You're listening to a podcast from News Talk sat B. Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeart Radio.
Take another pat now we'll get in. It's a trick.
It is out.
The test is over.
Couldn't as smoke Wow us a beauty. It is out and hearing guys.
This delivery has in the use of the Bold.
On the Front Foot with Brian Waddell and Jeremy Coney powered by News Talks head B at iHeart Radio.
Hello, welcome back to on the Front Foot the World Tea Quinsy goes as many expected to India in arguably the best game of the tournament. Our women's team suffer too heavy defeats at the hands of England. The English our poor. Yet another wiki keeper for the test series of the West Indies, a preview of what we can expect in December, and as I welcome well one special guest in Formanusi Kreta, Peter Holland and Jeremy Cony is
a regular Inness program. I say, arguably the best game at the World T twenty Jerry, as it seemed to be pretty even in terms of pitch conditions and ground conditions. Did you see it that way.
Yep, I think I did once. Good match, actually, wasn't it. India won the toss and their style was always to bat first, which I think is a good way, especially in large games. Were runs on the board and there was good enough runs to use their strong bowling attack. Yeah,
their batting, they've changed their batting too. Rowat as captain seems to have got all them away from individual milestones, getting fifties, getting hundreds, that kind of thing, and instead he's put in place lots of cameos quite quick, you know, thirty or fifteen of twenty two and those kinds of things.
And that happened again.
He did it by showing his innings that he played himself leading up to the final where he didn't get so many runs and they lost three quick wickets, and then Coley had to make a decision, didn't he. He got started after a pretty poor ans and first over, and then he had to choose, am I going to bat through here and leave others to take the risks as they had all and all the other matches, or do I crack on and perhaps lose a fourth wicket myself?
And in doing so he kind of became a bit of a hero, but he could also have been a villain, couldn't he?
Yeah, most definitely, And welcome back to Peter Holland, who they weren't paying tea twenty cricket when you were around with it.
They certainly were not in the game.
What Jerry points out is it has changed as a bad game, and I think the conditions in the Caribbean demanded that, didn't it, in terms of how you put together your innings.
My observation was, and perhaps this is where our teams and others weren't able to adapt coally adapted. Took a decision in very difficult circumstances Final World Cup, World Cup Final, and he made that decision and could adapt and got them and got them through, got them to a number, because it could have quite easily been the other way around. I'm thinking to myself that now that they have retired both O oh it and I think that the Dead
Asian is also retiring from the twenty twenty. You know, you lose that, you lose that experience, and I'm wondering without those people at the Helm, how Wendy you will be talent, no question, but it's just that ability to shift gears or change direction. It was very, very impressive and put them in a position to win.
Key point for me in the game, obviously the class and wicket losing that because he played that brilliant over against Akshapetel, didn't he where he got twenty four and that really put South Africa in with a chance of winning the game quite comfortably at that stage. But he lost his wicket and you're a bit lucky to get that slower ball from Pandia and it got an edge. Then it was thirty from thirty. But the catch of
Surya Kumar is the other point, isn't it really? And I don't know what you thought.
It was.
Wasn't extraordinarily difficult catch. We see those catches kind of a lot nowadays round the boundary, But it was the context of the catch.
For me.
It was the last over.
If that goes for six, then it's a big five balls coming up with ten required and it's getting tight with Miller on strike. And I thought the catch was about balance and about knowing where you were relative to the boundary, or that the toddler in this case, you know, the inside edge of the toddler owns the boundary and I just wondered, you know, we often grown about a tvump who goes over and over and over dismissals and looking at it from different angles, and when it's an
obvious dismissal. But I just thought, kettlebur in this case, he could have taken another kind of look from another angle. I thought, a because it was a crucial wicket, it was class and it was sorry, it was miller. And secondly, because Siria Kumar seized nine and a half clogs, they were pretty close to that toddler own and he only has to touch it or ruffle it and it would have been not out. So I wondered whether another look would have been you know, would have been.
Helpful, particularly given the circumstances. As you say, pretty much turned the game, didn't it.
Yeah. The other situation too was that they at the eighteen overstage. India added forty two runs in eighteen, nineteen
and twenty and that gave them the competitive score. South Africa, while they were going strong, were going well, but they could only score twenty two off the They're sorry, they could only score eighteen off the last three overs and they needed twenty two and that was the difference between the It's course at the end you can look at all sorts of instances, can't you, in these games and
put a mark on them as the key point. But you know that catch, Yeah they practiced those these days, don't they They you know the fields out in the deep.
