Adam Gilchrist Exclusive

Gulf News

Adam Gilchrist Exclusive. In an exclusive interview with Gulf News Sport, Australian cricket legend Adam Gilchrist speaks about the current Australian team, how cricket is evolving, sledging tactics and reactions to his book Tue Colours. He also shares his memories of playing cricket in Sharjah.   See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

Transcript

00:00Well, it's eight years since I left, so there's been maybe you could say a few different permutations

00:15of Australian team. Obviously, Ricky played on as captain for a while, so that was one

00:23little section, and then Michael Clarke's captaincy period. And of course, now it has

00:29a new feel to it. Obviously, Steve Smith, well and truly, it's his tenure now as captain.

00:39And what I see is players fighting for positions in the team. I don't see a lot of stable or

00:48there's not a lot of stability at the moment. And this isn't a criticism of those players

00:52or anything. It's just where the team's evolved to at the moment. It's sort of trying to,

00:59as a unit, settle and get that continuity and the consistency, both in results and in

01:07team selection. And it's hard to know what comes first, good results or good selection

01:16and so on, and which one feeds off the other. But it is a team that's just trying to find

01:25a stable base, and it doesn't seem to be able to achieve that just at the moment.

01:32I think they've got to continue to just back their ability, believe in their own ability.

01:42You don't get to international cricket standard in any nation without being a talented individual

01:49player. So they've got to have belief that they have the skills and that they can go

01:53out there and mix it with the best. And then moving from an individual mindset to a collective

01:59team unit, it's got to be important that they're all working together. And around the edges

02:07of the Australian cricket team at the moment, there's a lot of discussion and conjecture

02:12and topics of past players and clashing personalities. The quicker that they can remove themselves

02:21from that, and I'm sure Darren Lehman and the leadership team are trying to do that,

02:28the more they can move away from that, the easier it will be to focus on the job at hand.

02:33Yeah, I don't know Steve in depth. I know him and I've spoken to him a lot, but I've

02:42never toured with him, I haven't played cricket with him. So I'm judging from afar, and I'm

02:48judging from talking to those that are around him. He looks to me like he's definitely the

02:54man to lead that team. He's going to learn as he goes. All leaders learn once they are

03:02there. They assume full time the responsibility, and that's the challenge for him. But he looks

03:10to me like a young man that's hungry to do it. He loves the game, he's a good thinker

03:16of the game. So yeah, I think he's the right guy, and I think it's just a challenging period

03:22that will help him learn the role of captain. It looks to me like David Warner has really

03:30embraced the role as vice-captain, and he's thriving on that. It's really important that

03:36those two are working together and get through this challenging time and lay the foundation

03:43to move ahead.

03:48It seems that opponents are saying the Australian team is now a toothless tiger compared to

03:53what it used to be, and I guess that's talking about the verbal stouches on the field. It

03:58doesn't matter what you say on the field. It doesn't matter if you're abusing someone

04:03or being smiling and nice. It means nothing unless you're backing it up with performance.

04:10The Australian team, I think, are in a little phase where I said earlier, they're just lacking

04:15a bit of confidence. So with that, they're maybe losing the desire to go out there and

04:21posture, and they're not feeling like it's what they should be doing. They're probably

04:27thinking they've just got to focus on the cricket, and that's fine. I think there's

04:32more speculated about sledging and about it being a tactic than actually what happens.

04:41In our era, we didn't sit down and make a match plan of who we're going to sledge and

04:46what we're going to say. It's an emotional game out on the field, and things happen in

04:53the spur of the moment. Some players react better than others. Some are more balanced.

04:58Some are calm. Some aren't. I guess that's the theatre of sport, the beauty of sport,

05:03that you get to watch the emotions. The great players withdraw the emotion from it and then

05:09rely on their skill, and that's what makes them succeed. So this current team at the

05:15moment, I don't know that they've said, we're not sledging anymore. I just think it looks

05:19to me like they're just down on confidence, and that's not part of their mindset.

05:24Don't put me down as an angel. I was involved in a few scraps, but I didn't go out there

05:36with the intention to get into a fight, so to speak, because I always felt as soon as

05:41I said something, I felt really nervous. At the end of the day, if I'm batting and a ball

05:47is coming in, and I say something back, you can get out the very next ball, even if you're

05:53on 100, even if you're not. Or if I was wicket-keeping, I thought, oh, I shouldn't have said anything

05:59because if I then drop a catch, I look the fool. So I got nervous whenever I got myself.

06:06But sometimes, as I say, you're so hyped up and the adrenaline's going and the emotions

06:11are flying around, you find yourself in a verbal stash that you didn't plan for. But

06:17I didn't go out there with the intent. As I say, I don't think there's as much sledging

06:23in cricket as what people perceive or like to portray.

