CHAPTER 9
What It’s All About
It took Steve Waugh 167 Tests, four days and five hours to determine the secret of success. He was not out at tea on the fifth day of the Fourth Test against India in his hometown of Sydney and, while sitting in the Australian dressing room, he came to a remarkable conclusion. I wish I could have asked Steve how he felt at that point, knowing that he was to take his place at the crease for the last session of his last Test. Luckily, when I mentioned it to Justin Langer, he told me he had spoken to Steve at tea and had asked him that exact question. Steve had replied to JL, ‘I think I’ve just worked out the secret to this game. I feel unbelievably relaxed. I have nothing to prove to anyone, I’ve done everything I wanted to do in this game and I feel like I’m free. It doesn’t matter what happens now.’
And that was it. After one of the most extraordinary careers in the history of the game, from the mouth of an Australian icon came the very simple conclusion that the better you are able to deal with all the pressures, stresses and fears associated with your task, the more likely you will be to perform at your best. Sure, it’s impossible to completely rid yourself of fear. Sometimes a bit of nervous tension can be a good thing, as long as it is channelled positively. But here was one of the most admired cricketers of all time saying that gaining control over fear was the missing link in the pursuit of excellence. It’s no surprise to me that Steve got out in his final innings playing his big trademark slog shot over mid-wicket. It proved that he was really enjoying himself and no longer carried on his shoulders that enormous weight he had lugged around for so long.
In an ideal world we would all like to play without constraints. Some of my best innings were played in the backyard when I was a kid. There was nothing to fear there. But ever since those days, building confidence and controlling fear became aspects of the game at which I had to work extremely hard at. Even now I’m not so sure I have those elements completely under control.
Doubt whom you will, but never doubt yourself.
Take my first Boxing Day Test. If there was ever going to be a match that could stir my emotions like no other this was it. What a great event it is. From my earliest days I’d fantasised about scoring a century in that match. I’d wake up the day after Christmas each year, watch every ball on the TV and pretend I was a part of it. When I was running up the sandhills as part of my Wanneroo training I kept that dream in my head.
So come December 26, 2005, I couldn’t quite believe I’d woken up. There I was, out in the middle of the MCG, batting for my country in the Boxing Day Test. Unbelievable. Just unbelievable. I was on 27 not out when Glenn McGrath joined me at the crease. We had a big task ahead of us and knew that every run we put on the board would set us off on a better path when we had to bowl.
I told Glenn, ‘Just hang in here for as long as you can. I’m going to try to keep as much strike as possible. We’ll get to two balls to go in the over and if they bring in the field I’ll try to hit a four and then get a single off the last ball.’ If they left the field out, I would try to get a single and he would have to face one ball. We discussed how we needed to muster up as many runs as we could and that each passing minute we held on would get the South Africans more and more annoyed. It seemed like a clear plan. We knew exactly what we had to do. The problem for me, however, was that I’d been feeling very scratchy at the crease. I had been batting for a long time and faced a lot of balls when Glenn joined me, but I hadn’t been able to get on top and there was no fluency in my batting. I was under a lot of pressure from the fielders and bowlers and was struggling just to stay alive.
HIGHEST TEST BATTING AVERAGES BY ALL BATSMEN
MICHAEL HUSSEY ONE-DAY CRICKET STATISTICS
Under those circumstances I expected the field to stay in and keep the pressure on me. However, crucially, when Glenn came in and was at the non-striker’s end, South Africa captain Graeme Smith put the field back for me. With that one tactical move, I was able to start taking some of the load off myself and focus more clearly on finding my timing. Within a short space of time I found it a little less difficult to get the ball into gaps and my scoring rate started to pick up. It was a much easier task with the field back and it felt as though I had gone from being right under the pump to all of a sudden having the entire South African team surrender to me.
After scratching around trying not to lose my wicket, I seemed to now be able to find little trouble in putting the ball where I wanted – and I didn’t even have to run if I didn’t want to! This went on for literally an hour and a half. As each over passed, the confidence the South Africans had built up after going through our batting order was being slowly transferred over to me.
Not only was I feeling more comfortable but Glenn was becoming more and more settled at the crease. Watching the way he applied himself to the task inspired me. As we all know, he’s not the greatest batsman but he’s always aware of how important his contribution can be in the context of the match. Consequently, he treated his innings that day as though his life depended on it. If he hadn’t shown such tremendous courage and determination, my innings would have ended shortly after his arrival in the middle and we would have had only a meagre total behind us when it was our turn to bowl.
Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhiliration of victory.
With Glenn’s help I got to 50 and took a moment to savour how great it felt to get a half century in a Boxing Day Test. We had put on a pretty good partnership to reach that point and I decided that, because my confidence had grown so much, it was time for me to start hitting out. We had achieved our goal of getting up a good score and putting the pressure on the South Africans to reply as strongly. We knew that if we could steal a few more runs from them it would be a real bonus for our team both on the scoreboard and psychologically. I started throwing the bat around, trying to hit boundaries and kept turning over the strike at the end of each over. It was working just as we wanted it to and my confidence was starting to go through the roof. It kept increasing and increasing. It was like a wave going through me. I cruised into the nineties and for the first time I started to comprehend that I was on track to score a Boxing Day Test century.