Yeah, yeah they do.
I mean what India where they were a bit different than other sides. I mean New Zealand tried to do this. They had two Boomera overs left, didn't they after the catch?
And you know they like Williamson against the West End, he's tried to push the game out the one run, you know, raised run rate or two claim a wicket And India had bitter bowlers with Boomera and arsh Deep and then they used Pandia who was a bit hit and miss, but he got wickets because I reckon the South African saw that as being easier to score off than the other two. But Boomer was fantastic, wasn't he.
You know.
Some of the deliveries he bowled, getting that guy even right early on, getting Hendrix with a wonderful delivery that just was aiming at leg stump and then it straightens up and swings out slightly, hits the top of off and then getting Yunsen were just carrying on and hit the leg stump and then arshep. Wasn't that easy to hit? I didn't think so. Yeah, I thought they were the best side was actually in the tournament, never mind all the nonsense that they got around for every game they
played was a day game. I thought ten thirty was a silly time to play a final, to be honest or whatever it was. You know, throughout the tournament as an audience, absolutely well you can understand the ICC doing that, can't you, Because then they can charge more for the broadcast and they can get more cash. I can get that and that also if it rains, you've still got time in the day. But I think T twenties for an audience, don't you. I mean, it's a format that's
a televisual thing. It's night at nighttime's lights, it's a couple of drinks and a close match. Yeah, so anyway, that's those are That's what I thought about the final.
Yeah, well, hear of the South Africans. I read an article that said, you know, they've got it, Where do they go to from here? They've failed to win these big tournaments but I don't think they need to reproach themselves in any way, do they. They They performed well, They were unbeaten up to the final, and they showed some consistency that we haven't seen in the past from them.
I think that's undeniable. Will you go through that side? There a lot of talent in there, and they've got they've got the balance too, They've got some genuine quicks. They've got useful spinners, phenomenal middle order which can go, can change gears. Yeah, you got. You've got to say, well, this was pretty interesting for them, and and and I reckon on the face of it, they were that if India were the best in South Africa, the best two
teams were in that final, no question about that. I think the future looks looks pretty pretty good for them if they can just hold that together. That was over impressive. Yeah, and I think there was quite a difference between them and everyone else.
Yeah, showing out and the side.
Like seeing a game in daylight and a beautiful ground in the middle of Barbados, it was rather spectacular. Maybe that's just me being somewhat of a blood eite and liking things sporting daylight. I don't know.
Yeah, well we were able to do that because we were able to sit at home. They have morning tea or breakfast and or late lunch or late breakfast to to watch them, and that has advantages.
You're eating a lot wattle.
Well, I have to do something during the day, nothing else to do. I could go and play golf with Peter Holland I suppose couldn't.
I tears two four, probably me.
But the side that perhaps should be approaching themselves, Peter, is the New Zealand side. You know. I can accept the fact you're going to lose games. That happens in the game, but it's the manner with which they lost games and the way they played those games. To me, it looked as though we we just want to make them the numbers and take our paycheck.
At the end of it all, I lost interest pretty quickly, frankly, because I just couldn't see. It seemed like a disjointed unit. On the face of it. There seemed to be a lack of lack of thought. It was interesting that that that India was preferred to bat first, but we preferred about second. There was players that there were players there that that that that hadn't played any cricket, the lack of preparation, It's all been gone over before, but it's just it was pretty woeful, wasn't it?
Really?
And I don't think they can say any more than that. Really, I think New Zealand's got a lot of thinking to do and direction, particularly around how they how they bring on new people because the older, the older guard, the world class players that we've had are leaving the room, so to speak.
Yeah, well Bolt's gone, Sally's coming to the end, Williamson's going to be doing other things for a period of time, So it is time for a rethink, Jerry, isn't it.
Yeah, We've been saying that for some time. It was a poor It was a poor tournament. All the players know that, and then will be We've said a review and I hope something from it. Really, they need to make some decisions.
