Sam Curran played in two seasons of the Indian Premier League – one with Chennai Super Kings and the other with Kings XI Punjab. In total, he has scored 337 runs and taken 32 wickets in the 32 IPL games he participated in.
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When Sam Curran was 24 years old, he was chosen to join the Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League. They paid him £1.85 million. That honor made people ask: How much do they expect from the highest-paid player in this expensive cricket tournament?
Chris Morris, a former South African all-rounder, previously held the record for being signed by Rajasthan Royals for £1.6m in April 2021. Up until that point, he had played 70 IPL matches, taking 80 wickets and scoring 551 runs.
When asked what he thought were realistic expectations from players earning big money from the game, Morris said that it was expected of them to perform with success each day.
It’s normal to be anxious when lots of people are paying attention to you and some might even be hoping that things won’t go well. This is just part of life – the bad stuff comes with backing something big like IPL 2023.
I really love the challenge of pressure. It’s exciting when a lot of responsibility is on my shoulders and it makes me do my best. Even if I fail [it’s still an experience as] I can learn from it. But if I succeed and everyone notices, it can be a really amazing feeling!
Although life isn’t always easy and there will be more bad days than good ones, it’s important to accept failure for what it is – just part of the journey!
In 2021, Chris Morris did really well for Rajasthan Royals. In eleven games, he took 15 wickets and scored 67 runs. This year, he was also the most expensive signing in the IPL which is a cricket tournament that many people watch.
This means there are high expectations of him because he cost a lot money. That makes it hard to perform under this pressure with everyone watching you and judging you on every game.
Morris had a mix of good and bad luck in the 2021 tournament. He was the 12th player to take the most wickets. In India, he did really well with 12 wickets taken that accompanied his winning 36 runs from 18 balls scoring in Rajasthan’s opening game. However, after there was a Covid-19 outbreak and then the tournament got rearranged in Dubai later in the year Morris ran into difficulty, having to miss three games and only have one successful wicket taken during the four games in which he played.
The IPL is a special cricket tournament. Just being part of it is an honor, but many people want to see you fail. To keep calm and focus on improving himself, Morris stopped looking at the comments or news about himself that others posted online. He removed all kinds of social media comments he saw so that he can stay balanced and focused on doing well.
Morris found a way to tune out the noise that worked for him, but it might not be the same outcome for Curran. Morris was 34 when he became the most expensive player and had already played more than 200 T20s matches by then. However, Curran is 10 years younger and still has 157 games under his belt from this format of cricket. Sam Curran made an incredible achievement in the 2022 World Cup tournament where he took 13 wickets and helped England win, so much so that he was even named Player of The Tournament.
Will the price tag be a burden for Curran? No way. Morris believes it will actually bring him much more success.
“There’s a reason why teams wanted to pay so much for him,” Morris explains. “It wasn’t just one team, but multiple teams all wanting to pay this much for his services.
So he needs to remember, Morris said, what got him here in the first place–why people wanted him and why he loves playing this game.
Sam’s quality is excellent, so even though you may feel pressure to work harder and do better, Sam will still shine.
He has a special gift that lets him have amazing games every time he plays – even if he’s feeling extra pressure! So don’t worry; no matter how much weight is on his shoulders, Sam will still be able to perform well.
Morris thinks that the money paid for Sam doesn’t matter as much as his talent. He believes Sam has what it takes to show everyone what he can do.
In sports, people have paid a lot of money for others to do something before.
A while ago I played with Sam. Even back then at 17, he was already very good in cricket. Now days he has become even better as both a cricketer and person – he’s set for great things in the future!
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