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The Bold on the Front Foot with Brian Wabble and Jeremy Cody, powered by News Talks head B at iHeartRadio.
Hello, nice to have you back on the front footfullness once more. This week the new faces in the Black Cats touring team will be five's Good Options for the tests against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Michael Bracewell is back in the squad and remember this returns to a milestone sixty years ago. I'm sure one that will strike a chord with most peop that coming up shortly so to Michael Brachwell joins us with an assessment of the challenge
ahead as he sees it. But the team. Firstly, Gary Stead on the return of Rachel to the test squad and the other issues they faced selecting the fifteen man squad.
Yeah, I mean obviously three tests in Asia that we've named the squad for and Michael hasn't played for eighteen months he had that serious achilles injury, but it's great to see him back and he had promising spells I think at the end of the season there for Wellington when he was making his way back into the team. So he'll provides some experience and being in agent conditions, He's played over there before, so it's nice to be able to welcome him back into the squad.
Although Ben says what will this experience be like for them?
Yeah, look, I mean it's their first time on away tours. Have had some success here at home, but they are new into their international careers. But we're excited with both of them, and I guess they're different points of difference that they do bring to the squad as well. So it gives us the opportunity, I think, to look at our pace bowling stops and keep planning ahead for the future to make sure that they're strong as possible.
Yeah, I think so.
I mean we've selected them because we think that and they're exciting players. So look, I think it's unlikely that our pace bowlers will play all. We've got nine tests coming up in the next three months, so there may be the opportunity for those guys to be in the starting elevens at different times as well, and that's something
we'll manage when we're over there. Well, they're not a team that's played a lot of Test match cricket, but I guess for us leading into the World Test Championship, it's great for us to be able to get a live game as such that we get to put our players in the roles of our game play and get out there and compete with them. They're obviously a strong spin based team as well and have some real strengths
in those areas. So again great, great preparation for what's ahead of us, and I've got very very skillful players, say, I mean, I don't manage Afghanistan, but but I'm sure that they are a team that can play test make it in the future.
Gary Stair, New Zealand coach, Well, our chance to assess what they face and the team to me in India and Sri Lanka against quality opposition, we can't underestimate the task ahead. We've invited former Test player John Parker to join Jerry and I. Yeah, the old team back together.
I think when it comes to.
What I see in front of me, which you are fortunate enough listeners not to have to see. But Jerry, we've talked about this series during the last few programs. Your initial assessment is this our best team available to cover all the bases.
I think there's one position might change, but betting predictable. I think as expected Lathan, con Way, Williamson, Mitchell, Revendra, Phillipson, Blundele you would expect of perhaps if they were all available with their contracts that they've just gone through. That's pretty much as predicted. I think so some of us.
Whether the number that goes beside those people you might change, maybe Mitchell and Revendra around that's some of you know, either of you two may feel a bit more strongly about that, whether you want the left right combination, or whether you want someone coming at the ball like Mitchell to go with somebody who hangs back a little bit more so you get variety and force the bowlers to bowl at different links. They're both shot makers, Revendra and Mitchell.
Mitchell alters by going at the bowl or a bit more. Revendra hangs back in the crew a bit more. But you know that's pretty predictable, wouldn't you say, Fellers about the batting component of this group.
Yeah, pretty much. I think they've picked a side that will do the job and ecquit themselves. Well, John Parker, you've had a chance to watch New Zealand over the years. You might not have seen much of them in recent times. None of us have. But really the top order is one that have got players capable of delivering the runs New Zealand needs in a tough assignment like this.
Certainly some imaginative batters, there's no doubt about that. What I find a little bit confusing is the fact that because boundaries are shorter, grounds are smaller, more strokes aren't employed, and that you don't have to edit so fair you don't have to do it ninety any longer to get a boundary. That it doesn't really matter left or right handed. That they should be able to play all the strivics.
