the only way that atmosphere continues and the team spirit continues is if you keep winning.”