England captain Jos Buttler has his team embracing the emotions that a World Cup challenge presents, writes Cameron Ponsonby.

Jos Buttler is a cerebral and kind character who also leaves you in no doubt that he’d call you a **** if you deserved it. Kind and cerebral in his simple, but important choices of language that are dotted throughout his press conferences. Small details such as the dream of lifting the World Cup in the garden with your “brother or sister”. Or the nature of the cricketing schedule meaning it would be impossible for “one man or woman” to do the job as an all-format coach. It isn’t the Gettysburg address, but it also doesn’t have to be.

And the latter, more sweary side of him, evidenced by his unprovoked outburst at Vernon Philander in 2020 who had the audacity of standing in his crease when he was batting.

“Move out the way you f**king d***head,” Buttler said eloquently, “F***king move. F***ing knobhead. F***king, get past that f***king gut.”

Oh captain, my captain.

At this tournament, the England captain has put the feeling back in T20 cricket. Such is the nature of the format, players speak with understandable, if slightly sad regularity that the volatility of T20 cricket means they simply can’t allow themselves to get either too high or too low with the sport or else risk going mad.

“If we’re speaking honestly,” said Marcus Stoinis to The Grade Cricketer after almost single-handedly winning a game for Australia in last year’s World Cup against South Africa, “there’s a split second of emotion that comes out, but the game’s so hard and you play so often with so many ups and downs that you just move on pretty quickly.

“The reason we talk with such cliche about process and all that sort of stuff is that the results change so much that if you judge yourself on every performance you’ve got no chance.”

However, Buttler’s language at this tournament has been a departure from the trusted process of athletes trusting the process.

Defeat against Ireland was greeted with comments that England needed to “let it hurt”.

“Days like today are really, really disappointing,” Buttler said after the defeat. “And you’ve got to feel that.”

Similarly, in the build-up to Sunday’s final, there was no hiding behind the facade that it’s just another game of cricket.

“I’ve certainly had a few dreams about that kind of thing,” Buttler said when asked if he’d put any thought to what it might feel like to lift a World Cup above his head as England captain.

“It really links you back to what you were like as a kid really, the kind of things you’d be doing in the garden with your brother and sister, pretending to lift a trophy. And now to be able to have the opportunity to live that kind of thing out is incredibly special.

“I think it’s fine to sort of think about those things and sort of what it might feel like or what it would mean. They’re certainly feelings I don’t feel like I need to try and block out or push away.

“You almost accept those kind of things, like accepting the noise that comes with a World Cup final. You don’t need to try and push it away and say it’s no different tomorrow. Of course it is.”

The difference between Buttler and Stoinis is one of scaling your emotions to the occasion vs trying to stay level throughout. Neither is right or wrong, but are two examples of coping mechanisms players use in order to survive what can often be a sport that at times can be little more than an act of self-preservation.

“As a cricketer nowadays”, said an emotional David Wiese following Namibia’s exit earlier in the tournament, “It’s quite often four weeks in, four weeks out and self-preservation. You do well in that tournament; you get picked up in the next one.

“So it’s always nice to have that home [with Namibia] and a team you can resonate with, that is close to your heart and a team that you know their heart is in the right place.”

This England team is one that was moulded in the image of players like Buttler and is now being shaped by him. The impression given off is that his is a message of, yes, this really does matter. And it’ll be amazing if we win and shit if we don’t. But that’s okay. What’s the point of making it to this level of the sport and to play on such stages if you can’t appreciate it for the achievement it is?

The difference between the best and the rest is being able to grow in the face of a challenge rather than shrink. And Buttler is clearly the former, with his display in the semi-final so dominant that it reduced India to all manner of soul-searching.

“You don’t come down these roads very often, whether you’re a youngster or whether you’re in your 30s. But that just gives you that added determination and drive to try and make it happen”

It’s a World Cup final. And why pretend it’s anything else?

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