JOHN BUCHANAN
When the Australian cricket team returned from Bangladesh in April 2006, I sent reports to all the players giving feedback on their performances and information on what was coming up. We had a busy season ahead of us, which included ICC Champions Trophy in India through September and October, the Ashes campaign and, finally, the World Cup in the West Indies.
I required all the players to look carefully at the feedback, consider the amount of cricket ahead and put forward their thoughts on how they were going to work on their skills and planning preparations. I needed to ascertain from them how they would ensure they would be ready when we began the assault on the ‘BIG THREE’. Each player replied in his own way, either by phone or by some form of written communication. Mike sent me this e-mail:
John
Hi mate hope you and the fam are well and enjoying some time away from it all.
I am getting itchy again and are keen to get into it, but I am trying to hold off for another couple of weeks.
Just wanted to email through the things that I wanted to work on in the off-season. They are pretty basic at this stage but I was just going to use the machine and throwing for the batting stuff and use the video to analyse.
• Batting
• Driving
- hitting the ball later, through the line
- driving straighter and off my pads
• In-swinging deliveries ie. Hoggard style. I see this ball as the biggest threat to the lefties in our batting order
• Lofting the spinners - perhaps work on more at COE (Centre of Excellence)
• Reverse swing - also work on at COE as it is hard to create on the bowling machine
• Tighten up my stance and batting keys. ie. Set-up, relaxed body, clear mind and watching the ball. I ha
ve a list of checkpoints with my stance which I go through for each ball, which I can tighten up
• Bowling
• Consistent action and areas
• Change-ups - slower balls, yorkers and pace
• Run-up
My plan was to just bowl some overs, say about 10 to 15 overs per week off a full run, to get some volume
• Fielding
• Throwing technique and outfield throwing
• One-hand runouts from cover, midwicket
• Anticipation skills and pace off the mark
• Fitness/strength
• General strength
• Core/stomach strength
• Leg strength
• Pace off the mark
• Running technique
I am sure you and the other boys have some stuff for me also. I will def be keen to come to the COE at some stage to face some bowling in good conditions, but I haven’t really looked at when yet. Any thoughts?
I guess that is all for now.
Speak soon big fella
Huss
This response speaks volumes about ‘Mr Cricket’. While other players may have gone through the same process as Huss and may have been as clear as him about the type of preparation they needed, no one could express their ‘off-season’ and ‘in-game’ approach as lucidly as Huss.
Writing everything down is certainly not for everyone. Similarly, being able to send the coach a list of things to work on well in advance is not a feature of all players. Neither should it be, as each individual needs to understand and stick with their specific methods of preparation. However, for any aspiring cricketer, I believe Mike must be the model template. He is certainly a coach’s favourite as he takes the time to listen, absorb information and spend time and effort filtering what he needs. He asks questions when he is unsure, then outlines in detail what he intends to do with what he has learned.
Huss has been an incredible addition to the team since he established himself after the Ashes tour in 2005. His work ethic, his honesty and his desire to constantly better himself are infectious qualities around a team that is already striving to ‘raise the bar’ at every opportunity. Just look at his ‘punch’ - the Hussey version of the Lleyton Hewitt ‘C’mon!’ He always directs it to his teammates in the rooms who, I know, derive great pleasure from watching his feats of defiance, his acts of exuberance and sheer determination not to be beaten. Everyone gets a lift from Huss and they know that, with him at the crease, whatever the job, it will be accomplished. His immense joy and pride about being in this Australian cricket team is visible through his actions on the field. His skills are obvious across Test and limited-over forms of the game.
Huss, like all of us, cannot know what the future holds. But one thing is certain: the future will hold little challenge and excitement if either he or the rest of the Australian team sets limits to what they hope to achieve. It is not in Huss’s nature to set limits. He has had a wonderful taste of international cricket over the past two years. His thirst is unquenchable. He has all the skills. Perhaps, most importantly, he has a very supportive family around him who give him every encouragement to keep chasing down those childhood dreams. I am looking forward to watching and reading the exploits of Mike Hussey for many more years to come.
When I reached 96 the thought did come into my mind that perhaps I should hold on to the strike until I got past 100. However, I chose to stick to the plan Glenn and I had employed, as it had worked so well to that point. Just because I was on 96 didn’t mean I should abandon a plan that had had a positive effect to that point. So, with the field still back for me, I took a single off the second last ball of the over, leaving Glenn one ball to survive. That might have been a source of tension, but I felt I could really trust Glenn as he had stuck in with me and had shown that he meant business. The South African wicketkeeper, Mark Boucher, put a bit of a scare through me when he said, ‘Oh no, Huss. What have you done?’ But, sure enough, Glenn saw out the over and a few minutes later I reached 100.
