Adam Parore: When it's best to fraternise with the enemy

COMMENT


If New Zealand are to be competitive against Australia in the two-test series they must conquer the mental battle.

It's all very well honing your batting technique or the bowlers making sure they are zeroing in on the off-stump, but that's just part of the job against the world's best team.

The hard thing about playing Australia is that, in addition to their talent, you are up against a lot of reputations.

Some of the younger players may have spent the 10 years watching the likes of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath on television. That makes them more intimidating, and the less experienced players need to get past that.

Over the years various approaches have been tried for getting around the intimidation aspect of tackling the Australians. Trying to isolate yourselves, not getting close, has been tried and was not a great success.

On our last tour there in 2001-02, we made a conscious effort to get closer to them. Have a chat over a beer, try to make them more human if you like. It worked and we drew the series.

Why? Well, if McGrath is sledging the daylights out of you, you still remember that two days earlier you had shared a beer and he wasn't such a bad bloke. Therefore the sting of his tongue was not as severe.

I can remember Warne, Damien Martyn and Craig McMillan hopping into a lift and going off to the casino together for a punt.

In my case, I made a point of getting to know a bit about their speedster Brett Lee, talking about life in Sydney, where he lived and so on.

And whenever Stephen Fleming had the chance he would sidle up to Steve Waugh for a yarn.

Once you got to know them it was pretty apparent they weren't much different from us. They are not bad guys, similar to us in many respects.

And from spending time with them you pick up little nuggets of information to store away for the right time and place. The odd comment you might hear about a team-mate can be squirrelled away and can come in handy.

And the other point is they are worth talking to about cricket anyway. I'd guarantee if a New Zealand batsman, say Mathew Sinclair, sat down and asked Matthew Hayden about playing the Indian spinners, Hayden would give him chapter and verse.

There are some who assume sledging is full of foul language. Wrong. It's about trying to find the right word to say at the right time, just to get the opponent thinking about something other than the job he's trying to do in the middle at the time.

Dion Nash and I were the most outspoken and everyone in the team knew we would go after the Aussies. It's not for everyone and quite frankly there are some players whose verbal attempts to get under the Australians' skin would be a waste of time.

I remember the afternoon before the first test in Brisbane in 2001 going to a movie. I wanted some peace and quiet. You'd go into shops and get an earful about what your average was and how big a whipping you were going to get.

Enough was enough. On the way, there was a pounding thunderstorm and I sat for a time in a cafe making notes about what lay ahead.

Just as I had my notes on the physical game plan, my batting and wicketkeeping, so I also kept a verbal plan for the Australians. Who was susceptible to the odd word of advice and who wasn't. All part of the planning.

In the couple of days before Thursday's start of the test the New Zealand players want to have a clear mind. In my case I always tried to make sure everything in my life was in order, no business hassles, the bills were paid and so on.

If I was in good form, then two decent nets, a bit of catching, a run around, plenty of sleep and no alcohol was all I wanted. If the form was not good, then you've got a couple of critical net sessions ahead.

In my experience the first day of the opening test of a series was the worst to get through. You don't know if you're batting or bowling until half-an-hour before the start. You're not quite sure what to expect.

The second day onwards was fine, because the pattern of the test had been set.

For example, if you are an opener and you had been dismissed the previous day but the side are five wickets down, you can be fairly sure you can put your feet up for an hour or two. Eight down at stumps the previous night, the bowlers wake up knowing they're likely to be in work well before lunch. And so on.

The players should relish the challenge. Australia will give them a measure of respect, based on our recent form against them. But it's a respect which can easily be lost if we don't hit the ground running on Thursday morning.

* Adam Parore is a former New Zealand wicketkeeper.