Some obviously love to charge down the wicket to attack the bowler, but because of the boundary of the ground sizes that you would think that all the shots become options and that the different batsmen can fulfill different roles. I still enjoy watching India play that. If things look a bit shaky at the start, they just push the ball around in twenty twenty terms for fifteen overs and then expect to go at fifteen, sixteen or seventeen runs and over in the last five. So they still believe
that wickets in hand are important. And I enjoy sort of watching all of that, sort of say poly he's still we and he goes at about one hundred and twenty when he's going well, and sometimes Bets is not out of the end at a run and ball, and they still seem to win games. So their focus is on winning games. I'm not sure that ours is always on winning games. It all seems to be strategies and strike
rates and all those to things. But certainly our batsmen have proven themselves and over the years they're imaginative, they're skillful, they're athletic and very competent.
I think we go from their dag to the interesting ward. I find them slightly more interesting component about this group, you know, once you get down to seven, it's then eight nineteen eleven, and you start to look at balancing the side. When you go to a place like India or Sri Lanka both equally, you know, have pictures that still generally turn more than certainly in New Zealand and that number eight position you are required to score runs nowadays.
I think that's that's pretty fair. I mean, you look at Australia, it's Cummings or Stark and they're averaging twenty odd unless Carey goes down to eight with the's a night watchman going. He's got an average of thirty and that's test averages. England have got ben folks who have been there recently and even more recently Chris Wokes. They're averaging, you know, high twenties, twenty nine, thirty. And then you go to India and you get people like Ashwyn averaging
twenty six. And there's a guy the keeper there, new keeper. He's only played three tests, Drew durrell As I say, three tests, but he's averaging sixty three. So you need runs now. If you look at our number potential number eights, I personally think going to Asia you need to have a spinner. You've got to have a spinner in there if you can. And the only two or there are three main spinners. Wad said five. But I'm a sure it's quite nice that we've been handy. We've got two
half spinners who bat in the top six. But I'm thinking Bracewell, Santner and Patel have been listed in this particular sk squad, and I suppose of those two, Betel would fall out of the batting option, and so it becomes one between Bracewoolen Sanner to bat that number seven position. Oh, sorry, eight position. What do you think?
I think the issue for New Zealand with the spinners is that they're different to the spinning combinations of every of most other countries, well every other country, and that the basis the foundations of the spin attack for other countries is a league spinner, right arm leg spinner who bowls at sort of ninety five k's an hour, can drop it slower, can bowl it a bit quicker, but can also get the ball to loop and to spin, and that's a pretty good combination really, And when twenty
twenty came in, they thought spinners, that was the end of league spinners. Well, of course, the knowing people knew that it wouldn't be the case. It would be the rise of league spinners, and so it's turned out to be New Zealand doesn't seem to have mastered that or I'm not sure, of course, what they're doing behind the scenes. Hopefully they're going around the country. You're trying to spot young league spinners who can bowl at that sort of
speed and with those sort of skills. And the other issue is that the finger spinners and other countries all have great boundaries of deceit.
They can do lots of things.
Even as a finger spinner, which was the great skill of Vittori, Vittori had a lot of deception, had a lot of options, a lot of variations. And you look at Ashwyn, he doesn't sort of bother too much about the fielding. He can bat, but he just bowls and his deception is quite extraordinary. And I'm not sure that our finger spinners have that same sort of deception. So I think our makeup of our spinners is different to
most countries and I think that's where we struggle. And because of that, I don't think we manage a spinners very well. Think we understand how spinners operate, how they think, how they need to think, and how other country spinners think and operate. I'm not sure we've come to grips with the management of them.
