After being lucky enough to have a chat with Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie at the beginning of the month, I was given 'another bite of the cherry' and was able to have a chat once again at the last match of the season......................
Jason thank you for having another chat with me.
When we spoke at the beginning at September , we avoided talking about Yorkshire becoming County Champions, however on the afternoon of Wednesday 9th September it became a reality. At the moment that you heard that Nottinghamshire had been bowled out,what went through your head?
I don't know, well I do know, I was processing that information, I was on the Lords Balcony and there were obviously people around some members sitting to the right of me and members down below saying, 'Notts have been bowled out', so I'm processing that, the boys are hi-5ing, Galey is out in the middle giving a fist pump. Which was fantastic.
I'm sitting there thinking that yes, mathematically we have won, but the game wasn't over and I kept thinking 'What if our over rate is really bad, what if this, what if that'.
Then it sort of sank in and it was a sense of pride in the lads really.
I think that when you are a member of the off field staff you see what goes into it.
The paying public see the on field work, they see the end result.
We see them in the middle of winter, running around ovals in the dark and its cold and wet and windy, we see them flog themselves in the gym and on overseas pre season tour. see them go through tough time, so we know what they do to get to that point.
I suppose seeing the lads at that point where they win a trophy is the pinnacle.
Seeing their faces is just sheer delight, nothing makes you happier as a coach as seeing the players, have that genuine happiness, they don't know what to do, Hi-5, hug someone, they are just so exuberant and excited.
You just sit back and are really happy for them , absolute sheer delight.
You then had 3 more days of cricket until 'your lads' could pick up the trophy. How did you keep them focused on the game in hand?
Well, I mentioned this to the media, Andrew Gale got 98 that day and he was the first in the nets the next morning, 2 hours before the start of play, working on his game,looking to improve.
People questioned, saying that the lads performed poorly and lost the game, I saw nothing that would suggest that they could have done anything differently. They turned up on time, punctuality excellent, put in the training their efforts where spot on, so there was nothing that I could look at and say that the lads switched off. None of the support staff did.
You'd have to ask the individual players.
How did you keep focused on the job in hand?
As we all do, focus on a process really, I think sometimes if you look at the end result you forget what you have to do to get there.
If you look at step 10 and you are on step1 you forget the steps in between to get to that point.
You have to focus on getting to step 2 or step3. Step 10 arrives soon enough.
So this is how I tried to keep myself focused.
I think that you have to give a lot of credit to Middlesex too they played some great cricket to be honest.
You unfortunately lost the match, did this dull the euphoria in any way
In an ideal world it would have be great to have lifted that trophy on the back of a win, as I explained to the lads and as Galey said, the trophy did not represent that particular game, it represents the whole season and what we had done this season, so not to let the one game detract from all the good work and the fact that we had won the title.
We all had a chat about the game but didn't want to dwell too much on it, I think that there was just too much excitement in the room about going to get the trophy.
All the lads were really excited for Galey and just wanted to get down and let him get his hands on it..
They were like kids in a candy store, racing down the stairs, it was a very special moment for them.
Back to back champions,
*Smiles*
Hat trick
The romantics out there would love to see that happen, the Yorky supporters, everyone involved would love that, as for me, I cannot speak for anyone else, I genuinely want the lads to enjoy this,I am enjoying this, enjoying winning it a second time
Pre season, moving into next season, that's when we knuckle down and say what our hopes and our dreams are.
If we have an end goal, how we are going to get there?
That's how we need to approach it in my opinion.
That is how we will approach it.
Ryan took his 700th wicket in that match ( 706 now)
He did!!!!
He did it in the first over!
I know I was listening to the radio thinking 'My god what is going on here!!!???'
You took 613 FC wickets in your career, were you counting?Did you have milestones?
I do remember right towards the end of my career, after I had finished playing for Australia,my goal was, to win a trophy with South Australia, that didn't quite pan out, we simply weren't good enough as a side.
A personal goal was to reach 200 Sheffield Shield wickets for South Australia, I was lucky enough to do that, just before I retired.
That probably about the only milestone that I can think of.
In an ideal world I would have loved 300 test wickets but that wasn't quite to be and I was happy with 250.
I was never really one for setting personal milestones, I was all about trying to win a Test series or a One Day series. Or contributing to winning a trophy.
You told me previously that the success of Yorkshire was a team effort and not down to one person ( you). However having spoken to a lot of the 'Yorkshire Faithful', there is a feeling that you have had a profound effect on the team. How does that make you feel?
It obviously makes me feel very humble for people to think of me that way. However it is genuinely a team effort. As team coach I probably have one of the highest profiles of the support staff so I accept that, however it doesn't mean I know everything.
* Applause as Andrew Gale reaches 50*
Martyn Moxon has been a great mentor for me, I have learnt a lot from him, Ian Dews and Richards Damms work with the second team and the Academy, these two guys, I seek their opinion regularly on First team matters. I value there opinions and they have given me a lot of things that challenge me, I am happy for them to question me, it allows me to go away and reflect and to think about decisions that I may have to make or have made.
I also have great support from the two coaches who were here when I first came and now have moved on , Paul Farbrace and Richard Dawson, both of them have been amazing to me, and also Anthony McGrath who has come back as a player mentor, I have great respect for him.
So we work as a team, like all the players work as a team.