We weren’t done yet. Glenn and I continued on for a while as we had been, frustrating our opponents and taking away their ascendancy. Our confidence was now sky high and it felt great. I remember taking a moment or two when I was on about 120 to look around the packed ground and think that this was it, this was the fabled Boxing Day moment I’d always dreamt about. Here I was in the biggest Test match you can possibly play in, standing out in the middle on 120 runs and, just like when I was in the backyard with my brother, I was playing with absolutely no fear or insecurity. It was the most fun I’d ever experienced. How could it be possible to play in such a high-pressure Test, yet feel as though it was just a game of backyard cricket? It was as though I was five years old again, trying to hit every ball for six. Amazing. We ended up putting on a healthy score and the partnership between Glenn and I became the catalyst for a great Australian Test match win. The transfer of confidence from their team to ours in the space of one session of cricket had turned the match upside down. So those couple of hours at the MCG were a great example to me of confidence working on the cricket field. That time we Aussies were on the winning side. But I have also witnessed the power of confidence work against us.
Mental toughness is the ability to watch each single delivery with the only focus being on the ball coming out of the bowler’s hand.
The one-day match between Australia and South Africa in Johannesburg in March 2006 could well go down in history as the greatest, if not the most bizarre, ever played. Throughout the Australian summer John Buchanan had kept challenging our team to score 400 in a one-dayer. We kept laughing at him because it seemed to us that there was no way possible this could be done. Once the field goes back you simply cannot hit boundaries without taking too much risk, meaning that the constant flow of fours and sixes you need to reach a score like that would not be possible. However, John kept telling us we could score 400 in 50 overs. ‘This team has the skills to do it,’ he would say. ‘You just have to believe you can.’
The conditions for this particular game in Johannesburg were absolutely perfect for batting. We batted first and got off to a flying start. Ricky Ponting was going crazy with the bat and I got the chance to move up the order because Punter wanted a left-hander in early to take advantage of the short-leg side boundary at one end. Damien Martyn, Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke were due to come in after me. Quite an order. So with Ricky hitting the ball everywhere and more awesome batsmen to come, I concluded there was no need for me to be overly cautious and I began to try to copy what Ricky was doing. I started slogging the ball and, like my captain, kept managing to find the gaps and hit fours.
Ricky went on to knock an incredible 164 off 105 balls and I got out for 81 from 51. More importantly, we reached 400, and I recall looking at John, who was sitting in the stand with the biggest smile on his face, a kind of ‘I told you so’ look. Remarkably, there were still some overs to face and, by the end Simmo and Brett Lee had smashed the hapless South Africans to finish the innings on 434.
HIGHEST ONE DAY INTERNATIONAL BATTING AVERAGE
In the context of the series, it was a magnificent effort to put on a score like that. We’d been hammered in the first two games and fought our way back to just win the third and fourth games to level the series at two-all. This was now the last game, the decider in a series we desperately wanted to win, especially as South Africa was hot on our heels as the world’s best limited-overs team. With such a massive total on the board, we believed there was virtually no chance of us losing. We were bursting with confidence and I remember thinking, ‘We’ve just scored 434 runs! How good is this?’
At the change of innings Ricky got us together in a huddle. Yes, we had every right to have our tails up. We had accomplished something quite special. But the game wasn’t over and the fact that we’d put on a huge score should not mean we could take our foot off the pedal. Ricky told us to take our minds completely off the score and treat our bowling and fi
elding effort as though we were about to try to defend 200. The boys took in what Ricky said, we were completely switched on, the feeling was positive and when we started bowling the guys were charging in for every ball. We wanted to bury South Africa and, when we broke through early, it appeared we were on track to do just that.
Soon afterwards, however, things started to turn. The South Africans got a good partnership together, with Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs really motoring along. We tried various tactics to slow them down but it seemed there was nothing we could do to stem the flow of runs. Up on the scoreboard they put up a graph showing how the two teams were matched at the same point in their respective innings. Somehow they were 20 or 30 runs ahead of us at the same time! The crowd was going completely bananas and the South African batsmen kept hitting fours and sixes. I was a little worried at the speed their innings was moving along, but in the back of my mind I still believed that just one or two quick wickets would stop them in their tracks. The problem was that the wicket we needed wasn’t looking very likely. No matter what we threw at them, they kept scoring runs at a frantic pace. They did have some good fortune: we’d move a fielder one way and the next ball the batsman would get an edge to where that fielder had been, an inside edge would go for four or a fielder would take a catch but fall over the boundary. Call it luck, if you like, but all the same the South Africans batted brilliantly and went on to record a memorable win, stealing our world record within just a few hours and claiming the series in stunning style.
Do it now, rather than waiting – wishing you had, once your game is over.
I was a bit numb after the game. What had enabled the South Africans, psychologically, to be able to recover from such a belting and then mow down a score that had never been chased before? I spoke with Graeme after the game and asked him what he had said to his team before they batted. It wasn’t all that surprising for me to hear that Graeme hadn’t done any talking in the dressing room as he was still in shock from our rampage. However, he did say their coach, Mickey Arthur, had got up and said: ‘Right boys, I know a win is unlikely but let’s work out what position we need to be in to give ourselves a chance.’ They concluded that if they could get to within 200 runs with 20 overs to go – which would equate to about 230 off 30 overs – it would give them a slight sniff of winning. They ended up being a long way ahead of that point with 20 overs to go.
Mr Cricket Page 14