It's interesting, isn't it that you've got braceful who kind of put gets the ball up and then down. He's that type of spinner. Center isn't quite so much, even though he's developing. I think he's changed as a spinner over the years. He's getting on now. I mean he's thirty thirty two, thirty three is around there. In fact, most of them are about that age nowadays in the New Zealand side. But he's he's he's more interested in wickets than he is which is an odd things to say,
isn't it. But he didn't used to. He used to be interested in made and yet in bowling maidens, and that's how he was used for New Zealand. Now I see him tossing the ball up slightly, why trying and then skidding one through an arm actually an armball coming back in. You don't hear about the armball too much nowadays from spinners. But Bracewell is quite a big turner of the ball goes through a few more runs. Hasn't played much Test cricket, only eight Tests. He's getting three
a Test At the moment. It sounds from you, daggy, you would like to have Sody in the side. I don't know from what your comments about legs spin, But I find him personally when he gets hit, he loses it. He can't come back quite so well. He's a bit vulnerable, could I say put it that way. And he doesn't field nowadays and doesn't give us much with the bat either, and when has he won us a test? So I
just he hasn't made this group. He's one of the few who's been left out with Duffy and Jamison to make this group.
I think the treatment of so is an example of what I was saying, a young fellow many years ago who showed talent and should have been nursed through and encouraged. And I think there are issues with his action. I don't think it's the best that it could be. But even accepting that that a lot of other bowlers bowl very well with unusual actions, which adds to their variation and their deception. But I don't think he's been managed very well. So I'm not sure that he's the answer now.
But you just need that type of league spin bowler that bowls that quickly, can still turn it a bit and can get the ball to to.
Have an arc to arc.
But it's still at that ninety five ninety seven CA's in our mark. And of course everybody that bowls has to bat these days, and everybody that's bats and can ball, you know, might be asked to bowling over here and over there. So it's certainly those all around skills are important. But again I think Sody is the example that I'm not sure we understand spinners very well and never have to be fair.
When the under nineteens were at the World Cup, they had some developing spinners. I know that's a little early on for some of these players, but you know, what you say is correct. But I think the other important thing you may is you now, even at Test match level, have to be able to deliver runs and the athletic and valuable in the field. New Zealand's fielding in recent times has slipped away. You know, when Steve Rixon was the coach of the side, he was hard on the players.
He made them work pretty hard. And Jeremy, you've spoken in the past about times when you've been overseas and you've had to work over time at your fielding practice to get ready, and it's something that New Zealand doesn't do so well. Now take the catches as regularly as they did. And the ground fielding too has slipped to my mind, and they need to be able to do that in places like India and Sri Lanka where they're going to be.
I don't think there's anything any doubt about that, Brian. The New Zealand fielding that I've seen in the last year or so has definitely dropped away. And we haven't got bowlers now as they age slightly, that particularly our seemers and particularly in New Zealand, that are not creating quite so many chances as they used to. Know. Jamison bowling there now and Bolt gone, so we're not getting a as many chances to catch the ball and when
we do, they therefore become more important. And particularly in this series of we're playing in Sri Lanka. We've got tests there and then playing three Tests against India which Dag also played as well in seventy six. So we are going to need close in fieldsmen to our spinners. We are going to have to somehow, you know, get our spinners bowling well enough that we eight chances off defensive shots and we need to have those shot those
catches taken. And I couldn't I couldn't tell you. Perhaps Latham is fielded there a bit, but we need two or three of them who can actually field and close and take catches, being low, being ready, being quick and having good you know, athletic responses, anticipating the catch. You know the difference between fielding and close in the first innings where the picture is slightly better as it is in the second innings. Are you are you were half a pace back? You know who this batsman does? He
go at the ball at bit more? Do I follow him down the pitch? Loads of things that are close in fielder has to be able to do. I've seen New Zealand fielders stay where they are on the the batsmen go past them, they are effectively out of the game. You've got to move along the pitch with them to stay relative to yourself where you've started. So look, that's just a minor asset of you know, of the game, an aspect of the game. But we don't I don't get the feeling we really practice it that much.
I wonder whether the demands on.
The player these days so as such that we don't have the time available to spend doing those sorts of things. They seem to be coming from all over the world to play a Test match and then disappearing and then coming back and then disappear, and I just wonder whether the coach has actually got the clear air to actually, you know, spend time doing these things. The other point that I think is is relevant still is running between wickets.
You look at.
