I Am A Gentle Giant Nowadays, Says Nel

THERE is probably very little need to ask English cricket fans what adjectives occur to them when Andre Nel’s name is mentioned.

- Paul Edwards

“Aggressive...loud...bristling,” would all be mentioned sooner or later. “Bristling” especially, maybe.

If you watched Nel bowl a spell when he had his dander up, you might have believed he bristled when buying his morning paper.

So when it was announced this week that Essex had appointed the former South African Test cricketer as their bowling coach and assistant to Anthony McGrath, the good citizens of Chelmsford and Billericay may have wondered what was about to happen to fine bowlers like Jamie Porter.

Well, it seems such worries are groundless. As ever, easy answers are all too easy and popular images tell less than half the story. Nel is keen to debunk the notion that he will be encouraging Sam Cook to scream in batsmen’s earholes at every opportunity. The game has changed and so has he.

“Everybody expects to me to be the same type of person as a coach as I was as a player,” he told TCP in his first interview since being appointed at Essex.

“But with time you get smarter and wiser and I’m quite a gentle giant off the field. My coaching style is laid back and relaxed. I do think bowlers should be aggressive but that’s more a question of body language.”