Keaton Jennings must decide whether to remain with Durham after their demotion to Division Two as he pursues an England career in his adopted homeland
David Hopps10-Nov-2016Keaton Jennings’ prolific form last summer has earned him his first experience with England Lions but, even as he relishes his opportunities at the Loughborough national performance centre, he is wrestling with the dilemma of whether to abandon his career with crisis-ridden Durham. On one hand lies his natural sense of loyalty, on the other the notion that an England career is not too far away. He has some agonising ahead.Jennings has held several exploratory conversations with Durham about the possibility of captaining them in at least one limited-overs format, with Paul Collingwood, at 41, retaining the role in the Championship. “There have been a couple of discussions about captaincy but nothing has been decided – not from Colly’s point of view either – but there have been discussions,” he said.Jennings freely admits that his future remains uncertain following the enforced relegation of Durham to Division Two of the Championship, and the issue of points deductions, by the ECB as punishment for the bailout they required from central funds to avoid bankruptcy. Strict financial controls over forthcoming years question whether they can remain able to compete.It was a wholly different world when Jennings signed a four-year contract and he is adamant that the changed circumstances, in which Durham have also been reconstituted as a community interest company under the chairmanship of Sir Ian Botham, leave him entitled to leave should he so wish. The exact nature of that escape route has not yet been revealed.”I was slightly worried when I signed the contract about players staying but at the time I had to make a call and put my head on the block,” Jennings admitted. “It has been a long summer and I have a lot of thinking to do over the next two or three weeks and a lot of conversations to have.”Warwickshire and Yorkshire will be among a clutch of counties monitoring the situation, but they may have to wait a while longer. Jennings, preparing for a Lions trip to Dubai, has other matters on his mind.
“I have never been a guy to put a club under the pump, to say if you don’t give me the captaincy I am going to leave”
“At the moment I am really excited to be here with the Lions and I really want to focus on that first. It is the first time I have been involved with the ECB in any format and mostly I am trying to enjoy the next couple of weeks. At the end of the day everything is open. I am not saying I would like to leave because I love Durham and I love the guys at Durham.”It is a challenging time for him. Much as England seek to plan their international pathway, Jennings, who came close to selection for the Test tour to India – a surfeit of left-handers did not help his cause – has suddenly sprung to prominence, much as have Ben Duckett and Haseeb Hameed, whose international careers are already underway. Duckett has emerged, too, from Division Two of the Championship. Does Jennings think he could do that? “You’d better ask the selectors,” he said.Strikingly, Jennings negotiated his contract without the help of an agent, which makes him a rare individual in modern-day professional sport, especially as a player with realistic international ambitions.At first meeting he is a genial sort, not immediately recognisable as the son of Ray Jennings, a former South Africa wicketkeeper who gained a reputation as a hard disciplinarian during his coaching years. Clearly, though, he has a similar appetite for self-sufficiency and between them father and son negotiated the contract that might yet hold the key to his future. He has no regrets.”I learned quite a lot about myself during the process. It was interesting to call up people and have some hard conversations: in terms of who is the coach going to be, who are the senior players going to be, what role would I play?”If I had given that job to an agent I wouldn’t have learned as much about myself and made the contacts and friends that I have made. It has been an interesting year in a lot of respects but at the time it was the right call definitely.Keaton Jennings has become more expansive in limited-overs mode•Getty Images”I have had a few friends and members of the family say ‘we think you are a little bit crazy’ but I enjoy being hands on. I think my Dad enjoyed it as well. It gave him a little hobby.”News of Durham’s plight broke in early October when he was back in South Africa, labouring through an accounting exam for which he knew, due to the daily grind of the county circuit, he was not remotely prepared.”It was the day I walked into an auditing exam. I’d walked into it having not finished my coursework – during the cricket season you tend to run out of time – and I think I failed the exam which didn’t help but that’s life. Then I walked out of the exam to the news. It is sad what has happened but at the end of the day the guys have got to face the facts I suppose and come back from there.”As players we didn’t have too much of an idea about the extent of what was going on. I suppose there were the previous year’s financial statements we could have looked at but I don’t think we realised the extent it was at. At the end of the day I am not experienced enough to sit down