Phillips and the other athletes, and most of our guys are pretty good athletes. In your you have to be these days. As you both said, I still believe that if two batsmen have got a commitment to run, I don't reckon a fielder can ever run them out. I reckon a batsman backing up batsman as long as you when you hit it and when you aim to hit it in the covers, you actually hit it inunder the covers and don't get a thick edge back to the bottler.
But if you hit it where you want to, I don't I still believe that a fielder can't run them out because if you hit it and run, like Jeff Howff used to and others just you know, knock it somewhere and run, I think it's very difficult to be run out. So running between wickets, I think is an absolute priority and athletes. You know, Phillips gets some runs
that others probably wouldn't contemplate. But I think if they worked on partnerships and understanding, just as Jerry said about the field is understanding what's what they're all at the angles and the mechanics and what your job is when you're.
Fielding in close. Yeah, same with running between wickets.
If that was practiced and understood and talked about and rehearsed and all of those things, I still believe that it's incredibly difficult to run anybody out. So all those sort of things are now under a microscope in the modern game, and I think that's fantastic.
It's skill related.
They're athletic all of those things, but I'm not convinced they have the time to practice all these things.
Jerry. Obviously spinner is an important part of talking about the subcontinent. But for New Zealand, it's a new era in seam bowling, isn't it. Many of the top players that we've had in the past have retired. Henry and the sow they continue to tour away with the New Zealand side, But what of the seam bowling component, Because that's going to be an important part as well.
It is, Brian. It always has been for New Zealanders, hasn't it. They always play an important role with the ball. They've picked four seemers in this squad, Sears and O'Rourke. Please to see them there. They are the future and we need to develop and supply some games and experience to them. Hopefully they can get the odd success over there.
Not quite so easy of course, with less grass on the surfaces, but if they can somehow learn maybe to start to reverse swing the ball so they get a chance to use the new ball with conventional swing, and then later as the ball gets older, they can still come into the innings for New Zealand. So one of those I would think would play in each Test. I would hope so, and they will develop from there. Henry
is our most consistent bowler. He's the most used. He bowls the overs and gets most batsmen out and if not, if that's not the case, you can set a field because he's accurate, you can defend with him as well. So that leaves Saudi. Saudi will be probably fighting for a position in his side with Henry's Actually he's not the kind of bowl that you would expect to take
the place of Sears or O'Rourke. The only time I can see Soudi playing and the subcontinent is when perhaps the pitch is expected to be up and down or holding a lot or variable and bounce. If you get patchy pictures of grass here and then lots of sort of bear dirt around it and so on, those kinds of pictures, that might bring Soudi into the side. But
other than that, I can't really see him planning. I can understand stead saying he may not play all the Test matches over there and kind of in preparation for that sort of thing actually occurring. So that's the side I don't I think we'll probably play two. We may play three, depending on conditions of sea. So that might be the possibility of playing two of the three spinners we've talked about earlier.
Yeah, indeed, and I suppose the likes of seas and are or have to learn somewhere. I mean, it's not the ideal place to learn the Test arena, but you know, they don't get many other opportunities at the top level. So they've shown last year that they have the capacity to stand up at Test match level. This will be a real test for them, won't.
Yes, it will be, but it's.
Not easy for them. They'll work hard. They perhaps might not be if it's hot, they might not bold quite so many overs in a spell, but they'll still be expected to come back and do their part and do their bit in the bowling order. So it's a good tour for them to go away. No one holds high expectations of them, but they can still learn a great deal. So yeah, important tour for those two new fast bowlers.
The other thing though, parts that to me of interest as we talk about spin and the requirements of spin in the subcontinent and being able to bowl spin, but what about playing spin as a batsman. Do we have players who are capable of playing spin? I think we've seen Ravendra is one who has developed the talent. Mitchell does like to get down the pitch a little bit. Do our batsmen play spin as well as they could do? They've been under pressure at times even in New Zealand.
