If we stay consistent, there’s no reason why we can’t qualify for future World Cups: Japan captain Kendel Fleming [Exclusive Interview]

Kendel Fleming is the captain of the Japanese Cricket Team. He was associated with the Japan Under-19 team in the Under-19 World Cup 2020 even before making his T20I debut. Kendel is a man of many talents: besides his cricketing career, he works as a Senior Financial Analyst at Vincents and also runs a player management company. The story behind Kendel’s decision to start his own firm is truly interesting, and it involves a player who his company now manages.

Kendel has scored the most T20I centuries for Japan, has won the most Player of the Match awards, and is fifth among the Asian batters who have scored the most sixes in an innings. Furthermore, he is the first0ever to score an International century for Japan. In an exclusive interview with CricTracker, Kendel talked about his journey, the Japan Premier League, the growth of cricket in Japan, and the impact of franchise cricket over associate nations.

Excerpts:

Tell us about your journey. When and how did you decide to become a cricketer?

I was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and an Australian father and was there throughout my childhood. Before my family moved to Australia when I was around six, I probably hadn’t played much cricket then. I don’t think there was too much cricket being played in Japan, but I was fortunate to come through the Australian pathway in Queensland, and I played youth cricket for Queensland at the Under-12, Under-15, and Under-17 levels. I played school cricket at Brisbane Grammar School and then joined Northern Suburbs District Cricket Club.

In terms of Japanese cricket, I first got in contact with the Japan Cricket Association (JCA) when I was 18. I went over to Japan and saw everyone there. Since then, I’ve been going back every year, and I’d love to live there again. I am very honored to have captained the team over the last couple of years in International Cricket.

How was your experience in the East-Asia Cup this year?

The facilities in Hong Kong are fantastic, especially if you’re a top-order batter. Overall, it was a great tournament. We had all spectrums of international cricket teams just among the three teams (Japan, China, and Hong Kong). It’s really important in associate cricket, especially within our region, that we do things to help other countries. At the same time, getting the challenge against a quality team like Hong Kong was great.

In terms of being the leading run-scorer and that match against China, I suppose they are great accolades. But, you know, team results are the most important thing at the end of the day. Hopefully, we’re not too far off knocking Hong Kong off. We’ve been close against them three or four times now. So, I would love to get a win against a country like Hong Kong.

How did it feel to win the Japan Premier League this year? 

I guess the weather has played a part in recent years. But it was really pleasing to be able to win that. I think that in terms of selection for national teams, it’s a little bit of a pathway. Those players who perform well in the Japan Cup in the T20 competition will have the opportunity to represent their regions in the Japan Premier League. It was pleasing to be able to win that.

Did you play any role in bringing Josh Brown to Japan Premier League?

The Japan Premier League is probably the highest standard domestic competition we play. We invite a few players from overseas, and this year, for the first time, Josh Brown came over from Australia. I obviously play with Josh in Brisbane at North and manage him as well, so I played a big role. He loves Japan, and he’s always spoken about wanting to go for another holiday there. He didn’t get to do any skiing or anything like that, but hopefully, he had a good time. Some of the Japanese players and supporters got to catch a glimpse of a professional cricketer in the flesh.

You captained Japan in your debut game. When did you know that you would be making your international and captaincy debuts at the same time?

I’ve been playing a little bit of cricket here and there in Japan since I was 18. I’ve been part of the national squad since 2018 or 2019. So, there were quite a few years when I wasn’t able to play any cricket for a few reasons. The pandemic obviously put a stop to a lot of travel and international cricket for some associate countries, including ourselves. In 2022, we had a bilateral series against Indonesia. So I knew that was going to be the first bit of cricket that we got to play for Japan. That was a really exciting day.

What has been your biggest learning as the captain of the Japanese team?

Every tour or every match I’ve played for Japan, I go away learning plenty. But in terms of the overall journey, it will simply be a journey. We’ve got goals as a squad and want to win matches for Japan. However, improvement is not going to be seen in every game. We’re going to have some good days and some bad days. That is learning in itself, trying to be consistent as a leader and being consistent in my messaging to batters and bowlers.

I and the coach, Dhugal Bedingfield, are on the same page about many of these things. I think it’s really important that we’re consistent in terms of the game style that we want to promote and play. If we continue to improve on that line, then there’s no reason we can’t qualify for a World Cup in the future.

Have you made any changes to the Japanese team?

I would love to make a couple of changes in the Japanese team, and hopefully, I have made them in terms of younger players having a voice. I want us to be really competitive. We don’t have to respect our elders on the opposition team. We respect any opponent and any player that we play against. But I want the team to have the confidence that, although we might be coming up against some really good players, we can beat them. We need to have that belief that we can win those games against good players.