Yes, indeed, and I'm sure that they will be taking a time for reflection. I guess they need to make some decisions too about how women's team, the White Ferns. They haven't achieved much done their tour to England so far. They played three games, one of them was a warm up game. Two od eyes heavily beaten, unable to bet fifty overs. There were some individual performances for modest returns merely a curve. Acknowledged their plight after their second game in Worcester.
We basically haven't got enough runs in both games. And the first one we obviously got off to a flyer and I thought it was a great wicket and outfield, and then today I thought they bowled extremely well, very accurate,
and the wicket was a little bit slower. But I think we got to positions where we got partnerships and got in and did all the hard work and then obviously lost wickets and clumps, and you know, they're still one more game in the series, which is really important to us and we know of and a lot of work over our I guess leave and winter period to come over here and prepare, and it's you're still going to have the belief to keep backing mad and what you do well, and it's just doing those hard parts
for longer and once we get ourselves in cashing in and then if we do bol second, giving the bowlers a bit more to defend.
It was made a little bit tougher too by the exceptional bowling talents of Sophie Ecleston.
Yeah, she's a world class bowler and she seems to pick up a lot of wickets, so another five wicket bag for her. And she's very good at what she does. She's extremely accurate and has great control over her deliveries, so she bowl extremely well. I mean, I think she's a real key for England. She's one of the best. She is the best bowler in the world, So how can we deny her wickets and keep her out of the game. But you also got to take your hat off and say say well bold.
Also, so what can they take from the first two games to help prepare them for the third game against this very good England side.
There's positives in both games to take from it. Obviously the first game, the way Georgia and Brooke played I thought was outstanding and that was really positive with the bat and today was I think a tougher wicker to slower outfield and I think people fought through some pretty hard moments in the game. I think Maddie was outstanding, like she struggled at the start, but then to kick on and not give a wicket away and build a partnership was awesome. And I think there's moments like that
where kicking on from there is really important. And there's moments where we've done a lot of the hard work and got ourselves into good positions and then we get out And I think that's work on to just be a bit more relentless and ruthless and how we go about things. And everyone's got talent and skill and works
bloody hard at what they do. So we've just got to have the confidence to turn up for the next ODI, play our best cricket for that, give ourselves a chance, and then we'll head into the t twenties.
I really care. So what remedy for this team doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome isn't working? How do you remedy a situation like that? When a side is really struggling, they are looking second class against a world class England side. We've got some pretty useful players. How they better?
Oh look, I mean I've just gone back and looked at the returns we're getting from our so called world class players, which you mean could is out undoubtedly that, But then you look at Sophie Devine sushi baks. Really we're not getting the output that say, the England teams are getting, and I just think that there's a class gap and the team's overall quite significant on the face of it. But I when I'm looking at the media occur in the last tens she hasn't got above fifty.
Now that's pretty poor for someone of that ability that I look at people like Georgia Plummer. Frankly, her output is how can I say, pretty workful, and yet she's one of the shining lights so called. It has shades of the New Zealand men's team where our our world class players will formerly world class players like them, like Divine and Baits are on the on the decline and it doesn't seem to be that there's anything coming coming
through with with any particular great signs of promise. I mean, there's some decent players, but they against this sort of class side, like like England. And I was really impressed by by them when you're watching them when they were here in New Zealand. That beautiful left arm spinner, Fabins, the keeper as a Jones, just beautiful man's and and
and you know, just just absolutely phenomenal to watch. And then they're bad as this this New new players that may be you know, it gets a hundred, goes and gets a hundred. It seems to me that they play play. They play red ball cricket, don't they. So there was the then how to build innings, whereas I don't think I didn't see any of that, the ability to, like
Kohley did, shift direction. Let's bat the fifty overs, let's do that, And that's been consistent watching them when they were here, playing against England in New Zealand, and clearly evident in the last couple of games over there. So there's some concerns, shall we.
Say, you've got to be able to bet your fifty overs in these games, Jerry. I just wonder when you go on a tour like this. They've had a lot of net practice. They had one warm up game where everybody plays, you know how you have sort of sixteen and everybody has a bat in the bowl and then you have net practice. I just wonder whether they should be playing games and trying to bat fifty overs against the lesser sides as a build up for an international
against England. Is net practice more important than match play? How do you see it?
I'm not sure. Well, games are certainly.