Nathan Lyomhen he came out to New Zealand put a lot of pressure on our batsmen. Any special techniques you have to apply in the subcontinent.
Well, I think playing spinners anywhere, there are, of course, some basic strategies that you need on The first thing is is that if you're going to play on the back foot, you get on the back foot early, and yet you when you play on the front foot, you get on the front foot late. So the reason for that, of course is if you're committed to the going to play on the back foot, you want to get there and be prepared because you don't have to be on the move on the back foot.
On the front foot.
You want your weight going into the ball, and you want as long as you possibly can to assess what the bull's doing, the loop, the speed, the possible spin, where it's going to pitch, whether that's a flat area or a scuffed area, all those things. You need as much time as you can to assess all those things. So going on to the front foot, in general terms,
you want to do that as late as possible. Going down the wicket, of course, the two variations are that one is the charge the cavalry and off they go before the bulls let go, which they seem to do these days, which of course in the woman's game in New Zealand, they're very, very poor at that. They charge off down the middle and when the ball's wide, that's not fair and they get stumped by mile.
So the charge is something that is.
Is an interesting and a bit of a desperate thing really, because there are so many shots you can play.
To u spin.
Another secret of going under the back foot to a spinner, I believe is to always go into middle of leg when the ball is relatively close to you, even if it's outside the off stump, but go into the middle of the league and then that opens up all of the off side. When we see our players, I think more often than not going across to off stump and trying to work it onto the on side, which an actual fact, you're playing across the line of the ball
that's outside your off stump. Coming in the line is from sort of extra cover to your stumps, and we want to get outside the line having our bat coming from third slip across the mid on midwicket, so you've got a very small area in which you can make contact with the ball. When you see the Indian players, the very good players of spinners, they're going into midland league and hitting that ball on the back foot through the covers, which then poses a huge problem for the
captain with placing the field. Also, if the ball is slightly wider and doesn't spin, the late catadon or the square cut or or the forty five on the off side is all available when you go into Middland League, not into middle and off or off stump.
Yeah, okay, well, I mean the reason I asked Parks to come on this one was is because Parks taught me, you know, spin one oh one when I was playing tests and you know, some of the sort of the trucks if you like, in the central matters. I remember him sitting me down and saying, let the ball come, Jeremy,
just wait, just wait a while, you know. And if you're going to get forward, as he says, get forward late, but get forward quite well, you know, or go back, go back well, So you give yourself a chance to adjust to the ball and you've got time to see it, in other words, and react to it. So that's that those with the sort of things that you need any other thing about defending part, what about attacking it? The
general ways of getting them. There are points I think with spinners where they're dangerous and they call it the interception point nowadays, if you can, if you can get a batsman playing when the ball is perhaps two meters away from you and you're continually the batsman is continually playing, that can be quite a tricky length for you as a batsman, and the average of batsmen get dropped quite dramatically if they continue to play, giving the ball amount of an amount of time to for turn or for
drift or for whatever. If you are not quite to the pitch of the ball where you can smother it, so you tend to want to go back to those But then it's a bit close and you feel uncomfortable. You're good with your hands and your wrists and so on, it can slide into your pad and so on. So that's the kind of length I'm talking about, an interception point.
The way to attack that it seems to me, as you've described going down the wicket, perhaps not a charge or you'll find a lot of the players nowadays will sweep because as you sweep, you're doing it from the front foot, You've got your hair, arms out straight, and with your bat as well the length of your bat, you're about.
A meter closer to the ball.
Anyway, the trouble is with that you can handle sideways movement, you can't handle bounce so much. If there are variations and bounce. What are your thoughts about attack as opposed to defense the.
Spin, Well, I think mixing both of those up is important so that when they tend to err on the back foot these days, and they are very aware of where their stumps are and where the balls pitch. So a line between where the ball pitched and there's stumps is that's the default line that if you're not sure what's happening, you imagine that the ball is always going to hit your stumps, so you're ready for that.
And if it's.
