C365 Exclusive With Dawid Malan
Malan - a star of the future.
If I didn't know that Dawid Malan grew up in South Africa before I spoke to him, I would never have guessed it. A uniquely Afrikaans name is accompanied by a thick English accent that is certainly more reminiscent of his beginnings in south-west London than his youth in the winelands outside Cape Town.
His dual heritage is not something that the 21-year-old wants to talk about at present. Selection for the England Performance Squad means that Malan will have to make a decision on which country he would like to represent perhaps sooner than he would have anticipated - his unwillingness to discuss the matter suggests a decision has not yet been made - but for now, Malan is focusing on excelling with his county, Middlesex, and a certain Stanford Twenty20 game worth US$200 000.
Malan began his stint with Middlesex in 2006 quite by accident after originally heading to England to enjoy a gap year.
"It just kind of happened," Malan told Cricket365. "I just came over for a gap year, and was given an opportunity by MCC young cricketers and I got signed from there."
The youngster's performance in Middlesex's cup-winning Twenty20 campaign has resulted in many plaudits, with the left-hander's sublime knock of 103 off 51 balls in the quarter-final clash with Lancashire receiving the most attention.
"It was one of those innings where if you try to look back on the game and what happened you don't really know," Malan says of the innings.
"I was in sort of a zone if you want to put it that way, where everything just happened, every ball hit the middle of the bat, one or two gambles came off and it literally just happened to be honest. I'm not really sure how," he adds modestly.
Things nearly ended very differently for Malan, after an errant throw in the last over of the final against Kent resulted in costly over-throws that nearly saw Middlesex lose the game.
"I was waiting for that one!" Malan laughs when asked about 'that' throw.
"It just came out with the seam up. It should come out with a cross seam and it just came out with the seam up and ended up swinging.
"It still would have been about 10 yards long, but I don't know how it got that far wide to be honest!
"I would have been in a little bit of trouble if it had cost us the match."
The momentous occasion of the final was certainly not lost on the youngster: "The crowd was unbelievable," he recalls. "Just standing on the field with all those people. It's not something I will forget."
Despite his success in the shortest format of the game, Malan still points to Test cricket as the cricketing ultimate.
"I enjoy playing Twenty20 cricket, the intensity is higher every ball you are involved. It's just more enjoyable to play to be honest, although the other forms - as in Test cricket - is probably the form that I would like to pay the most."
Does he think that his style of play suits Twenty20 cricket?
"I would like to think so. But obviously it's about how you adapt to each form of the game. The best batsmen in the world are the ones that can adapt to all situations. So that's one of my goals - to be able to adapt to all forms of the game."
For the immediate future the Stanford series is Malan's - and Middlesex's - priority. With a hefty prize on offer, it's hard not to get carried away, but Malan insists the Lord's outfit are just looking to play their usual game.
"Obviously there's a bit more money on this than what there usually is, so there is a bit more pressure and it's going to be interesting to see how some of the guys cope with the pressure.
"We are just going to approach it as a normal game, we go out to win every game, so I don't think that we're going to do anything different to what we normally do, just take it as a normal game and see from there."
Malan certainly appears to have a cool head on young shoulders, and if the past season is anything to go by he certainly has a bright future in the game. Whether that future will be with England or South Africa remains to be seen.
Julia Harris