At the end of 2023, Oxford University Press announced the winner of the public ballot on the Word of the Year, and it was ‘rizz’. Obviously, I had never heard of it. I am 62 and apparently it is short for ‘charisma’ which is too long for anyone under 25 to type on their mobiles.
So who has rizz? Well, David Warner, for starters. I would suggest that few modern-day sportsmen and women possess an abundance of rizz. Most footballers, tennis players, cricketers and so on seem to be schooled in being as boring as possible. Anything else is deemed ‘unprofessional’. Well, I love seeing a sports professional with a smile on his or her face; it proves they are human with a personality, perhaps human frailties, just like the rest of us.
Maybe that’s why I quite like David Warner. He may be a pantomime villain in the eyes of the English fans and media but he is always watchable. Don’t get me wrong; his cheating at Newlands was disgraceful. However, England can hardly sit comfortably on the moral high ground given the past behaviour of Hussain, Atherton, Pietersen, Stokes et al, although I admit the latter two did also have plenty of rizz!
This week saw Warner’s retirement from Test cricket, bowing out at his Sydney home ground with a half-century and an Australian 3-0 series victory against Pakistan. Only Cook, Gavaskar and Graeme Smith scored more runs as openers, while 8,786 runs at almost 45 is world-class in anyone’s book.
It is strange to recall that first-class cricket wasn’t to his liking at all. I first saw him play at Lord’s in June 2010, thanks to my friend Dipesh, then a Middlesex Member, acquiring a ticket to see the county’s T20 clash with Essex. The great Adam Gilchrist was then Middlesex captain for the Blast but I had heard of this exciting young gun from New South Wales, if only because he was renowned for representing Australia in ODIs and T20 internationals without playing a single first-class match. Not one!
By 2010, he had played a handful in the Sheffield Shield, his debut coming the previous year, batting at six. He made a 48-ball 42 while at the other end, a certain Usman Khawaja compiled a steadier 172 not out. A teenage Mitchell Starc also featured in that drawn fixture, and the two also accompanied Warner in his final Test, and presumably first-class fixture. As for that Friends Provident tie at Lord’s. the pink-clad future legend biffed 25 in 15 balls, although the innings was overshadowed by the opposition’s Ryan Ten Doeschate’s superlative century.
It was to be another eighteen months before he accepted the call to wear the ‘baggy green’ against New Zealand. He stroked three boundaries in four deliveries to clinch victory, again batting with Khawaja. It was a match boasting a phenomenal line-up of Noughties cricket stars on both sides, including Ponting, Clarke, Hussey, Vettori, Taylor and Brendan McCullum. I think it’s fair to say that David Warner brought ‘Bazball’ to the Test scene long before McCullum the coach did so with England. His cavalier approach to batting didn’t always pay off. Stuart Broad, for one, seemed to have his measure, goading him into rash hooks or pulls.
In the recent World Cup, Warner again contributed to a triumphant Aussie campaign. He top-scored for his country, yet was eclipsed by two awesome innings by Glen Maxwell and Travis Head. In addition to his runs, there was no ignoring Dave’s energetic scampering around the outfield with an enthusiasm belying his 37 years. He hasn’t quit all cricket, of course. I daresay in future T20 franchises we’ll witness plenty more belligerent batting, attempted run-outs, rueful smiles – washed down with lashings of rizz.