Slightly wider than that, you might be able to guide it down for a single or lake cutted or whatever. So but I would I think I think sweeping is a good option, but the sweep should be as technical as other strokes, in that you watch Joe root sweep, he sweeps too much for me, but he comes from above it and comes down on the ball, so he is trying to hit the ball on the ground, or if he does try to hit it in the air,
he tries to hit it for six. And I think those are the options which have to be black and white in a batsman's mind, and they.
Should use all options.
The biggest you with a spinner these days is that you've got to put pressure on the spinner.
Going down the wicket. It's a good idea.
Knocking it for one, or hitting it hard down the ground for one, puts in the spinner's mind.
That or if any coming down the wicket.
He could smack me for six, So they have to drop it a little bit shorter and then they're on the back foot to play all of those shots. And with the boundaries being so small generally, then pulling the ball for six over midwicket is definitely the option. You throw the sweep in there, the sweet well executed, then the spinner has a tough time. The secret also with the sweep is because the bat has to travel such a long way from the pick up area from the
backlift air right round to the front. You've got to get into a sweep early, and most people when they sweep, they try and sweep it too hard. When you know you're you are changing the line of the ball, you're adding a bit of power to it, and in the short boundaries and things you'll easily get it away for four, and a lot of batsmen think in terms of sixes
rather than fourth. Six fours in an over still adds up to twenty fourth quite a lot, and three fours an over still adds up to twelve and that's quite a lot too, So that all of these strategies have to be clear in batsman's minds and why they are doing it, why they have to do it, what impact will it have on the game and the bowler.
For Michael Bracewell, it's a return to the Test match arena nine games ahead of him after suffering a serious injury. He hasn't played a Test since March twenty twenty three, almost eighteen months ago. Michael, congratulations on your record of the squad after a long time injury break. But I guess you still recall the last Test at the basin.
Yes, I remember sitting in here after the game. I think we made chell and could follow on in that Test match. So it was a lot of hard work that went into that Test win. And I guess part of the fond memories of playing Test cricket are sitting in the changing rooms after the after the game with the guys and really thinking back on and reflecting on five days of really hard work to get a result.
So yeah, I think those are the things that keep driving you forward when when you're injured and thinking about those times of being around the guys again, and that really motivates me to get back into that Test arena.
That game I think was watching Henry and Cane back, wasn't it for five times?
Yeah?
It was.
And then in this in the fourth innings, I think that it was so windy that the cameras could only operate from one end, So yeah, it was. It was an interesting Test match. But I think that's the beauty of Test cricket. There's lots of different challenges that you come up against and you have to try and overcome them and overcome the opposition as well.
Yeah, nine of them coming up if you get to play all of them, it's pretty tough right ahead for any cricketer. So you have to be doing a bit of work. And I guess you've you been playing overseas, haven't you. You've had contracts overseas.
Yeah, I've been playing in the US more recently. It's been nice to get a little bit of game time. Obviously, coming off a long layoff, you you just want to play as much as you can. So it was great to get the last two games of the Plunket Shield and at the end of the season and we're fortunate in our fourth Wellington to win the Plunket Shield, which is a real bonus. It's one of those trophies that is pretty hard to win. So it was great to link up with the Firebirds boys again and also contribute
to the win. You want to be going out there and putting your best foot forward and I really felt like I did that. So it's really nice to be recognized again and be called back into that Test squad.
Yeah, having played the MLC or played in America, you now have to change to the test match format. What does it mean for you as a spin ball, Well, all round her, I suppose, but more or less your spin component of your game, because that's what the Subcontinent says normally, doesn't it, spin bowlers.
Yeah, well yeah, history would suggest that spin will play a big part in the Subcontinent and I think for me personally, I think in the limited overs formats, you you have to rely on your change of your variations, You change your pace and your change of line and length, whereas in Test cricket you've really got to try and nail that that line and length for as long as you can and if the wickets offering some assistance, then
that's great. But you're only effective when you're when you're holding in that in that zone for a long period of time. So that's the adjustment that we have to make as spinners, is really nailing our best ball and making sure that we're holding in that area for a long period of time.
