Cricket changed Chris Morris' life. Twice. The first time, it made him a millionaire, the second, it almost robbed him of everything money could not buy.
In 2013, Morris received riches to the tune of R5.5 million (US$625,000 at the time) when he was bought by the Chennai Super Kings franchise at the IPL auction, after they spotted him during the Champions League T20 the year before. With the money, Morris bought his parents a house, got married and made a life, which included occasionally playing international cricket. He struggled to secure a regular spot in the South African side but remained part of their plans and was taken on their most recent tour to Bangladesh, where it all went wrong.
Morris only played in two of the five limited-overs matches and struggled physically, with a groin injury, and emotionally, after the death of his grandfather. The combination almost cost him his career.
"It was a really tough journey," Morris said at a bowling camp in Johannesburg. "I've come back from a bad tour of Bangladesh that I don't think I ever should have gone on but I was never going to turn down an opportunity to play for my country, so it was a lot of mental stuff that went on behind the scenes."
"I had to find my reason for playing cricket again so I took a couple of days off, went to the bush, went hunting, played a lot of golf and found my passion again. It sounds horrible to say that as a young cricketer but I had a lot of things going on in my head that I needed sorted out and luckily we got them sorted. It was about going back to the drawing board.
"When I was a youngster it was very easy to say why I wanted to play cricket and that was because I wanted to play for my country, and having coming back from that tour doing so badly I thought maybe I was not good enough to play for my country. I had a couple of dark days but there is always motivation when you put that jersey on."
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