Tim Nielsen on a most controversial cricket summer and on South Africa’s chances against a buoyant Indian side.
Monday, March 24, 2008
"South Africa will find it hard"
It is not easy to interview the man behind the World Champions, especially when they have just stacked up controversy and subsequent defeat. And a rather humiliating one. The recourse for him is to sound like its business as usual. Tim Nielsen, the Australian coach in conversation with Sports Editor Faisal Shariff, on South Africa’s tour of India, Australian defeat at the Tri Series, the controversial tour, Sachin Tendulkar and whether it is time the Aussies revamped their system.
Australia’s defeat. Does it call for a revamp of the system?
Don’t think so. If you look at the way the summer’s panned out since the Twenty20 WC it looks pretty decent. In fact since then we have made significant changes to the squad. We made it to the semi-final stage of that tournament and but for Michael Hussey’s hamstring we would have chased the Indian total there. We beat India 4-2 with one washed out game in Bangalore. We got SL 2-0 in Tests and NZ 2-0 in the Chappell-Hadlee series. We won the Test series 2-1 against India. And up until the one-day series finals we were the team on top. We just lost momentum towards the end and its possibly because the same bunch of 11-13 guys were involved through the summer and it finally took its toll on them. They were tired and just could not get up and match the Indians’ enthusiasm. Mind you most of these were close games and we just missed a couple of run-outs and some catches that cost us the game.
Ricky Ponting’s been talking about injecting youth and implementing the rotation policy similar to what baseball teams do
We have changed the squad quite a bit since the Twenty20 and also rotating the players but you must understand that it is difficult to go for the baseball system because they play everyday. An Australian team for example plays Friday to Sunday. The key is to identify some players who are key and keep them fresh. Rotation is difficult because unlike baseball we don’t have 30 players. And even if we have 30 players it can get very tough when you are travelling overseas. Say if we travel to India we will carry 14-15 players and live with what we have there. You can’t be on the road with 30 players. Its strange how halfway through the tour no one was talking about rotation, in fact when we rested Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson, we were criticized for it. When you win no one says anything.
Did the fact that India had just one player above 30 and Australia had only three below 30, matter in the end?
It is always nice to have younger players. India had fresh look about them and you could feel the extra energy they possessed. The young Indian group has personality. The five blokes they have Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar are very good and they make a difference to the one-day side.
Of course it did. India were lucky that SG, RD, AK were gone after the Test series. It saved them the trouble of having to face the same questions over and over again. Our senior players who were directly or indirectly involved were the same and were exposed to the same questions time and again. They needed to work through those issues. I am sure they learnt a lot from it but it did affect them. Gilchrist said after the series that he does not remember a more controversial summer in his life.
What was your role as coach in the entire episode?
I had to talk to them and try hard to get them to come to terms with what had happened. I did not try to take them away from it because burying your head in the sand is not going let the problem go away. But there was no getting away from it.
What do you make of the Indian Test team?
They are definitely playing well but the real challenge for them will be to continue the consistent performances. We are proud of the consistency we bring to our cricket. India is probably the next best team but then so is England and Sri Lanka. Even Pakistan on its day can be the most difficult team to beat. But yes right now India sit on top of that list to threaten us.
Your take on Sachin Tendulkar.
Sachin never surprises you. He is such a great player and even when he was not getting the big scores in the one-dayers we knew something big was heading our way. He had a decent run at the Bellerive Oval and that was an indicator of the kind of form he was in. He had batted beautifully in the Test series. I think he will continue to worry bowlers around the world the way he is currently batting.
What is your take on the South African tour to India?
I think it will be a very tough series for South Africa. India is on a roll right now and it will be tough to stop them. On top of that at home India is a very competitive side. How the first Test pans out will decide South Africa’s fate in the series because how soon they adapt to the conditions will matter. They are coming off a huge win in Bangladesh but they will be aware of the nature of war that awaits them in India. As for India they will need to be careful of Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkel – two tricky pacers.