Are important onds because there's more pressure and when you're out, you're out. I don't I'm not a fan of too many of those sixteen versus sixteen. You can do it once or twice to give everyone a hit, but you can't let people go out and then come back in again, those those kinds of things to give them another innings. So games very important. Practice is important, all of it is, really. But these these figures are terrible, aren't they.
I don't know.
These are professional players, they are paid well, they'd train or have the opportunity to train every day. And we are afraid we are slipping, as Moose says, we're down behind Australia obviously.
In England, India, India.
They got six hundred the other day, six hundred in a Test match. So and they're playing Red Bull cricket against South Africa. We're mal heind South Africa now. Sri Lanka beat US last year. Look, I if these were T twenty games, I wouldn't feel so concerned. These are ODIs one fifty six and the T twenty matches. Okay, one forty one a bit light, which was their second total in the ODI. But it shows that we can't
have much of a concept of fifty over cricket. And yet you look at Bates, who's had one hundred and sixty one ODIs per ameliacuse seventy two Divine, one hundred and forty five Green seventy one, row fifty six Halliday thirty. These are ODI matches that these players have played. Now to me, to be beaten by nine wickets and twenty eight overs remaining and eight wickets were twenty five point three overs remaining, I mean that's half the overs left
in each game. I mean England's number five hasn't battered in two games. You know, I just wonder what their players are thinking. They must be muttering, you know, there's no challenge here. I wonder what the ECB are doing after three weeks. They've been there now in New Zealand three games, as you say, what and we're getting those results. I really it's hard to know. They've got two batting
coaches over there, Dean Brownlee and Craig McMillan. They've got a coach from Luughborough who's the women's head coach Luughborough called Gareth Davis, and he's also the Worcestershire women's coach. He's also the assistant coach for the Birmingham Phoenix and the Hundred for the women, so he's an experienced coach. You can't really lay the blame that what's been tried to improve. They must be reeling those coaches.
You know.
And I think as a player, just my last comment would be every player on that team has to delve down into them and just what sort of person am I?
You know? How badly do I want this?
And there's no impoint in looking around the room and showing with your eyes it was your fault, wasn't mine. Everybody must sort of go into their own little shell. I can remember in nineteen seventy three my first tour and we were beaten. I was twelfth man. We were beaten by Australia badly and Congo. Our captain took us to Sydney for the second Test and he gave us five hours of fielding practice every day and then we took us to the nets where that's.
Where we went.
After five hours. We had a salad for lunch, short catchers, slipcatchers, high catches, flat catchers, backing up, throwing and then and then when you bruised hands and that sort of thing, then you went to the nets. Now that was his way of doing it. That was Congo. But really I think this team clearly behind the opposite well behind, and it shouldn't be too hard because of the gap to
close it, to move up a bit. That's what we've got to see play fifty over cricket because that's their longest type.
Peter, I think there's a message there for you and I. We should have eaten more salads because Congon and Caney were very slim and grim, weren't they, And we probably need more, would we.
I just wondered how Snippets could have possibly cut out those articles with those sore hands.
Jerry, Yeah, he might have.
Yeah, he might have paid someone snippet. Yeah, I don't know. We weren't getting much. We got nine dollars a day, so that that basically was the pay at that time, and Snippet would have been on that.
No.
I know, we all, we all, we all felt it. But the message came through very strongly. And it was the main players who set the standards, you know what I mean? It was it should be baits and cer and divine and Green and those people who drive those players and those practices on.
Can I just add something on that? And I was when I was preparing for this, I looked up some of these people and I looked up Susie Bates, and Susie Bates is Adelaide Strikers women, Falcons women guy and an Amazon Warriors woman. Oh somewhere in the New Zealand woman. I tag a woman Open Invincibles, Perth Scorches, Sydney Sixers women and God bless them that they are professionals. But
where is their priority? I wonder? And the same would apply to the two other players, Occur and Divine, And my old motivation is is that the priority is is getting those sort of contracts and New Zealand is somewhere fitted in there. And then that surely creates divides between the squad because I'll come back divined it when I finished over in Australia sort of thing. So, and I can't blame them for that because they are professionals, but
again that creates I think there's challenge, is there? There's no question? I think it's clear that from your points jury, New Zealand Cricket's trying to do something to raise the standard, but perhaps the franket the pointers. If the ability is just not there, no matter what you do, the results are probably going to be the same. But batning fifty of us would help, wouldn't it.