Who is your favorite captain?

As a fan, a couple of names come to my mind, and the first one is Graeme Smith. He was a courageous captain, and he got into that position young and embraced it. The second one has to be MS Dhoni. Despite the pressure of a billion Indian supporters, he always seemed calm and took games to the last over. As an Australian supporter when I was younger, I was always worried when Dhoni was batting because I knew that he would never be phased out, and the chances were he would take it to the last over and then hit a couple of sixes, and it would be game over. So, he’s someone whose demeanor I love to channel.

Are there any favorite venues in India where you would love to play in the future?

I’ve never been to India. I would love to go, but just the sheer noise at every venue I would love to experience. The first one that comes to mind is in Chennai, especially when Dhoni walks out to bat. I watched Dhoni bat at the MCG and Gabba. Even at those venues, you can, you know, it’s just almost manic atmosphere. It’s probably the same with [Virat] Kohli and also [Sachin] Tendulkar going back a little bit. At the IPL level, I would love to be in Chennai watching Dhoni walk out to bat or hit a six, you know, late to seal the game.

Has there been a shift in the approach made by teams across the globe in T20 regarding how the batters approach the game?

I do think so. I have watched a little bit of the IPL this year, and it’s blown my mind. Some of the scores are just getting bigger and bigger. Also, in the IPL, with the impact player rule, I’m sure that batters just have a license to go even harder than they would have previously. So, I don’t envy being a death bowler or a fast bowler at the moment, especially in the IPL.

But on the whole, I do think there is probably more of a shift towards all-out aggression in T20 cricket. I do think there is a little bit of a shift, and we’ve probably gone away from that anchor role. Virat Kohli has been unbelievable in this IPL in terms of his numbers, but I still see the criticism of his strike rate, which is incredible, considering he’s the leading run-scorer in the tournament. So there is a real focus on strike rates and six-hitting, and we see that from the IPL, which is the pinnacle of T20 in terms of franchise tournaments, all the way down to associate cricket.

What is next for Japan cricket? Any milestone that the team has set?

There isn’t anything stopping us from believing that we should be able to qualify for a World Cup. But realistically, that is my next goal as a national team. I hope we can get through the sub-regional qualifier in September, which is being hosted by Korea.

PNG are a really strong team in our region, and we respect how they play their cricket. We’ve got to believe that we can take them down. So that’s my next goal as the national team captain. I am not results-orientated, but we need to keep improving. I think everyone on the team has a lot of talent, but we need to give ourselves the best opportunity to use that talent and turn it into results.

How can cricket grow in Japan and compete with other sports?

The JCA considers it part of our overall strategy, but there are probably a few different parts to it. The first one, in my view, is having a national team that’s performing well on the world stage because that brings news and attention to the sport.

The second thing would be to try to really promote it at schools. So, in Sano, where cricket is based in Japan, the JCA does a really good job of promoting it in local schools.

Right now, the world-class facility is in Sano, which is north of Tokyo, but one of the steps is making sure that we have grounds and facilities across the whole country. It’s not easy and definitely a challenge for us. But we’ve seen excellent growth year on year in recent times.

Is there any impact of the growth of franchise cricket over cricket being played by the associate nations?

The growth of franchise cricket is a really positive thing for players. As a player agent, I’m very pro-player in terms of the opportunities that they get to play around the world and make some money to do that. I’m also obviously passionate about the growth of associate cricket. I don’t think the two need to be separate things. I would love to see associate countries start their own franchise leagues. I would love to see associate cricketers get picked up in more of these full-member leagues. There’s a world where we can grow the whole cricket ecosystem together, including both associate and franchise cricket.

How did you get the idea of opening an athlete management company?

So, it is something that I’ve always been interested in since I was a kid. I didn’t understand how those conversations worked or anything. But across sports, I was always really interested in player agents. I guess I was probably in my early 20s and I had the grandparent of Nathan McSweeney, who I was captaining at the time, just ask, you know, whether I was keen or whether I would consider becoming a player agent for his grandkid.

He thought that I had the skills to be able to do it. I pondered on it for a little bit and I decided that I was just going to dive in and give it a crack. So, that’s when I actually used Nathan as the logo. The logo that I use to this day is a silhouette of him batting. That was where it all started. I mean, I really enjoy it. I love the contract negotiation and I love expanding my network in cricket. I’ve been having some really interesting conversations in recent times with people, general managers across the world. And I think my next step is [going to] India to meet some general managers and some of the management teams across the whole tournament. I think that would be a great experience.