Yeah, you talk about variations. You look around the world now spin ballers are starting to re emerge, aren't they. England are going to bring a good group when they come out. You've got India who in their own conditions love it. You've got to have those variations, I suppose, and that is the challenge in itself to most polers of it. You can always be an off spinner, but you've got to have something else, don't you.
Yeah, I think. I think when twenty twenty in particular first came in, I think there was a lot of people thinking that it would be the death of spin bowling, whereas it's almost been the opposite. Spinners have really found a role for themselves, and I think players are still trying to catch up a little bit in some areas of their game in terms of trying to dominate spin.
And I think it's great for the game playing these different formats, but test cricket's definitely the most pure and one that this New Zealand team holds very dearly to its heart. So we're excited to go over and have a big diet of red bull cricket in a row. So yeah, it's exciting to get over there, and as a spin group, it's really exciting to be able to go out there and potentially try and lead the bowling
attack for a change. We often play second fidd in New Zealand to the seam bowlers, so it'll be cool to have a little bit of a role reversal.
Team's going to have five options, basically, isn't he? But the all rounder option is also important because you're batting Ratchen who's had a good series in America too, doesn't he with the ball? And Glenn Phillips are going to be important in terms of providing runs because that all round a position is important for any captain to be able to support.
Yeah, I think the all rounder plays a huge role, whether they're a spin bowling arounder or a seema and I think we've got the value of having a lot
of depth in that position. And there's certainly going to be some competition for spots when we get over to over to India first of all, and then and then on to Sri Lanka, so it'll be great to I think that's that's the beauty of having great depth in the squad is everyone keeps pushing themselves and really trying to I guess we've got a great group where everyone feeds off each other and improves, which is ultimately great for the team as well.
Initially, I suppose you were as a batsman who bowled a little bit you become more of an all rounder as such. Now do you see yourself as a batsman who bowls or a bowler who bets or is it a matter of doing each bit separately?
And well, I still probably judge myself on my betting first, and I think that probably helps my bowling, to be honest, I obviously work really hard on it, but I guess through the my formative years I was playing a lot as a better so you probably judge yourself a little bit more critically on the betting and then the bowling's
a bit of a bonus. But I obviously take that a lot more seriously now the bowling than I ever did before, So I would still call myself a betting all round it, but I guess my role on the side has changed a bit where it'd probably maybe even bordering on the bowler first.
Yeah, just about to head off eight of these chest matches for the World Test Championship. So that's a real challenge in itself, isn't it, Because New Zealand has got a bit of work to do to get above the third or fourth place. You shit out at the moment, and all the other side to be looking to do the same as well.
Yeah, I think that the Test Championship provides great context to Test cricket and it's been great for the Test game and it's cool to see where you're ranking around the world and ultimately try and push for that Test Championship final. So yeah, we don't like to look too far ahead, but we'll be taking that one game in one session at the time, and I guess it's one
of those things that it provides great context. But if you get too caught up with only trying to achieve that, then you perhaps lose sight of what's it right in front of you. So yeah, we'll be going out to that first session and trying to put our best foot forward and then see where we end up at the end of the nine games, because it'll be I guess pretty telling in that Test Championship tally.
Nice to have one of your willing and teammates been is starting to samand a place along with Willow Raw as the leaders of a New Zealand bowling attack for the future.
Yeah, it's really exciting. Seeing them both play against Australia last year was awesome and they bring a lot of energy and pace to the bowling attack, which is very exciting. I feel like they're wives beyond the years, both of them. They work really hard. I've had the pleasure of seeing Sez working hard this winter obviously being in Wellington as well, and I'm sure Will's doing exactly the same thing in
christ Church. They're just very exciting young prospects and as we saw last year, they're ready to go straight away. So it's certainly no token them getting this call up and I'm sure when they get called upon they'll be ready to go again. It is hugely exciting for New Zealand cricket to have two young guys like that coming through, and I'm sure we'll see a lot more of them in the future. Good luck, thanks so much, Yes, thank you.
