The retiring Kyle Mills looks back on the first T20 international with Nick Edlin
The stage was beautifully set.
February, 2005. The first ever international game of Twenty 20 cricket was winding down in a carnival-like atmosphere at a packed Eden Park.
It wasn't a cricket match so much as an incongruous nostalgia trip, played out in cricket's newest format. The Black Caps worea retro beige uniform, a few players teased their curly hair in the spirit of disco, while others sported wild facial hair and 1980s-style headbands.
The result had never really mattered, but with the game long over as a contest, one last thing was needed to complete the trip down memory lane - a nod and a wink to the greatest moment of sporting controversy between the two nations. The underarm delivery, Melbourne, 1981.
New Zealand needed 45 runs off the last ball of the match. Kyle Mills faced up, his stance upright, correct. McGrath made to go back to the top of his mark, but suddenly the spirit of Trevor Chappell overtook him and he turned to face Mills. McGrath beamed a mischievous smile. Adam Gilchrist walked up to the stumps. The crowd, sensing what was about to happen, roared with delight.
At the striker's end, focused on the game, it took Mills a moment to click. Did he have any idea what McGrath was up to?
"No, not at all," laughs Mills, who has just retired from all cricket this week.
McGrath walked three paces to the crease, crouched down with the ball in his hand in an eerily accurate impersonation of Chappell, swung his arm back and ... didn't release the ball. The crowd roared again, and even half broke out into applause. Umpire Billy Bowden, never one to be outdone theatrically, pulled a red card from his back pocket and waved it furiously at McGrath.
Glenn McGrath threatened to bowl underarm but didn't let go. Photo / Kenny Rodger
"I think McGrath saw the moment to play up to the whole occasion," says Mills. "I certainly wasn't expecting him to do something like that, but it was all quite humorous. It added to the theatre of the moment."
Bear in mind that the players and fans had no idea then that Twenty 20 would become the commercial juggernaut it has. In February 2005, it was a minor piece of frippery at best.
"It wasn't a piss-take," Mills says of that first game, "but it was a very relaxed lead-in a few days out. Everyone was just wanting to go out there and put on a show. Marshy [Hamish Marshall] and myself put our hair into an afro state and we played up to the crowd. It just felt like an exhibition game - like we were playing in the back yard."
New Zealand got thumped that night, thanks largely to Ricky Ponting's 98 runs off 55 balls - an innings that would prove an early bellwether of the kind of swashbuckling batting Twenty 20 cricket would introduce.
"Ricky was unbelievable," says Mills, who picked up three wickets in Australia's inning. "It was just an unbelievable display of brutal batting. It's the norm now but that was the first case I had ever experienced."
It still surprises Mills how casual the whole affair was.
"When you look at T20 now, it's a totally different beast. We were just out there to entertain. Looking back now, I can't believe our mindset leading into that game."