Yes, Well, that was challenge that the New Zealand the side faces and New Zealand Cricket. They've got a few reviews they're going to have to do after the World T twenty and also the women's event. Hey, a sign of what is going to come here later in the year. England have gone for a new wicket keeper.
Now.
I was reading an article by a guy called Shield Berry, who's one of the more respected journalists of cricket in England, and he was basically talking about the wicket keepers that they have to choose from best o folks, Salt Robinson as a keeper over they've got two Robinson's and they're both Allis James Rue and Jamie Smith. And they've gone
for a guy called Jamie Smith. Now I have never heard of Jamie Smith Jeremy Kney, but you have because you have worked at the Oval as a commentator and he's a Surrey man.
He is, and he's a very powerful batsman wards as well. So they are going for the bear Stow type player, a batsman who keeps, and so they are forgetting the Folks who keeps them bats because Folks also plays for Surrey.
Who keeps for Surrey in the red bull fixtures Folks.
Does, so Smith is not keeping when he plays for Surrey when he's playing championship matches. He does when it's white ball, but not for the red ball game. So their priorities quite clearly is to bat first for the keeper they need him to be and quickly. He's a very attacking batsman too. Jamie Smith good player of course, but but do you want to.
Keep her first? And that's that's the question.
So that's the way that the McCullum phases has chosen. And perhaps not so much in wickets that are turning. I don't know, but that's what they are going to be having.
Yeah, well I've looked at these keepers, well four of them anyway, assault Folks besto. To my mind, Folks is arguably the best glove man, but that doesn't cut it these days, so it seems when it comes to selection and teams.
I read this with great interest because I mean I Christa just always enjoyed watching folks keep. I mean, he's a fabulous keeper, great glove man and frankly, you always want those people because otherwise who take the important catches and you know, when you drop one and it doesn't quite work, we've got problems. He might be good better.
So I thought that was a very interesting decision. This is a team clearly with an eye of the future, and that being the ashes down the down the line that dealing with with Robertson, who's who's a very very talented player bowl of that is, but clearly hasn't cut it and doesn't have the support of his captain. So this is a meldling of Okay, what do we need to have to take on the Aussies in in in
the coming coming year. So I think this is all about planning for the future and giving them somemselves some options.
Jerry, Jimmy Anderson's getting in the farewell. He's going to be playing for one Test and then see you later, Jimmy, and thanks very much. He's going to be the bowling mentor for England now. But there's a lot of new names there that you know are going to have to take up the job of bowling. Mark would of course from Chris Fokes. But Pennington Potts Atkinson as pace bowler is little narn names, aren't they.
Yep, that's right. Just to go back to the batsman very quickly. Bear Stow's out completely, isn't he? That should be mentioned. Dan Lawrence is the extra batsman and otherwise the top six are all the same. We've mentioned the keeper Josh Tungue is injured and so it was Jamie Overden for the bowling. This guy Pennington, you might not have heard of him so much. He was in England under twenty six foot four tall, fella blonde guy, and he's now at Nottingham with Peter Moores, who's considered quite
a good coach of younger players. He's twenty in his early twenties Pennington and in particular Kevin Shine who was the former ECB bowling coach, and he's changed his little lead up in his bowling prior to releasing the ball a little bit. He isn't the pace of Atkinson, who's also in that site, but he's fast enough about eighty and the mid eighties, so he's one thirty six what to one thirty eight. K's no room for Robinson, he's not He's had a bad Test match recently in India.
They don't want him back. Pots is there, as you say, and Wokes so yes, different They are embracing the change, aren't they. We've just been saying New Zealand sort of hanging on with their bowlers at the time when perhaps we need to slide them in and I think we'll see them coming. But yeah, there are some changes there,
no doubt. And Basher is the spinner. That's an interesting one too, ahead of Leech because both of them play for Somerset and the club has kept Leech as their number one bowler and sent Basher on loan to another county. So they, like all, a man who spins it gets it to drop a little bit. And what Moose was saying there about the Aussies on Ossie pictures, he might get a bit more bounce and they can go in with four seamers and one spinner a little bit like the Aussies do with Lyon.
But they really lack a left.
Arm quick like us, you know, to change an angle as well.
