Zak Crawley’s dad is multi-millionaire who was Britain’s fifth highest-paid man

03/06/2022

Having been called up to the England squad for the first time at the age of just 21, Zak Crawley had to inform one interviewer that he was not the son of former England international John Crawley.

His father is, in fact, known as 'Terry the Till' and hit the headlines in 1997 with his 'Rugs to Riches' story of going from a £100-a-week carpet fitter to a millionaire futures trader in the City.

At one point, Terry was said to be Britain's fifth highest-paid man behind musicians Elton John, Sting, Eric Clapton and Phil Collins, earning more than £8m-a-year and making the Sunday Times Rich List.

And Terry has been a major influence in son Zak's development as a cricketer.

Rob Key, a former England batter and Crawley's mentor since he was a teenager, told Sky Sports: "You need your parents to just play with you as a kid, to take you down to the nets.

"It's not about what the kids are sacrificing; they're having fun. You have to sacrifice as a parent and Zak's parents have done a hell of a lot of that.

"I can only really talk about what Zak's dad is like and what his mum is like, and they're not pushy parents. They just try and give him every opportunity they can.

"Wherever there was a game, they'd take him to it. If he ever wants to go hit some balls, they'd do that with him."

Crawley also went to two private schools as a child, New Beacon and Tonbridge, which both boast England internationals like Colin Cowdrey, Sam Billings and Ed Smith among their alumni.

During the first lockdown, Crawley relied on his dad to help him stay ready for cricket's eventual return.

"Dad would give me a few throwdowns to make sure I could feel bat on ball and I worked on my fitness," he told the Times.

"But I also started to think about the game a lot. My dad thinks about it a lot too so I bounced ideas around with him.

"I felt like I had a good plan about how I would go about things when cricket restarted. I loved talking to him about how I should be as a sportsman, how I should behave."

After cricket did return in the summer of 2020, Crawley truly announced himself on the international stage with an outstanding innings of 267 against Pakistan.

Although that innings remains his only Test century and a stark drop-off in form followed in 2021, where he averaged just 10.81, England have continued to back the 24-year-old and an impressive 77 in the fourth Ashes Test in Sydney ensured he was the only opener to keep his spot after their 4-0 thrashing by Australia.

Against the West Indies, Crawley will be hoping to translate his talent into a consistent run of scores and put a poor 2021 behind him.

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