Brian Waddell, Jeremy Cooney on the front foot.
August nineteen sixty four. Sixty years ago, a five Test Ashes series was played in England and needed only one game to settle the series. Australia had won the third Test at Headingly by seven wickets due to a magnificent innings of one hundred and sixty played by Peter Burge. The final Test at the Able introduced a new player to Test cricket Test into break records. Jeff Boycott had another player set a new mark for bowlers and Test
cricket in his sixty fifth Test. It wasn't you, Parks, was it?
Not?
That I remember?
But I've tried to forget most of my dismissal, so it could have been.
Please six seventh for eight fifty five weavers fourteen. HOWF Truman had a bit of a scowl at the batsman doesn't even look friendly to watch his fieldsman at the moment and it's thirty first over, there's two wickets once a third. Truman in again oldster Hawk, and Hawk goes for in his park.
There's a three hundreds.
There was no nice attuch did Truman congratulating Hawk hot by Cowdrey.
Neil.
Hawk can never have come into the pavilion or a greater revation in his life, but they weren't looking at him. Fred Truman's three hundred Test wicket, the first man in the history of cricket to achieve the figure.
Now, you wouldn't have played against him too much, would you.
I played against him.
In a forty over games, and he was very funny. He wasn't very quick by the stage. His voice was quicker than his delivery, but an interesting character. He also came and spoke at Seddon Park one day not long after I got married, and I was a host. I was sort of part of the hosting after I'd finished at Worcester, of course, but he made it out that he was one of my.
Best friends, and his stories weren't.
Things that you were telling the church, and he made me the brunt of every one of his stories. And my new father in law was present. I took him along to listen to F. S. Truman and I was the brunt of every one of his stories. Yeah, yeah, no I wasn't.
I wasn't a victim on the field. Let's say that.
You wouldn't have played it too often, Jerry.
I played him once. Brian and a slightly elderly mixed English side came out to play a number of teams and I played him at Pukikura Park and both of them was in the team. Godfrey Evans was in the team and I was quite surprised he would have been in his perhaps his mid fifties. But he he was a quickish medium, if you know what I mean. He
swung it away and so you could see. And certainly I remember talking to Graham Dowling about him when he played Test matches against Fred and he said he was an outstanding bowler, you know, quickish, really quickish, but that movement as well associated with it made it very difficult. Tended to bowl pretty full, could bowl the short ball as well. So yeah, he was an He would have been an interesting guy to play against, no doubt about that.
But he spent his life.
FS spenders life campaigning to get a knighthood, with which he failed, but he was very keen on getting a knighthood FS.
Yes, he loved the politicians and the political angle. Great character. I worked with him in the commentary box and he was a wonderful man to work with. Well there. He was the first man of three hundred Test wickets back in August nineteen sixty four. And one guess who his last wicket was in New Zealander A tail ender his last Test wicket could you guess Parks.
Three hundred and seventh wicket? That would be nineteen sixty five. Yeah, we went to England.
He got two wickets in his first and he's of the last Test and none of the second. They were both bowlers down the order. One of them was Bruce Taylor and the other one was.
Richard J O'Collins.
Correct pH Collins, yep, that was his last Test wicket, Richard Collins. We'll get rock on one day and chat with about that.
The rapier. It would have taken the rapier out. It was about five pound too heavy.
A lot of fun. I'll try and get some of the uh bred Truman stories for replay, provided they're clean and uh not heard in the church. Previously Parks, Well we'll do that on one program.
Yeah, it's very funny, a great character and uh you know, a very very strong man, minor, all those sorts of things, the old style of sportsman.
But a great character, good fun Fred.
Used to go into the opposition side. Didn't you look around the team? I got five wickets in here today.
Parks, thanks for joining us. This wedlerk forward to you again of the quickt.
Issues to have, Thanks you Tom VisiC guys, Thanks exapologisms.
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