Colin Miller
For once, Colin, a visiting team has a spinner -- actually, two spinners --
in the spotlight. How does it feel?
It's great, mate, hugely exciting to be here. Anyone learning spin reads
about India, we think of it as the home of spin bowling, so to come here as
a spinner,
to go up against the batsmen who play spin better than anyone
else in the world, yeah, it's big, very big. Also the crowds, you guys see
quality spin bowling all the time I guess, so bowling before these crowds,
getting them to appreciate you, yeah, it's big.
But is that for real, that Indians play spin better than anyone else in the
world?
Yeah, well, I've played in Pakistan and those guys didn't do too good did
they? Nor the Sri Lankans, mate. The Indians, well, Warney has the
experience, he rates them very high, he thinks they are very good players of
spin and that is enough for me, I'm quite looking forward to bowling to
them.
You've already had a taste of that, haven't you, in Nagpur? How did that
first essay go?
Well, I learnt a lot in a hurry, tell you the truth. Back home, the wickets
give you a bit more bounce. If some of the Indian batsmen had gone back to
me there, like they did here, I'd have done them, made the odd one scoot
through quick, caught them in front or sent it through the gate. Here, you
get more turn, but the pitch is also slower, the turn is slower, the bounce
is less than you get back home so the batsmen have time to go back, adapt
their shot, adjust, play late.
Meant rethinking my bowling, having to adapt,
try different things -- like, I learnt that I had to draw the batsman
forward a lot more, make him play forward at me, not push him back like I
might have done on a pitch with a bit more pace and bounce.
You've been a bit of a late bloomer, how did that happen?
Yeah, right, I have, if you mean international cricket. But you got to
remember I've been playing first class cricket 15 years now, and did quite
okay actually, so in that sense, no, I am no late bloomer.
Actually,
sometimes I feel like I've been around forever (*laughing*). I used to bowl
medium pace before, but then Tasmania didn't have a spinner, so I figured I
would try my hand at it, I always could bowl spin so making the change
wasn't so hard.
Shane Warne had Terry Jenner, who did you have as your coach?
I've never really been coached, you know that? I kind of taught myself -- of
course, now we have the team coach and he talks about things, tells me
things, fine tunes my thinking. But generally, I am a self-made spinner,
kind of -- I guess what that means is, my action is a touch faster, I tend
to bowl a bit faster than most others.
That's another thing about bowling
here, I need to vary my pace a bit more than I would back home, keeping
changing things around on the batters.
There's two aspects to this tour -- one is how well you and Shane bowl to
us, the other is how well your guys bat against our spinners on our pitches.
You've bowled to them a lot in the nets, so who do you rate as the best
players of spin in your own team?
Actually, all of them play spin pretty well now don't they, our guys? That
is one of the things Shane Warne has done for our cricket -- he is such a
charismatic bloke, ever since he got into the side,
you got kids barely out
of the nursery and they all want to bowl spin like Shane Warne. So wherever
you go now in Australia you've got a lot of spinners around, you get plenty
of practise playing them, so you tend to be pretty good, it is not like
before when the only time you played spin was when you came to the
sub-continent and that was not too often either. Actually it is a cyclical
thing, now you've got Brett Lee getting the crowds going, so I reckon next
thing you know you're going to have the kids all wanting to be Brett Lee.
But for now, spin rules, there's lots of spinners coming through.
Is the fact that you were once a medium pacer a handy option for the team?
Yeah, sure, if there is nothing in the wicket for me as a spinner, I can
always go back a few yards and run in and bowl medium pace, always helps to
have an extra option, mate. Also, as a medium pacer, I was more about seam
and swing and that is what works best in the conditions here so if that is
the way my captain wants me to go then sure, I'll bowl a bit of medium pace
too.
Other than your bowling, what gets you noticed is the blue-dyed hair, the
funky lifestyle. What's with that?
Hey, I wear whites on the field but off it, I am a human being, you know? I
love my fun,
I am me and all this is part of who 'me' is. And as long as it
doesn't impact on how I play the game, it doesn't harm my performance, I
guess it is okay for me to be me, right, mate?