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Ireland v India: Josh Little’s path to IPL from ‘Irish Glastonbury’ – BBC Sport

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7 months ago

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Ireland v India: Josh Little’s path to IPL from ‘Irish Glastonbury’ – BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, Josh Little has taken 78 wickets in 66 T20 internationals for Ireland

  • Author, Timothy Abraham
  • Role, BBC Sport Journalist in New York

Josh Little wants to show India fans what they have been missing in Ireland’s T20 World Cup opener in New York.

The Irish left-arm fast bowler played just one match for Gujarat Titans on 4 May in last season’s Indian Premier League.

Little picked up 4-45 in that game but spent the majority of the tournament carrying the drinks and is determined to prove a point in Wednesday’s match.

“Do I want to Yes, 100%. It’s not ideal playing one game, but the one game I did play I thought I took my chance,” Little, 24, told BBC Sport.

“The boundaries are big and I think it’ll be a little bit different to what what the Indian boys were playing in the IPL. So I’m looking forward to bowling to them.”

Little will also pass on any tactical snippets he has gleaned on India’s players to his team-mates to help give them the edge over their opponents.

“There’s a fair bit of knowledge that I would have got over the two seasons that I’m more than happy to share with the lads,” he said.

“I’ve had a good few questions. Little things here and there that hopefully I can add that 1%.”

‘Lean as an Olympic boxer’

Little’s international career was almost derailed before it even properly began.

He once cried off a game for an interprovincial fixture for Leinster Lightning so he could go to a festival called Electric Picnic – dubbed ‘Ireland’s Glastonbury’.

“This festival came around and all my friends were going,” said Little, who made his T20 debut for Ireland in September 2016 as a 16-year-old.

“They just said ‘look, you have to find a way out of going’. I just messaged my coach and I said ‘I’m not available this weekend’.”

Socialising, drinking and people could have led Little astray.

But a conversation with the then Ireland coach Graham Ford brought matters to a head.

Ford said he saw “something special” in Little and urged him to “choose cricket” and change his lifestyle to “make a lot of money in this game”, saying “I can see that you are talented”.

Little cleaned up his act.

“From that moment on, I think I lost about 20 kilos, basically stopped drinking,” he said.

“I was as lean as an Olympic boxer, which is too lean for what I needed to do. That was sort of the turning point in my career to to sort of progress “

‘My point of difference’

Little is not someone with conventional tastes.

When he does have the very occasional drink, it is usually a bottle chosen from his wine cellar rather than a pint of the black stuff.

The manner in which he developed his bowling – he is the fastest in the Irish side and has broken the 90mph barrier – was also slightly unorthodox.

As a youngster Little used to practise in the nets at Pembroke Cricket Club with a tennis ball while their senior teams were playing on a Saturday,

“During the matches the sight screen was right up against the nets. So I didn’t have any run up,” Little explained.

“In the space of a few years I realised flicking my wrist using a bit more on my shoulder helped develop a bit of pace.”

Coaches have not tried to tinker with Little’s action which is slightly reminiscent of South Asian tapeball players.

“Everyone’s always sort of said that’s my point of difference. Luckily it’s worked in white ball cricket this far.” he said.

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