You can’t defend what they did, but it’s hard not to feel for them . . . even Lehmann
FIRST of all you have to say that everyone in cricket has watched the events unfolding around the Australian team with amazement. There has been so much coverage on it and so many different opinions. And from my point of view there is no way you can defend the ball-tampering incident that led to the three players being sent home from South Africa.
But what I will say is that I have sympathy for those guys as human beings because you see TV pictures of Steve Smith walking through the airport at Johannesburg and then pictures of David Warner arriving back in Sydney with his family.
They looked absolutely devastated and as a cricketer it’s difficult not to feel for them in having to miss playing for their country for 12 months and missing all the things that come from playing international cricket. They must feel dreadful.
That’s not me excusing what has happened. Obviously Australia takes sport incredibly seriously and have always had that ‘play hard’ attitude. That’s why I think the reaction to all this has taken them by surprise.
Most fans know that I am up for any battle. I’ve had an almost Australian mind-set throughout my career. I believe we started winning Ashes series when guys like Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen learnt about Australian culture through playing against some of their greatest players and brought a bit of that into the England team.
We vowed that we would not fear the Australians. We would play hard, play fair and we were not going to stand down. That sort of attitude has helped us win five of the last eight Ashes series.
You have to be tough to play international cricket but it doesn’t have to be nasty. Take our tour to New Zealand. It’s been nothing like the South Africa v Australia series. There’s been none of that carry on. Yes Tim Southee will have a couple of words and so will Jimmy Anderson, but when we see each other off the pitch people are saying, ‘Well played, mate.’ Our series with South Africa last summer was the same. You can be hugely competitive and take huge pride in everything you do but with a nice feeling about it.
One positive from all this is that, playing under Tim Paine with the Hobart Hurricanes, I believe he is very much the right man for the job of taking Australia forward now. He’s a fantastic, calm guy and will think about things.
He’s had some tough times, too. A year ago he was thinking of retiring and now he’s captain of Australia. He can groove them back into a place where they have been before and he has my full backing.
Tim has already brought in football-style handshakes between the teams before the current Test. Is that Australia realising they have to change?
I also have to mention Darren Lehmann. When he resigned from his post as head coach last week, my Twitter notifications were very busy with interest. He was the one who said Australia should give it to me and send me home in tears from the 2013-14 Ashes, which was poor at the time and crass.
Not one bit of me wants to see him or any player or coach in the sort of state he was. To see him talking about his family was really tough. All the guys involved have said they made mistakes and now they just have to accept the punishments that have been served up to them. But I do feel for them as people.
BACK IN BUSINESS
I THINK I bowled quite nicely in Auckland — with the pink ball it’s hard to judge because it doesn’t behave like the red one — but running in yesterday I felt in the best rhythm I’ve had for a couple of years.
Let’s face it, I had to have a hard look at what I was doing with my action because in Australia I was rubbish. It was the lack of bounce I was getting because of my wrist position. I was lacking the feeling of bowling so I didn’t want to work with any coaches before we came to New Zealand. I just wanted to get the feeling back on my own. I’ve got it now and I felt in full control yesterday. That’s an exciting place to be.
I’m 31. I’m not 35 or 36. I still feel like I’ve got a lot to offer and when I see the improvements I’ve made in a relatively short period of time that gives me an energy and a really good feeling. But it’s not second nature yet. I reckon 80 per cent of my deliveries feel right now but there’s still the odd one that goes wrong. If I can get it up to 95 per cent I reckon I’ll be in business.
If I can move the ball like I did today with that sort of pace with my wrist behind the ball I feel I can offer this team a lot. Hard work really works.
KEEPING IT FULLER
WE’D talked as a bowling unit about bowling a slightly fuller length and we committed to that. Yes, we might leak a few more runs in those first few overs than we usually do but the game plan is to create a few extra chances.
We had a couple of meetings between Auckland and Christchurch and we’re talking a lot more as a team. The crux of it centred on having more tangible targets as a group. Not just getting 20 wickets to win a Test. We wanted smaller, specific targets for each session, such as going under certain run-rates.
We pretty much ticked all the boxes we wanted to on the second day and that delighted us.
GOING PAST A HERO
SIR CURTLY AMBROSE was one of my heroes and inspirations. To watch him in full flight was as good as it gets. So it doesn’t feel quite real that I went past his tally of Test wickets when I got Colin de Grandhomme out on day two. His record blows mine out of the water really.
It comes down to longevity as much as skill and I’m lucky to have played in an era when England fast bowlers are really well looked after.