Since Matthew Mott swapped the green and gold of his native Australia for the Three Lions of England in May, his defection has been a source of much banter from his former players. The term “traitor” has been readily dropped.
“He takes it lightheartedly,” former Australia all-rounder Delissa Kimmince told The Sunday Age and the Sun Herald.
Mott is the Australian who is on the cusp of completing the rarest of doubles. If England defeat Pakistan in Sunday’s final, he will simultaneously be the winning coach of both the women’s and men’s T20 World Cup champions – and for different nations.
“It’d be a pretty cool thing on his resume,” Kimmince said. “We don’t agree on the colours but that’s okay. They’re the opportunities you take. If he was to do it, it would be an amazing achievement to take teams to those pinnacle moments and come away with the silverware.”
Sitting on her couch watching Jos Buttler smack 68 off 32 balls against Australia last month, Kimmince could already see the Mott effect taking hold.
“I saw straight away it was like he said, ‘Go back yourself and have fun’, which is what he said to us,” Kimmince, a member of the winning XI in 2020, said. “It looked like they didn’t fear their shots. I can see it in the way they play. It’s a credit to him.
“Motty is always relaxed. I never feel like he’s on edge and if he is you don’t see it. The last thing you want to see is your coach cracking the shits and getting pissed off.”
Matthew Mott with skipper Meg Lanning in 2020.Credit:Getty Images
As England’s white-ball coach, he and captain Buttler have reshaped a limited-overs set-up that had been chiefly run by former captain Eoin Morgan. Morgan quit as skipper just two games into Mott’s tenure.
Mott’s four-year contract takes in next year’s World Cup in India and the 2024 and 2026 T20 global tournaments. He and Buttler, 32, can reasonably expect their captain-coach partnership to take in much of that time.
“Hopefully I’ve got more time ahead myself as a captain and with Matthew Mott we can hopefully shape the next, as I say, era of English white-ball cricket,” Buttler said.
“Of course we’re still reaping the rewards of Eoin Morgan’s tenure and the changes that have happened in the white-ball game in England, and that’s clear to see in the strength and depth of the talent we now have in the white-ball game in England.
“We’re very much riding the back of that wave, of course, but there’s a bit of a new direction, as well.”
The dominant white-ball team of the past few years, England enter the final as warm favourites, though with wet weather looming the lottery that is T20 cricket could become even more chancy if overs are lost.
The forecast is for rain and a possible thunderstorm for Sunday though tournament organisers were hopeful on Saturday that the weather will have cleared by the 7pm start. A reserve day on Monday is in place if required to complete the game. If no game is possible, England and Pakistan will be declared joint winners.
TEAMS
ENGLAND (possible): Jos Buttler (c), Alex Hales, Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid.
PAKISTAN (possible): Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Haris, Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi.
Head to head: Played 28: England 17, Pakistan 9, Tie 1, No Result 1
Weather: Showers, possible storm 26
Odds: England 1.65, Pakistan 2.25 (Pointsbet)
