"One has to justify their selection and not paychecks" - Chris Morris on his record-breaking IPL 2021 contract

On February 18th, 2021, as the Rajasthan Royals think tank at the IPL 2021 player auction soaked in applause from the room after bagging the services of South African all-rounder Chris Morris for a whopping sum of ₹16.25 crore, the man in the spotlight barely found time to celebrate the milestone.

Morris had only returned from a practice session with the Titans a little while before his name went under the hammer. After an intense bidding war that saw his name penned down in the record books, the all-rounder's phone refused to stop buzzing with calls and congratulatory messages.

A man who wasn't a novice to the concept of pocketing large sums of money, Morris was undeniably going to be the star attraction for the entirety of IPL 2021. The all-rounder endured a start-stop journey throughout the whole season though, particularly in the second half in the UAE, where he wasn't as effective as the team - and in particular, Kumar Sangakkara - would have liked.

Money does strange things to people, but by Morris' admission, it was only about justifying his selection in the playing XI and not the paycheck. In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, the dynamic all-rounder shed light on battling pressure, Sanju Samson's maiden captaincy stint and more.

Q. How have you spent your time post the IPL, and what’s it like to live a normal life outside the bubble in these challenging times?

Absolutely, I can’t hide the happiness. The second thing I did once I got off the flight and landed home was I got my second jab, but I spent some time away, played golf and switched off completely from the rest of the world. Recharged the batteries, but I am now back at the Titans, looking forward to some cricket.

Q. Getting down to business, I have to ask you, how did you react to pocketing that massive sum of ₹16.25 crore from the auction? Was there ever a sense of being ‘scared’ to justify that price tag?

Fortunately enough I’ve been given big contracts in the past and the word 'justify' always comes up, and my argument is it doesn’t matter how much you go for, less or more you have to perform, and perform to the best of abilities. It doesn’t matter how much money you are being paid, I believe you have to justify selection but not justify paychecks.

As a player, paychecks are out of your control, you’ve got no control over what happens in the auction. In terms of fear of the price tag, I didn’t demand it, it was out of my hands. I was very grateful to be wanted by teams, it’s quite a humbling experience to know so many people enjoy my cricket.

Morris was one of the star attractions in the RR camp during IPL 2021 [PC: SportsLumo]

Q. Turning the clock back a bit, what were you doing at the time the bidding was on, and how did you celebrate the moment?

I couldn’t really celebrate, I had just come back from practice for the Titans. There weren’t too many celebrations. My phone went crazy, it was melting down and I didn’t want to receive so many phone calls at once. Myself and Simon Harmer sat in my room and watched it unfold. It was the first one I’ve watched properly, so it was quite a good experience.

Q. Kumar Sangakkara, towards the end of IPL 2021, expressed his displeasure at your performance in the UAE leg. Was it again a case of the price tag playing on your mind, and pressure got the better of you?

It was a difficult one. We started to gain momentum in the first half, guys were taking wickets and scoring runs. Honestly, the COVID break made a big difference. There’s only so much cricket you can practice in the nets, you need to be playing the game to be good enough in a tournament. A lot of our guys didn’t get that, and the team that won had a lot of guys coming in after playing cricket before the UAE leg. I don't think we performed to the ability we could, we showed glimpses of it and lady luck was not on our side. You don’t drop those many catches, balls landing in no man’s land, inside edges hitting the stumps. In cricket, you need that luck.

In the end it was disappointing, we had a good squad, but we had some guys who were missing. We were off from where we wanted to be, but that said, we had some serious youngsters who in the future will play a lot of cricket for India. Next year or in the next few years, Rajasthan will be a serious team to compete for that trophy. But all in all, disappointed, it hurts a little bit but the sun always comes up the next day and we get another opportunity next year.

Q. At CSK, DC and RCB, you were one among a few big stars, but at Rajasthan, you were the star attraction. Does this whole idea of the weight of expectations do funny things to a cricketer?

It doesn’t matter which team I play for, everyday I try and perform, and the pressure is exactly the same. Whether we had (Ben) Stokes, (Jofra) Archer, (Jos) Buttler or (Andrew) Tye, no matter who we had, it would have been the same pressure to perform. In terms of responsibilities, I was the senior player with a bit of a leadership role behind the scenes, but on the field it’s always the same pressure to perform and it’s just one of the things. It was a disappointing second half, but these things happen in cricket.

Q. A small extension from things that are now funny, if the opportunity ever presents itself, will you consider denying Sanju Samson a single?

Haha everyone asks me about that. The guy was on a 117 in a T20, he’s got every right to deny a single. He hit two balls before that for six, so 100 times out of a 100 I’m getting back, so no issues at all.

Chris Morris had some very nice things to say about RR captain Sanju Samson

Q. On Samson's topic, you’ve played under some big captains, including MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli. How would you rate Sanju Samson when compared to the big two?

That’s a difficult one because the other two have got a lot of experience under their belts. Dhoni is obviously one of the best at the game as captain, Virat is paving his own way as a great captain. Sanju is a young man, it was his first year as IPL captain and that’s not a very easy job, especially when you’ve got disruptions in the squad and the team.

How Sanju handled himself to be calm was incredible, especially considering the pressure we were facing. As disappointed as he was, he made sure the guys were smiling and he never showed he was upset. One thing about him is that he backs his players to the end, that’s one thing he’s got going. He’s got an unbelievable cricket brain, the way he thinks about the game, the way he talks about the game, he will only grow from strength to strength.

Q. We haven't had too many foreign captains in the IPL, but with your experience, is there a chance we can see you captain an IPL team?

Haha I don’t know about that. I’ve never captained a professional team before, I’ve only been vice-captain before. As a man of my character, there’s a very good reason for me to be vice-captain.

Q. Back to your playing style now, does being an all-rounder make matching expectations a difficult job? Has there been a time you've wanted to perhaps bat higher up the order?

I’m pretty sure of my role of the team. There are guys who are there to hit fours, some take singles and others hit sixes. I know my job is to hit sixes, but I haven’t hit nearly as many as I’ve wanted to because I’m often facing the world’s best. I know I need to finish off games, I didn’t do it enough in this tournament but in terms of facing a slightly newer ball and facing faster bowlers, I’m happy to leave it there to be honest.