Yeah, just on robertson material and Wads, I saw here that he has seventy six Test wickets from twenty games at twenty two point ninety two. Yeah, pretty, Ollie Robinson. I mean the guy's are talent. And then I read down that when he was went to India he was accompanied by his new partner, a social media influencer. He launched a post while in India. So yes, that didn't go well, did it.
And he has a fitness problem too, doesn't He tends to like to eat and.
Correct correctly deliver the You just sort of think that's a great shame.
It's going to be an interesting series to see England because it is a new look side and you bring in bowlers like that, and New Zealand are going to have to do that, aren't they. Because they've lost Wagon, they've lost Bolt, they've lost or losing Southy. Surely you know he's not going to get around forever and we're going to have to look at the likes of O'Rourke
and those players Sears. So hopefully they've got Jamison back fit and ready to go and that will be the start of a new but it will be a new bowling attack for New Zealand, won't it. They You know the four they've relied on and have done bloody well. You know when you think about the the work they've done. They'll have Matt Henry back there as well with them. But you know there's a there's a bit of Test
match cricket coming up for this New Zealand side. They've got one against Afghanistan, we've got three against India and three home here against England, so you know that's a real challenging situation for New Zealand as well.
Brian Waddell Jeremy Cooney on the Front Foot True.
To the Spirit of Cricket, A biography of Don Neely by Bill Francis his nineteenth book and it's an enjoyable addition to the Cricket Library, launched this week at Neely's favored ground at the Basin Reserve, where of course there's
the Don Neely scoreboard. Bill Francis has written a number of books about former Black capspev and Congdon Mark Burgess, Bruce Taylor, Barry Sinclair and Juwey Dempster, to name a few, and we gathered at a launch this week where a number of players post to Neelie over the years, like Bruce Edgar attended a family friend of the Neely since his primary school days.
It was over at Colberni Park and there was do O and Barry Sinkley together and I remember them so vividly, and I always track back to watching them play and how they went about their business and thinking, hmm, I'm learning just watching them, learning, just watching them.
What did Doo teach you? What did he reveal to you in terms of your game and your abilities?
I was lucky to be mentored by him and coached by him.
You know.
I'd look back over the years and say who actually coached you? And I'd say Don, because we never had four more coaches in those days like you do today. And I'd look back and say, Don was one of my coaches for sure. And one of the things that we used to talk about was how could we do things differently, like a man with incredible values innovation, how can we do things differently and how can we actually
outsmart the opposition? And if you look at his tenure as a selector when I was playing, I started in seventy eight for Museum. He was down here selecting for Wellington in the late seventies and then moved to the New Zealand team, I think around seventy nine, So seeing Don what he did for Wellings and then moving on to seeing what he did for the black Caps and being involved with him.
And I always.
Vividly remember on the old classical hand lines, the phone would ring. I'll pick it up, Bruce, Don I go, here we go if this is going to be an hour's conversation. And it was often on a Sunday night, quite late on Sunday night, and we would talk and we would talk about, you know, playing, how you're getting on. He would check in what have you lad, what have you been doing? And then he'd come up to you'd say, you're going up to Newtown Park tore doing some running,
heavy ball, throwing weights with Hugh Lawrence. You know, how are you going to get fitter, faster, stronger, and how are you going to throw the ball faster?
So it was always connected. And then the other thing about Don.
We're playing at Eden Parking, Australia in ninety eighty two and I bat it for a while. It might have been about three days, maybe put ether people watching, But anyway, that's another story. How did you get I got one hundred and sixty? Oh yeah, So it was. It wasn't a slow fifty. It might have been a slow one hundred and fifty. But Don Wood he would always come in at each break and sit with me and just chat and we'd have a cup of tea. In those days, you had a cup of tea. You know, it was
not nothing, no power aid like you get today. We're sit there and have a cup of tea and he just check in at each break. So there was lots of There was lunch breaks, there was an afternoon tea breaks, and then there was the next morning another another lunch break. But Don would be there and he would just sidle up next to me and just check him see how
you go. He was so reassuring, and he would say, look, you're seeing the ball, well you're concentrating, well, focus, keep going and that's well, what do you expect from a guys? Just that give you that conference? And someone said to me, I was going back a few years. If there was someone that you would like to be, who would you like to be? And I said Don Nearly And they said why And I said, what he stands for in cricket, what he absolutely stands for.