06:30That book, I tried to focus more looking internally than externally at others. I wasn't on any

06:38campaign to talk about other people and their faults or discrepancies and issues. So hopefully

06:45I got that. But of course, there's always little things. And the other thing, that was

06:50my recollection of my journey. So I absolutely can say, if someone says, no, that happened

06:56something different and I don't remember it that way, that's fine. Everyone's got their

07:00opinions and entitled to their memories because we're talking about lengths of time that go

07:05back 10, 15, 20 years. So that was my recollection. And say on the Satchin one, I wrote in there

07:12about we felt and I felt after a game that he could have been more sporting. He didn't

07:17come in and shake hands. And that captures the headline because Satchin, he's the best

07:23player I've played against and absolute highest echelon is legend of the game, India passionate

07:29about it. But I spoke to Satchin straight after that. We spoke on the phone and he clarified

07:35to me about that situation. And I said, look, apologies if I got it wrong. That's what we

07:41felt at the time and what I wrote. And you clear the air. I think you confronted, if

07:47someone's offended by something or disappointed, as was the case for my career, just talk about

07:52it. So I don't sit here and think I should retract that statement. That was my recollection

07:58of that event at that time. And if that is the way I saw it conflicted with the way Satchin

08:04saw it, which it clearly did, but we've spoken about that. And I like that, that now I can

08:09put my hand on my heart and say, the air is clear. I don't have any grudge about that.

08:15And everything read in full context shows you exactly what the meanings are. So yeah,

08:21so I don't think of any, that's one little thing in a book that had a lot of details

08:27in it. I don't know that there's anyone around that I can't walk up to and say hello and

08:32have a friendly conversation with where they're thinking what you said was wrong.

08:40The IPL was really the pioneering event of all the T20 leagues around the world now.

08:48Every nation now has their own T20 league and has tried to almost copycat the IPL's

08:54version. Some have been done extremely well. The Big Bash in Australia is a fantastic league

09:01and really well run and administrated, well watched and participated by the viewing audience

09:09and the crowds. Some countries haven't got it right, maybe rushed into it and didn't

09:14have the foundation right and the backing to make it successful. But the IPL was an

09:21amazing time in my cricketing career. It was right at the end of my traditional career,

09:26if you like. So I went into that first tournament, like everyone, having no idea what it was

09:32going to be like. Were we going to be serious? Was it going to be hit and giggle? But from

09:39that opening day, opening night when McCollum hit that 150, it was game on and everyone

09:46knew it was going. It's become more refined over every edition but it was very serious

09:52intense cricket. I thought I might play one year because I'd just retired and I ended

09:59up playing six. So it's a bit addictive, you wanted to be a part of it. But yeah, it's

10:07a wonderful experience and great to get to know so many other opponents a little bit

10:13more closely and broaden that sort of friendship group that cricket already provides.

10:22T20 cricket and even one day cricket I think still has a place. It's just about the volumes

10:28of cricket that I think need to be addressed. But they're very important to the game. I

10:35thought they're great, experiment there, but leave Test cricket alone. That was my initial

10:40thoughts. That's the masterpiece. You don't graffiti it, you just leave it. It's a pure

10:46game, allow that to keep going. But I think I'm starting to probably understand and realise

10:56that for Test cricket to maintain any sort of standing in the current world that we live

11:03in, the lifestyles, the landscape that is around in a sporting sense and just in a general

11:10social sense, I think Test cricket may need to be changed somewhat and whether it's day

11:18night cricket, pink ball or perhaps I know the discussion is around about four day Tests.

11:25Will that mean that the entertainment on offer is hastened, it's quickened up and a day where

11:35a team bats for a whole day building up to prepare for the final onslaught may need to

11:41happen a little bit quicker and that might be a bit more contemporary around what life

11:46and lifestyles are like at the moment. So, yeah, I'm very much more open-minded now about

11:51changes to the game to keep it contemporary and at front of mind for the current life

11:58that we lead.

12:02Yeah, my first tournament in 1998, it was a great experience. I'd not played here before,

12:08not been here before to this region so all I remember there is Sachin Tendulkar batting.

12:13He scored 100, back-to-back hundreds in two one days, one in the last round, Robin, and

12:19then one in the final, I think on his birthday from memory. But yeah, it was a fascinating

12:26place to come and play cricket, totally different from anything that I'd grown up playing, totally

12:31different environment, and it's been wonderful to be able to come back with such regularity

12:36both in a playing sense and now in various roles and capacities like this one as brand

12:43ambassador for the University of Wollongong and the Dubai campus here now. So, yeah, wonderful

12:51part of the world and always really interesting to come here.

12:56For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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