One of the six players bought by Rajasthan Royals during Indian Premier League 2024 auction last month, uncapped hard-hitting batter Tom Kohler-Cadmore is yet another English signing by the franchise.
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Kohler-Cadmore, who will be rubbing shoulders with English white-ball captain Jos Butler in IPL 2024, will also share the dressing room with established international cricketers namely Ravi Ashwin, Trent Boult and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Ashwin, in particular, is quite excited for the 29-year old player, who was sold for his base price of INR 40 lakh in what will be his maiden season of the biggest T20 league across the globe. Ashwin, who has been representing the franchise since 2022, shared an interesting connection with Mick Kohler-Cadmore, Tom’s father, on his YouTube channel.
Tom, who plies his trade for Somerset at the moment, had made his county debut at Worcestershire a decade ago. Co-incidentally, Ashwin’s county debut had also happened at Worcestershire in 2017. In the video, Ashwin recalled how Kohler-Cadmore’s father helped him out in every single activity especially during his first 10 days.
“Mick Cadmore, Tom Kohler-Cadmore’s father, was my first-ever county stint dressing room attendant and helped me in the time I spent at county cricket in England. When I went to England to play county cricket, the first 10 days were very difficult to start with, as we needed to do everything for ourselves. Right from the laundry to food, his father helped me out in everything there for the first 10 days, and I am very grateful for him. In fact, when I went there, he had just moved to Yorkshire from Worcestershire. He’s a man of gold. An amazing human being. I’m so happy I’ll get to play with his son now,” Ashwin said.
RR, of late, have been quite keen on employing English cricketers. In the recent past, gun players in Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Tom Curran, Liam Livingstone, Joe Root, etc. have all played for the Royals. This may also be indicative, in a way, of the presence of owners Manoj Badale, a British-Indian, and Lachlan Murdoch, an Australian-British-American businessmen.
Ever since Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty were ousted as their owners, Badale and Lachlan took over the franchise. Given their British roots, they might just have a closer view of domestic cricket in the country, enabling them to have their best picks.
Ravi Ashwin County Career Details
In his debut season for Worcestershire, Ashwin picked up three wickets against Gloucestershire. Aged 30 then, Ashwin had given county cricket a try to fulfill one of his dreams. He was instrumental in promoting the club to Division One by taking 20 wickets and averaging 42 with the bat in hand.
The following year, he was all set to go back to the same county after heaps of negotiations between the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and Matt Rawnsley, the then CEO of Worcestershire. However, he had to withdraw at the last moment due to a groin injury.
For the second half of County Championship 2019, Ashwin was signed by Nottinghamshire and he fared decently once again. He took 34 wickets and scored 339 runs at an average of 37.66. Slated to play for Yorkshire in 2020, the deal was called-off mutually amid the novel COVID-19 pandemic.
