Mark Richardson: Forget bravado and focus

COMMENT


Last time we toured here I remember making a comment to Stephen Fleming about the daunting challenge of playing Australia. Flem came back with something that has always stuck with me about playing over here. He said: "Yeah, but everything is in your favour to perform."

He is right. Over here you stay in great hotels, eat excellent food, are met with outstanding administration and assistance, train in top conditions and play on very fair surfaces. But the one thing you really need is mental strength, which unfortunately your hosts cannot provide; in fact they do whatever they can to take it from you.

Australia are at the top of the food chain, you cannot deny that, but the problem is they know it. You get the feeling that, when you come to their backyard, you come to be soundly beaten. You are here to be analysed, criticised, demoralised and sent home with your tails between your legs. "Oh, but if you do get some time could you please sing the praises of our boys in the baggy green, we love to hear it."

Unlike in New Zealand and England, the media are ruthless on the opposition. The world famous commentary team will highlight your failures with gusto and players will chew you up and spit you out if you show any weakness.

Warm-up games are not for practice, they are designed to beat you up. Given the quality of their domestic game this can happen only too regularly. The bravado comes at you from all angles over here, but this is not the real danger in touring Australia. The real danger is to come over here and try to be an Australian.

I believe many have arrived here to show they could play the Australian game, rather than their own. For me, mental strength is knowing what you are here for and what you have to do. We're not here to show we are individuals who could play for a state team or, God forbid, wonder if had we been born in Australia would we have been good enough to make the test team? We are here to try and win a couple of games of cricket.

Look, this Australian team is pretty damn good. They've dominated world cricket for well over the last five years and it is no mystery why - they have the best players. This is not about who's the best team and it is not a man-for-man contest. If that were the case, we'd have lost already.

This contest is all about knowing yourself, your job in our unit, your task for the day, your focus for the next ball. That is real mental strength and, you never know, if you get your job right you may just topple a giant.

And now a word on Muttiah Muralitharan's controversial doosra delivery, the finger spinner's wrong'un, which has now been cleared for him to bowl. This ball generally requires bending and straightening of the arm. To accommodate this, and under the premise that most bowlers bend and straighten anyway, the ICC will now allow bowlers 15 degrees of arm straightening in their action.

As I read it, the issue is not whether or not Murali, Akhtar and other investigated players are "chuckers", but rather the degree of chucking you are allowed to do. What an opportunity for New Zealand Cricket. Let's not moan about whether this new rule is ridiculous or not - let's get busy on the path to taking advantage of it.

Memo Dayle Hadlee, Gary Stead and the rest of the youth identification and development unit of New Zealand Cricket: You can now throw out the Lord's coaching manual. The new era is upon us.

Forget the side-on bowling action and the high front arm, clear your front leg, open your chest out and give it a good flick. Perhaps the talent spotters could not only attend under-17 and under-19 tournaments, but add youth track and field meets to their rounds as well.