Our physio Kunwar Bansil, and Ian Fisher, there is a lot of knowledge there
And Ian played for Yorkshire too
Yes absolutely, he knows the game, all these guys are very knowledgeable about the game, out of all our coaches I am the least experienced, yet as I said I probably have the highest profile.
And because I am the First team coach there is a bit of a spotlight on me, but as I said I am just one member of the support staff, and yes I front the media from time to time.
What this has done with the structure that we have now is allow Martyn as Director of Cricket to oversee everything and he can spend time seeing the players in the second team and spend time with the Academy players and with other coaches, and I think that's why it works so well.
He lets me crack on, he trusts my judgements, he'll question me and challenge me, and I welcome that, it's the only way you learn and improve,getting honest feedback and that's how we all work together.
Its nice to hear that supporters say that I have had an impact, in some way I may well have, but it is a real team effort.
Apart from the Lords match is there another match this season which sticks in your mind and why?
It's funny, there are a few, it's hard too pick one I think the first game of the season against Worcester was a big one. We had seven players out, six in the Caribbean and Galey suspended, and then Ryan hurt himself and we managed to win it by 10 wickets. That was an incredible effort by our squad. I thought that was brilliant.
Both the games against Durham in the Championship
Chester le Street, we were 190-6 and then Bressie and Jonny stepped up it was amazing.
Durham at Scarborough, to be 95-9 in your first innings and then win the game is an amazing achievement and then in the second innings we were ahead by 79 runs with only 5 wickets in hand when Adil came in to join Glenn and put on that wonderful partnership, they were the real game changing points.
Playing Middlesex here Glenn hitting those winning runs
I saw it, it was amazing!!!!
And then Galey and Jack Leaning put on runs in a great partnership against Notts as well,
I think the point I am trying to make is that we won it very differently to 2014, our top six dominated and we were getting 400+ a lot of the time.
This year it's been a very different way, our bowling has been unbelievable.
Ryan has had spells, against Warwickshire at Edgbaston and against Middlesex at Lords, just blowing away the opposition
Jack Brooks has been brilliant too
Yes, his first season he got 30 odd wickets,then was injured a bit, he's got 60 odd this season and he's been an unbelievable recruit, fitted in very well, when we got promoted we knew that we needed to strengthen the bowling resources if we were really going to compete in Division One.
So two key signings I thought with Liam and Jack.
I think Liam coming here was a good move for him
Yes for him, the evidence would prove that right,, he's got back in with the England set up, so he's done quite well.
I have given you so many matches and reasons, they have all contributed to our success really.
What has been the hardest thing that you have had to face at Yorkshire ( apart from answering dumb questions from me).
*laughs*
Something that I think is going to get increasingly difficult is potentially, selections, with the squad that we have got, there are going to be times when the lads are going to miss out,and through no fault other than the fact that we have a big squad, so I think that's going to be tough.
Steve Patterson is missing out on this game.
When you have Ryan and Liam Plunkett, Jack Brooks,Tim Bresnan,Matthew Fisher, who do you leave out?
There have been lads that have missed out various times this season. I had to leave Jack Brooks out at Hove, peopled questioned that.
People questioned why Patto isn't playing here, why Ryan didn't play at Hampshire, questioned why Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell were left out and played second team. Why Jack Leaning got left out.
These are the challenges
Andrew Gale left himself out sometimes last year.
We haven't had Joe Root at all this year for Championship Cricket, someone will have to miss out if he is back in the team.
Just put the names in a hat
*laughs a lot*
who says I don't do it that way?
*lots of laughter*
no basically how I go about it is get advice..
You draw straws really
No we don't draw straws
*lots of laughter*
Genuinely I arm myself with as much information, I speak to people I trust I speak to the captain and then we come to a decision and sometimes its not the most popular, people will question it, but its what we think is the best side to win that game of cricket, on that surface, in those conditions.
It sounds simple but it not quite that straightforward
.
For me the English cricket season is not long enough, for you it is at an end, but you are not going off on a 'jolly' with the rest of the boys,
NO!!!!!
You are off to coach The Adelaide Strikers in December, how excited are you about this role
I think that it is a really good opportunity to be coaching in the Big Bash, its really special. Everyone here in the UK has seen the Big Bash and seen what a huge competition it is. Its a great chance to be there at the coal face and see how things are run,see how I can help The Adelaide Strikers perform to their best ability and help those players achieve their goals and hopefully I can learn something from the people I work with over there and bring something back to Yorkshire.
it's a massive positive it 's a win/win situation.
Are you going to bring Glenn Maxwell back?
Well we will just have to wait and see, we haven't made any decisions on overseas players at this point in time.What I will say is the overseas players that we have had over the last few seasons have been brilliant.
Do you think that you have been the draw here for the likes of Finch and Maxwell?
No its the club, this is the biggest club in the world, the most famous cricket club, lets be honest, if me being here is an added bonus to bringing in those lads, well that's great,but in reality it is the club.
If you were to be offered the England coaches job now would you take it?
Great question.
Look, I am off to Adelaide to work with the Strikers, I am contracted here, I have to say if they offered me the job I would have to say no.
*LL gives big sigh of relief*
If you were to be offered Jack Shantry would you take him?
*laughs*
Jack is a great bowler, but there is no room for him, with the strength of the bowling attack that we are going into next season with, I would have to say no.
Sorry!!
*laughs*
Thank you for taking the time to speak to me again this season.
I wish you the best of luck in Australia, I will be cheering the Strikers on, you can be sure of that.
Thank you for being a great sport!
No comments :
Post a Comment