Pat Symcox

The former South African spinner talks about playing cricket in India and gives us an insight into spin bowling.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Simply Symmo!

Pat Symcox is one of the most successful spinners to have played for South Africa. With his competitive spirit, the ‘big bloke’ from Cape Province carried the load of the spin responsibilities for his team for seven years. A handy batsman down the order, Symcox also has a Test ton to his name. After retirement, the 47-year-old moved into the role of a commentator with consummate ease. In this interview, he talks to our reporter about his experiences in international cricket (especially against India), about the current status of South African cricket and about spin bowling.

Pat, in your seven-year career, you have travelled to India quite a bit. Take us back to your 1996 tour of India. Do you recall the Titan Cup final, where you played that amazing innings or even the Test series that year? They must be fond memories…
They are very fond memories, I remember the Titan Cup in the 1990s, the very first one. There were some tough times in India. I remember us losing the series. The first Test was in Ahmedabad which we lost badly and then there was a very good Test in Kolkata in which we did pretty well and won. India has always been a tough place to come and play in but I have got some great memories and I have made some great friends here from Javagal Srinath to Sourav and Rahul and Sachin and so many players who have gone before them. There have been some talented cricketers in India. In those days we played harder on the field but there was a nice camaraderie off the field and I am hoping that still exists between the South Africans, the Australians, the Indians and the Pakistanis off the field. It is quite important.

I always enjoyed playing in India. I shared a room with Fanie de Villiers for a long time. I shared a room with Gary Kirsten for a while and we always enjoyed coming here and playing here in India.

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A little about South African cricket, Pat; they have never been able to break the World Cup jinx and now they have a younger side and a younger captain who has done pretty well. What do you see ahead for South African cricket?
Some say that it's a golden era and I tend to agree with it. I think the likes of Kallis, Pollock, Gibbs, Ntini, Boucher aren't going to be easy to replace, and they all are in the same era. Within a space of two to three years, they all are going to be gone. It will be hard to replace that kind of talent, there are not too many guys like Kallis, Pollock and Boucher running around, so I think that South Africa may have a tough time in the future.

I'm not quite sure why they haven't been able to win major trophies. There is a psychological factor that's missing. Talent is plentiful. Whether we are going to produce quality players in the future, I am not sure. There are lots of youngsters that have left South African cricket, as they were disillusioned with the system, which is a worry. And how to keep them involved in the system is going to be a challenge. South Africa's biggest challenge is the administration and not the talent. It is never going to be the talent but it is administering the game that is the big problem.

Tell us a little about your career. You were an off-spinner; tell us about how you first started spinning the ball?
Well, I first made my debut in first-class cricket as an opening bowler and an opening batsman, but as I got older and realized that this whole idea of running in for thirty meters is crazy and I started bowling more spin. I played in a club where I did a lot of bowling and ended up opening the bowling and then ended up bowling spin at the end. So, I naturally progressed to that phase, I got better and better and eventually realised that’s the way to go.

What is your favourite delivery?
I just like the stock delivery. I think that I was someone who plucked away, trying to bowl as many maidens as possible. I liked to use the variety of speed and over-spin as much as I could. But deception for me was what spinning was about, I just tried to deceive the batsman and I found that very intriguing.

What is the feeling like when you get to fox a batsman and bowl him out? Isn't that a huge ego boost for a bowler?
Well, it is because that is what you set out to do all the time. You are constantly looking to try and deceive the batsman, either in flight or in pace. In the spinner’s armoury, there is no bouncer or a fast swinging delivery that can knock somebody over; so it's a process. Everything about bowling spin and getting somebody out is often a process. So you are chipping away and working at it, might take a few overs to work a batsman up and get the field in the right place, and then somebody might drop a catch or the batsman chips it over somebody's head… So when you actually get the bloke out, it's a very fulfilling feeling!

Is it true then that spinners have to think a lot more than fast bowlers?
Absolutely! Spin bowling is about reading the batsmen, reading the status of the game, reading the pitch, knowing about the wind, the weather conditions, the stance, what kind of player you are bowling to; is he a bottom-hander, is he a driver, or does he like playing off the backfoot... So, spin bowling is all about detail. I think that often you need spin bowlers, who because of their trade, are very much more likely to have an in-depth look at what's going on as opposed to a fast bowler who just runs up from fence and bangs it in and it goes down leg, and that is it and it is gone.

Who is the toughest batsman you have ever bowled to?
I think Brian Lara is right up there as a player of spin; he was certainly very tough. I think that Hansie Cronje was tough to bowl to as well. So Brian Lara and Hansie Cronje were the two tough guys to bowl to.

You were also known for your power-hitting lower down the order. You’ve even scored a Test century. What was that innings like and how much did you work on your batting? Did you have the time to multi-task?
When I started first-class cricket, I was primarily a batsman and as I got older, I bowled more and spent less time working on my batting. When you are playing international cricket, you travel around a lot and you are with the team all the time, you are practising... But I was always working pretty hard on my batting. And I always tried to have a deal with myself that I would try and get 25 runs every time I bat. For me that’s what I wanted to do in every game and then sometimes the team got into trouble and my role was to get us out of it.

I suppose I enjoyed power-hitting so much because I am a big bloke, I hit through the line and I enjoyed hitting sixes. But I enjoyed seeing youngsters coming through and teaching them how to play at the end of the innings. And people like Shaun Pollock and Lance Klusener were products of that era when we learnt a lot about one-day cricket – how to bat at the end and obviously we passed that on to the younger cricketers.

What was your favourite shot?
Always the drive, straight back over the bowler's head. There is nothing as nice as seeing the ball go straight back over the bowler's head.

And finally, what is your message to all the young aspiring cricketers around the world?
I think that the key is to keep enjoying the game. Always enjoy the game and love it and you will find that it will reward you!