The Rediff interview/ David Gower

'To be out of form is a soul-destroying experience'

Arguably one of the most stylish left-handers the game has ever produced, Gower in full flight filled stadia and had even his opponents applauding.

His was a natural talent – and probably because it all came to him without too much effort, he never took himself seriously. A fierce anti-establishment attitude, coupled with a devil-may-care mindset, saw him at constant odds with the English cricket board. And a quirky sense of humour once saw him attempt to liven a dull day on the cricket field by chartering a Tiger Moth biplane and flying it over the pitch, low enough to ‘buzz’ the players.

In a tête-à-tête with Faisal Shariff, David Gower praises English skipper Nasser Hussain and sympathizes with his Indian counterpart, Sourav Ganguly.

Excerpts:

You were the last England captain to have won a Test series in India – supposedly the toughest assignment in the cricket calendar. How did that come about?

We had a very good, high-spirited team – a nice mixture of experienced hands in spinners Pat Pocock and Phil Edmonds, and younger players who were keen to make their mark, like Graeme Fowler. The double hundred Fowler hit in the Madras Test was an absolute beauty. Similarly, premier batsman Mike Gatting had been a bit of an underachiever till then – but when he was made vice captain, he got the motivation and the sense of responsibility he needed, and he produced a great display.

The team pulled together very well, whatever we tried worked. You can make plans but if the opposition plays well, then all your plans become worthless. We were also lucky in the Delhi Test – Kapil Dev was playing very well, and had he continued to bat in that vein the Test, and the series, would have been drawn. But somehow, he put one up in the air – I think there was some interesting things said in the Indian dressing room that evening though sadly, we were not a witness to it.

From your own experience, what is the trick to succeeding in India?

It is merely a question of how quickly you adapt to the atmosphere of cricket in India, with its enthusiastic crowds. It is a feeling that is unique to India, playing out there with thousands of people cheering the home side on. You are also playing good spinners, on slower tracks.

The first thing is to get used to being in India. As a player you are always made to feel welcome, but at the same time, there is too much pressure. You can’t wander around, seeing the sights like you would be able to anywhere else in the world – if you step out of your room, you are surrounded by people wanting your autograph. So in that sense, you are constantly on duty.

So much depends on the performance, and here you are also tied up in the emotion the game evokes. It can all get a bit too much for the players. Having said that, India is a fascinating place to be for a cricketer.

You seem to fancy the Indian bowling – you’ve scored mountains of runs against them…

The one major disappointment I have is that I didn’t get a hundred against India in India. I got lots of runs against India in England including a double hundred I am very proud of. But I don’t remember how much I scored in India. Here, if you make one small mistake against the spinners, it is all over. But yes, I did play a few good innings, enough for people to remember how I play.

What was your key to leading the side?

The key word for me was responsibility. By responsibility, I mean that my players needed to know what they were supposed to do, and be made responsible for their actions. You have to be very precise and clear in how you go about this.

Take the example of Graeme Fowler, who had been a fringe player, most captains would try to dictate to him, tell him what to do. I wasn’t so regimental about it. I would ask him, ‘How do you feel, what do you want to do, do you want some nets?’

It was a question of helping a man prepare in the way that suits him best. The theory is if you give a man responsibility for his own actions, then it is up to him to accept that responsibility. If he doesn’t accept it and doesn’t put in the performances, then he is just as much out of the side as anyone else. Another instance was Neil Foster – a youngish bowler, he was keen to express himself and do things his way, and that was fine with me as long as he produced results.

Who was the best captain you played under?

Mike Brearley for England and Ray Illingworth for my county, Leicestershire. They were good judges of players and situations. Brearley was the cleverer of the two, while Illingworth had a lot of cricketing commonsense and intuition.

I think that at the start of your career you think your captain is better than he actually is.

As you grow older, you begin to question, you demand more from your captain. Those two, Brearley and Illingworth, were great to have early on in my career.

How do you rate the current captain, Nasser Hussain?

Nasser Hussain is brilliant. I am very impressed with him. With no disrespect to the current players, he has had to work with material which is not of the highest quality. He has managed to get the best out of the players. They have an understanding regime; they work hard and get results, they are a happy team.

The way the tour has developed has been as good an example of that as you would like to see. Andrew Flintoff as a bowler is a complete revelation – no one thought he was so good, but he has had a fantastic series. The rest of the guys are also developing quickly. Hussain has created that atmosphere in the dressing room. He is a very positive captain; he is proactive as well as reactive. He is keen to read the game, to get in there, and he never stops thinking about the game, the situation, and trying to turn it to his advantage. He has been very good for the game.

Do you think that how a player behaves off the field should determine whether he is a good captain? For instance, Shane Warne has missed out on the Australian captaincy because of some incidents he has been involved in…

You cannot separate the two entirely. Sport is about competition, and the striving of individuals to be the best. It is all about standing standards. On the field you want to set the standards. The International Cricket Council tries to maintain the highest possible standards of behavior, because you are setting an example to an awful lot of people. If you get caught up in off the field stuff, then I am afraid it is going to be held against you. You need to understand that the focus doesn’t get switched off, it is constantly on you.

Saurav Ganguly, a left-hander like you and a captain as well, is now going through a bad slump in form. What advice would you give him?

I feel very sorry for him. While respecting our confidences, I can say that I sat beside him on the flight from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, and we spoke a lot about techniques and attitudes. He was confident that a big score was just around the corner, but was concerned about things. This is an exceptionally hard game, one chance and it’s all over.

I have an awful lot of sympathy for him. I have been in that position and I know that when things are going wrong, the whole world seems to be against you. You are trying to do both jobs, as batsman and captain, and you try to make sure that failure in one doesn’t impact on the other – but that is not easy to do.

To be out of form is a soul-destroying experience. The whole of India is on his back, in one sense or the other. You need your friends and family around you at times like this, and you need to maintain your self-belief. It can be as simple as going out there and telling yourself, I am going to look at the ball and hit it.

People are talking of his susceptibility to the rising delivery, but let me tell you that when you are out of form, every ball looks like a hand grenade. You know the world is watching, waiting for you to muck up, and you want the world to go away, so you can work it out on your own. It is a terrible time, and the only thing to do is hang in there, tough it out and maintain your self-belief.

To be continued...
Part II: David Gower on the enigma of English cricket.

Interviews

Mail Cricket Editor