Call came in the Nic of time
Bolton on the rise
When Nita Ambani rings, it pays to take the call.
The owner of IPL team Mumbai Indians, whose industrialist husband Mukesh is the wealthiest person in Asia and whose family is worth an estimated $160billion and lives in a 27-storey Mumbai house that cost twice as much to build as Perth Stadium, is a passionate and genuine cricket lover.
Her direction and cheque book have helped the Indians win five IPL titles and the inaugural Women’s Premier League tournament.
The WPL starts its third season today and while its profile and membership lag behind the IPL juggernaut - there are only five teams that each play eight matches before the two finals – Ambani has clear intentions to drive its growth and significance.
Hence the recent phone call to Australia.
The recipient was Nicole Bolton, probably the best female cricketer produced in WA, and currently an assistant coach with South Australia.
Ambani asked Bolton if she would like to become Mumbai’s fielding coach and while the Australian sought reassurances from her SA colleagues that she could miss the last few matches of the domestic season, she jumped at the rare opportunity.
The link was former England star Charlotte Edwards, who played with Bolton for a season at the Scorchers a decade ago and later coached her for a couple of years at the Sixers.
Nicole Bolton and Charlotte Edwards reunited at Mumbai Indians.
Edwards is the Mumbai WPL coach and convinced Ambani that the Australian, who has considerable steel within her measured demeanour, could offer good value to the ambitious Indians.
Bolton has experienced the best and worst of sport during a lifetime in cricket.
The only Australian woman to score a century on one-day international debut, she also walked away after losing her passion for the game.
A couple of years in football development helped rekindle the spark while the unexpected chance to move to Adelaide delivered a pathway into coaching ranks.
“We’ve got a happy daughter at the moment,” father Alan Bolton said. “It hasn’t always been that way.”
I first encountered Bolton when she was given permission to play lower grade men’s cricket for Subiaco-Floreat to complement female club commitments that did not provide enough of a challenge for a rising international prospect.
We played a match against Subi at McGillivray Oval that was notable for the presence of former Test captain Kim Hughes who was making a comeback in his late 50s to achieve a long-held wish to play alongside his son Bradley, the champion bodyboarder.
“C’mon Ginge,” Hughes called as father and son opened the batting together. “There’s always one there.”
The umpire had walked out with us, proclaiming that he was a massive Kim Hughes fan and hoping his idol got plenty of runs that afternoon.
An unpaid edge in the first over helped the cause, as did a sensational pull shot that hit a light tower a few overs later.
“What sort of shot was that?” spat our terse captain, a bustling medium-pacer with far more bustle than pace.
“Not a bad one, I reckon,” answered a 70-Test batsman who had encountered – with reasonable success – Joel Garner, Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall in the febrile West Indies, Bob Willis and Ian Botham on damp England tracks, Bishen Bedi and his cohort of spin magicians in India, and other bowlers who rank among the greatest in the game’s history.
Soon enough, though, Hughes played a ferocious cover drive that was taken one-handed by a stupefied young uni student and Bolton came in to maintain Subi’s push for victory.
It was not to be, though she was unruffled by the noisy environment and picked her way to a controlled 50 not out with a series of neat punches through the vacant gaps down the ground where the captain refused to set a field due to quirky tactical scheming on a par with his bowling plans.
Nicole Bolton in her Subiaco-Floreat days.
The steel in Bolton’s make-up was evident several year later when she confronted WACA management over an issue within the state program that she considered detrimental to the development of players, and chances of team success.
Bolton was aware that her willingness to stand up for what she believed could have negative consequences for her career and standing within the organisation, but believed that her senior status obliged her to be the person to raise the issue.
Making such a tough decision, even at the risk of considerable personal cost, suggests that Bolton has great courage and integrity to match the skill that has taken her to the very top of international cricket.
That is all part of the foundation Bolton is building for the next stage of her career.
A great player who was WA’s leading runscorer at the time of her retirement – in fact, her seven state league centuries at that point exceeded the total of all those scored by every other player in WA history – Bolton is now in the right place at the right time to develop an off-field role as influential as the one she used to wield with a bat in hand.
“She knows her cricket and has a great opportunity in front of her at the moment,” Alan Bolton said. “She just needs to answer the call when it comes.”
Having Nita Ambani on the other end of the line makes that call pretty special.