and analyse those statements but those are the sanctions that have been given and unfortunately that is what we have to live with.”During the season there was no talk. There were fears that it was not as financially stable as being said but at the end of the day we didn’t think we weren’t going to get paid or the club was going to deteriorate as quickly as the media had perceived. From a players’ point of view we thought that everything was alright. When you are in the changing room it was a bit of a bubble and you end up caught within your 15 guys and that is your bubble.”Jennings is quick to give much of the credit for keeping spirits high while rumours swirled to Collingwood, who along with the head of the academy and former coach, Geoff Cook, has become symbolic of the good things in Durham cricket while mismanagement has happened all around them and the general economic difficulties pervading the northeast have done their worst”Collingwood is a huge influence in terms of social aspects, of vision and of drive,” Jennings said. “At 40 years old now – he will be 41 next year – he is one of the hardest trainers. After a day’s play he goes in the gym and he sets a standard of what is expected of you as a professional but then he will go away from cricket and really enjoy his time as well and educate the guys away from cricket about how they got that balance.There is no sense that Jennings is now holding Durham to ransom over the captaincy that Collingwood has fulfilled with such vigour. He recoils at the notion. “No, not at all. I have never been a guy to put a club under the pump, to say if you don’t give me the captaincy I am going to leave. That is not who I am. For me whatever is right for the team must happen. If it is right for a team that I will captain I will captain. If it is not right then I am more than happy to play a supporting role.”In his early years at Durham, watching Jennings bat could be a taxing duty. He was a stilted left-hander, wary of stroke, concentrating largely on survival, especially on the demanding pitches at Chester-le-Street. Last summer, though, something clicked. It was more than just the natural progression of a career. His 1548 Championship runs, with seven centuries, spoke of higher ambitions. His improvement had its roots in some prolonged self-analysis when he questioned whether his cricketing obsession was becoming self-destructive.
“My girlfriend says we have been watered down through the generations. My dad is very very stern, very firm”
“It was a special year for a lot of respects,” he said. “I suppose it was down to a slight change of mindset. I had been chatting to my uncle, who was a sports psychologist, over the winter and he went through a process of trying to help be more positive and on the back of that finding happiness and thinking ‘Am I really happy playing cricket or am I happy doing something else?’ I am generally too attention-to-detail for my own good sometimes.”I sat down with my dad and got a bit of happiness outside cricket and I think off the back of that it kind of helped me out. I put a bit more energy into my studies – I am studying financial accounting – although I have deferred it another year and I will finish in 2018.”Then within that I did a bit of coaching, spent a little time with my niece and nephew so outside of cricket I had a bit of balance in my life instead of just being all-out cricket: gym, train, go to the ground. I played a bit of golf, enjoyed a beer and I suppose had good downtime with family.”Which neatly introduces the topic of his father. When he was coach of South Africa, Jennings was once called by the “this rabid disciplinarian with his bristling moustache”. His perfectionism was taken as read, his demands high, his honesty searing. His son, eager to build a cricketing career, looks on it all with equanimity.”My girlfriend says we have been watered down through the generations,” he laughed. “My dad is very – harsh is the wrong word – he is very stern, he is very firm. He is a huge professional and this is how he puts food on the table for the family.”Keaton’s father Ray Jennings coached South Africa•Clive Mason/Getty ImagesHe tells a story of his father’s playing career when, as a wicketkeeper, he grew his own grass at the Wanderers. “He used to bring in his own grass seed and grow it to practice on because he knew if he dived on the grass that was there he would hurt his arms. So he grew his own grass and told the guys not to cut it. He knew exactly how he wanted it.”Jennings senior, 62 now, his moustache bristling in shades of grey, coaches cricket at Dainfern College, a private co-educational school in Northern Johannesburg. The family lives on a golf estate about 2km from the school. Most days, Ray drives his golf buggy up the road and runs the cricket for 5 to 18-year-olds in the afternoon. Keaton tries to help out when he visits.”He has taught me the discipline and hard work aspect of anything in my life. I have never shied away from hard work or doing the hard graft at the right time. He is a character like that – he built his own garden. There was a big unlevelled piece of land where the house is built and he carried in chest-high stones and built this little garden the way he wanted it. He is a hard-working man and very disciplined and I suppose that is what I have taken from him.”