Richard Reid, son of j R. And imaginatively nicknamed Rido by his friends. Has some fond memories of do O.
Well, he's the only person I ever knew who had whites designed by Rembrandt toorally elegant, never here out of place. I remember he when I first started playing club cricket, must have been mid late seventies. Do came back and was fillin and for Colbernie, and he was awful by then.
He was, you know, he was.
He managed to make batting for a very elegant man. He managed to.
Make batting reasonably ugly.
But in those days was I don't know I had, and he must have been in his early forties, and he would you you remember those tea towels that used to be a be around, and they had things like the draw shot, you know, with those curved bats.
And I was at keeping for some reason, and do O wasu hopeless.
And I remember saying to him, I said, when did earth did you learn to play that shot off a tea towel? And he just about wheezed himself at the crease, which was possible. But one of the one of the things I always remember about do because it's been miss it's been just glossed over just briefly in this setting is that he lived in Auckland for a while, so it was a little known fact pat in it.
And he played for north Shore, which was my club.
When I lived in Auckland. And in nineteen eighty eight, March nineteen eighty eight, this is before cell phones, remember, no such thing as fax machines yet, and we had just won the championship on the last day and I rushed home to get changed and probably get some money and to go.
Out to celebrate.
The phone ring it was do O and I thought, it's so nice of you to ring Deo because if you congratulate on winning, on winning the championship, it's.
Just fantastic, so thoughtful. He said, I'm.
Ringing to tell you need to be in theneed and on Tuesday you're playing against England. Okay, we shouldn't stop me going out on the seturday.
Night and John mister Morrison shared his memories as well. Yeah, yeah, no, do O.
Yeah.
He was captain when I first came out of school to the Lincoln and he gave me a hard time. Actually, he said, how the hell do you ever get anyone out? I said, well, it's like taking candy from a baby, do you. And he said, you don't do anything with the balls, said, that's why they get out.
They think I'm going to.
Anyway, he took the piss constantly at practice here. We used to go over to the Rows and Crown for a drink afterwards, which probably spoiled everything we've done over here. And finally he was caught. He said, you're a mystery bloody bowler. And he said, I don't know how you get a wicket anyway. I said, well, let's put ten bucks in the middle of the table. Whoever gets the most wickets on Club Creek in Club Cricket on Saturday
takes the polls. And I think the bill's written about this, and you want to have to buy the book to find out the answer. Anyway, I got four for none. It's like taking care of Crawy.
Of course.
We did have an easy game, but most of them were caught on the boundary. But four of us four wickets for no runs. And of course I was a pain in the ars of practice on Tuesday. Thank you lines one, Thank you ball boys, Thank you do o, he said, John, believe it. I mean he made some mistakes as a selector, because I got jumped a couple of times to disgrace. Yeah, just when I was on form as well, I said to do none. I know I was bowling me. I didn't even get a bowl
when do Over was catching. And of course so that when Bruceie got one hundred and sixty, no one mentions that I bowled thirty five overs in a row won the bloody game for us, he gets all the credit.
John Morrison full of laughs as ever, thirty five overs, he claimed. I thought, well, who would bowl Morrison thirty five overs?
Jerry?
Then I looked up the score and he did. He bowled thirty five overs and got two wickets.
He obviously put a lot of effort and didn't he because he still remembers it today.
I do.
I was playing that match and I do remember him. And he got a couple of wickets too. I think he got one over the top of the keeper and was caught by a sort of a short long stop.
Really, but he was he could, he could do a job.
He was a nice and tidy line and the picture was just holding up a bit. So yeah, No, mystery was always good fun, really good team man, especially when times were a bit hard.
Yeah, and I think, like you very close to d o'neally. I mean he had he had a lot of good mates who spent a lot of time talking crickly. Of course you used to stay with him when you came to Wellington for test matches.
Yeah, lovely man, love you know, he and Patty an terrific people to go and start with. I was very lucky and enjoyed, always enjoyed Don's He had a gentle humor, loved talking obviously about cricket. Just a cricket man through and through. You know, you think of that. I don't know if I go for a month, I always looking up and diving into men in white. What a Bible
letters for all of us? Really, I'm sure you're the same all those cricket annuals that he did right through the seventies, at the end of every year out she'd come. And then he widened his scope, didn't He went to the Basin. He wrote all about the Basin and the different things that had gone on there. You said, a place that he loved, Yeah, sort of his second home away from home, wasn't it. And then the summer game.
