Ten years on from Bears’ first T20 Blast win, we caught up with Warwickshire great Ian Bell to relive memories of that historic campaign.
Lifelong Bear Bell started the 2014 Blast watching the action from afar, part of an England team that faced touring Sri Lanka and India parties in what was a busy summer of international cricket.
He returned for Finals Day, getting the Bears off to a blistering start, but despite ranking the win as a career highlight he does have one lingering regret…
“Wherever I am in the world, one of the first things I’ll do is check the Bears scores. That was the case on England duty. I was an England player, a Warwickshire player, but before that a Warwickshire fan. That will never change.”
2 August 2014. Ian Bell is glued to the TV in Team England’s hotel as Bears captain Varun Chopra and Rikki Clarke smash Essex to all parts of their compact Chelmsford ground.
Days earlier he’d compiled 167 at the Rose Bowl to square the India Test series.
The England squad had regrouped ahead of the fourth Test at Old Trafford but Bell’s focus was on Bears’ bid to end their Blast Quarter Final hoodoo (they’d lost their last six in the last eight).
And when Essex failed to chase down 197/2 – Bears’ highest T20 total that year – Bell glanced around the hotel foyer.
He needed to find England Head Coach Peter Moores.
“Myself and Woaksey were both desperate to play in Finals Day,” said Bell, “but we knew the schedule was tight. The India Test series finished just a few days before and we were due back in training with England the day after for the ODI series.
“As England centrally contracted player you don’t get to play as much as you would like for your club. If anything it meant more to me putting on a Warwickshire jumper and shirt, that was more important to me.
“During the group stage it didn’t look like I’d be needing a conversation about leaving the squad for Finals Day! But then we make the quarters, beat Essex who were flying in white ball, you feel a momentum shift and that it’s written in the stars.
“In my head there was never any doubt I would play. If I was selected by Dougie Brown! I didn’t get the chance to play as much as I wanted for the Bears…and when you do get the chance, you have to make it count.”
Bell, now 42, certainly made it count in the semi-final against Surrey when he cracked 38 in just 17 balls to get Bears off to the best possible start.
He admits giving Andrew Flintoff a “great send off” in his last game in English cricket – Freddie came out of retirement for Lancashire’s 2014 Blast campaign – after being caught for four off the bowling of his ex-England teammate.
So did Bell feel any extra pressure parachuting into a team on Finals Day that had won five games on the bounce?
“Yes perhaps a bit,” replied Bell, “but there’s always expectation when play for a big county like Warwickshire. You have to enjoy those moments; it’s a privilege to be given an opportunity to win trophies. So enjoy the pressure.
“To be out there in a final was great. I gave Flintoff a nice send off, giving him my wicket early! I should have smashed that one, especially against a guy I’ve played so much cricket with.
“Your thoughts then switch to ‘how can I affect the game in another way’ and your fielding becomes a priority.
“Throughout my career, I look for the hotspots, in the ring for spinners like Jeets, or down at long on or long off. To take a good catch here on the boundary under pressure, in front of a full house, near the end when the game is on the line. It was a good moment.
“I had full confidence in Woakesy in that final over. He was coming of age, getting picked more and more for England. The way Freddie had played his cricket through his career, you feared this was the perfect send off for him.
“But Chris executed those yorkers beautifully. There are few people I’d like to have the ball at that time and he’s one of them.”
Bell said the win meant as much to him as any other in his glittering career.
As a 21-year-old, he was part of the Warwickshire side skittled out for 115 by Surrey in the inaugural T20 Finals Day at Trent Bridge on 19 July 2003.
He’d waited 11 years to write the wrongs of that day. And he was going to enjoy the moment.
Bell is pictured champagne in hand (and hair!) for photographs following the trophy presentation but for him, with an England training camp calling, his post-match party was cut short.
“I guess that’s the one regret I have, not being able to take it in as much as I would have liked afterwards with the boys,” reflected Bell. “It would have been nice to have had a bit more of a headache the following morning, but next day it was back to Bristol for training.
“I learned very quickly in my England career, when you win Ashes and big series, savour it as you don’t know when it will happen again.
“When you play for a big club it comes with big expectations to win trophies. It’s an honour to have that kind of pressure on you. But winning trophies is hard. We got there in the end in 2014.
“And you need to really, really enjoy those days.
“Every time I come back to Edgbaston it’s special. It’s been a lifetime journey. Right through to being a dad now who’s got a lad going through the Bears youth system. I’ve gone full circle.
“Bears are part of my life, wherever I am in the world, whatever I’m doing, I’m a Bears fan, watching and hoping the guys do well.
“Hopefully this year is the year we do it again.”
Over 12,000 tickets have already been sold for the quarter-final fixture against Gloucestershire on Friday 6 September and there’s still time to secure your seat at the discounted advance prices.
Over 13,500 tickets sold for T20 quarter-final
For a third year in a row, Bears have secured a home Vitality Blast quarter-final against Gloucestershire on Friday 6 September. And tickets are going fast!
Over 13,500 tickets have already been sold. Adults tickets are available for only £20, if purchased in advance, while U16s are £5.