I mean he wrote, I mean he was a man who looked forwards because he was he was always thinking about what was next in the game and learning from other sports. I remember the time he convinced Brian cedar Wall because of his he was bowling a few no balls that he would he would suggest, just like watching someone with a javelin or something, or a run up for the hop, step and jump, he would say, look,
measure their run ups. Why don't we do that? And so Seeds carried this rope around for a whole season in his cricket offfen and he had uncoil it and out he'd go. They do it all nowadays it's done for the bowlders, but he did it back then, you know, and he was the first one to do that. So he looked forwards always in games. But he also, obviously because of all the books and things, he looked backwards.
And he was a historian as well. But I can kind of remember a couple of things looking forward when I mentioned that, how he prepared me for facing Gharana in nineteen eighty five going to the West Indies. He took me down to Colburni Cricket Ground and there's a little area where all you could sit on a few little brick steps and so on near the road end. And as you're going from the airport, and he took his moa down and we sort of just we pushed moa.
How we got into the outfield and made a little sort of prepared pitch that was only about sort of ten ten meters long, put a net up. He had to grabbed a net, and then he climbed up the steps about three steps, because he wasn't a tall man, and so he was about the height of Joel Garner.
And then he threw the ball.
And he got some stumps that round in the net, and I padded up, got all my helmet on and things, and he then threw the ball as hard as he could at me. Some of them were on the full, some of them were short, so it didn't the length to prepare me for the optics of just looking up higher than.
You normally do.
And he was preparing me for just doing that, of getting used to looking up at a different height. And that's the sort of level he used to used to think about clearly those things.
He was a lovely man.
And I'm so pleased the book, you know, has been written about him.
Bill Francis book on Nearly True to the Spirit of Cricket, And of course he used a lot of help from players who've worked and played under Don Neely right through the time of his involvement in cricket, and he's been certainly a great contributor to the game and remembered in this book True to the Spirit of Cricket. I'm going to finish off on an interesting note. I don't know whether you played in this game, mostly the game in
Wellington where Bert Vance got smacked around. And I see where Ollie Robinson was carted for forty three off one over in a county game forty three runs.
I did see that, and yes I was there when Bert went for plenty.
I do remember where were you fielding Moose? Were you at third slip?
I always liked grazing down and down at third man. As you know, Jerry's keeping as far away as possible.
Yeah, how do you how do you explain forty three runs? I mean, you can understand the Bert Vart situation that that's easily explained, but forty three runs off and over and they cost nobles cost two rather than one in County cricket, so I'm told. So you know it's it's an interesting situation. I mean I've spoken to Jerry about this before and he never went for forty three when he was bowling.
Because he was a Kenny and wiley, wiley man and bold with beautiful gile.
What can I say, not interrupting any of you, the sping of gile.
I see Jimmy Anderson got seven wickets against Knots the other day. So for a bloke is what is he fifty five or something? I don't know, he's nearly jury's pension.
Yeah, and did a good job for a Worcestershire in a game and he played two lots of four and they won a game against the Durham So a good effort from him. He's having an interesting season playing in the county cricket for Worcestershire. Guys, thanks very much for joining us, Peter Holland who has taken special time out to join us, and I'm sure we will have him back again. You'll be free to offer some words of wisdom most in the near future, I.
Hope, so certainly want to look forward to it. Can I just can I just make a little quick point. I've been in the Netherlands recently to bid farewell to to a lovely cricket eating man, Pim Kurt, who passed away on the weekend, who I first met when I went over there to play for bloom and Dale. He is the essence of what cricket is about. Played cricket for many, many years, good spirited, played it for all the right reasons. And that's why we love the game.
And vallet Pim, as they say, I just want to acknowledge that that's why we love it.
Yep, yeah, well said Most.
Yeah, thanks to you, Jimmy. We'll talk again next week.
Yep.
No worries once. Yeah, good, good to see you.
Most.
You're looking good boy. And and and you've mentioned now you're you know you're obviously traveling around the world in Netherlands. And did you go to England.
I suppose you.
Did, Yes, I did, Okay All.
Summer for more from News Talk, said b.
Listen live on air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.