Alan Butcher soundbites with music bed

Tony Pigott soundbites with music bed

Highlights of Jon Lewis speaking of his solitary Test for England, versus Sri Lanka in 2006. Full interview available at One Test Wonders, available via all usual podcast platforms and at https://www.buzzsprout.com/1822009

Jon Lewis Soundbites With Music Bed

Highlights of the interview with England cricketer John Stephenson for the One Test Wonders podcast - https://www.buzzsprout.com/1822009

John Stephenson Soundbites With Music Bed

Highlights from former Warwickshire and England batsman Andy Lloyd's interview for the One Test Wonders podcast.

Andy Lloyd One Test Wonders highlights

Highlights from ex-Ireland wicketkeeper-batsman Niall O'Brien's interview on the One Test Wonders podcast. For the full interview go to https://www.buzzsprout.com/1822009/9141809-niall-o-brien

Niall O'Brien One Test Wonders highlights

This interview, following day one of the second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day 1990, was the only time on the tour I spoke on tape to Wayne Larkins as he had a pretty wretched time of it on the field. On this occasion he’d made 64 out of an England first day total of 239-4 after Graham Gooch had won the toss. And it was a day when honours were even, with England in contention largely thanks to an unbeaten stand of 87 between David Gower and Alec Stewart.

As for Wayne, his final total represented his highest Test score, made in uncharacteristic fashion as he batted for more than three and a half hours before playing a firm-footed waft at a Bruce Reid delivery angled across him, with wicketkeeper Ian Healy taking a regulation catch.

Wayne was a man ahead of his time in one respect as his free-flowing ball-striking at the top of the order saw him terrorise county attacks and it would have made him much sought after for any Twenty20 team, had the format been played in those days. But on this tour – he was 37 the day before the first Test in Brisbane in November – he was a man well past his best.

Wayne had lost three years of international cricket in the early 1980s after joining the first ‘rebel’ tour of South Africa and he’d been very much a pick out of the blue for the Nehru Cup One-Day International and Caribbean tours in 1989/90 when it was easy to believe his career was starting to wind down.

However, if his selection for those tours was a surprise then it was even more of a shock when he was picked for this Ashes trip. True, his ability as a limited-overs batsman would certainly have been taken into consideration given the amount of one-day cricket there was on the tour and the fact that, in those days, only one squad travelled for a tour across two different formats. But he’d missed part of the 1990 season through injury and averaged just 28.04 in a hot, dry summer notable for all sorts of batting records.

Wayne owed his selection in this Test, at least in part, to England’s ongoing injury problems, a constant issue on this trip. For this Test, although Graham Gooch returned after missing the Brisbane match with a hand injury, Allan Lamb was absent with a calf injury. And once Allan was fit again, for the fourth Test in Adelaide, Wayne was left out and never played for England again.

As for this interview, I think Wayne comes across as what he was – a nice man, but also someone who knew he’d passed up a great opportunity for a big score.

Wayne Larkins interview, 26 December 1990

I have come to understand over the years that there are two types of interview: there are those where you have to work hard to get anything out of the person opposite you, and others where your role changes from interviewer to prompter; all you find yourself doing is offering up a key word or phrase and the interviewee does the rest.

Listening back to this interview with David Gower made me smile because it wasn’t really an interview at all; I just said the odd sentence here and there and he did the rest. It resulted in a very pleasurable result, I think. It's clear why plenty of people in the right places thought he had a future as a broadcaster.

This interview was conducted after the second day’s play in the second Test after David had completed his innings and Australia had begun batting, reaching 109-1 in response to England’s 352. David had done much of the heavy lifting in this innings on day one and actually added only 27 on day two, but that was enough to get him to three figures, and a very satisfying hundred it was for him too, as you can tell from what he says. Earlier in December he had suffered a hairline fracture of his thumb and then, in the lead-up to this Test he’d been struck on the wrist, something that made him doubtful for the match right up until the eleventh hour.

This was one of two hundreds David scored in the series, the other coming in the next match in Sydney, an innings that remains one of my all-time favourite Test innings as it was vintage Gower, full of fantastic cover drives and played in a way that made him almost impossible to bowl to. Sadly, the innings in Melbourne and Sydney are usually forgotten when the talk comes around to David on this tour as the incidents that many people seem to remember are his dismissal in the fourth Test in Adelaide when he was caught on the boundary in the last over before lunch on day three, and then the flight of the Tiger Moth, when he and John Morris buzzed the ground at Carrara during the tour match against Queensland, something he was fined for.

This interview was recorded in the players’ dining room, deep in the bowels of the old Members’ End at the MCG. It was a small, narrow room with no natural light that was used for post-play media conferences and 15 months later it was the venue for the post-match media interactions by Graham Gooch and Imran Khan after Pakistan had won the Cricket World Cup at the same venue.

At one point during the interview I asked David about the conditions during the day’s play. It was extremely unusual and my first experience of the way Melbourne’s weather could go from one extreme to another in a very short space of time. The day began cool and cloudy but by the end of it the temperature had risen to the mid-30s and, at the same time, there was a swirling wind which picked up litter and threw it across the playing area. With one side of the ground open following the demolition of the old Southern Stand, there was no protection against the wind for the players and it was a tough task for the England attack in the final session. They were left hoping for calmer and cooler weather on day three.

David Gower interview, 27 December 1990

It’s a little bittersweet listening to this interview because I can now look back and know what Angus Fraser’s performance in this Test meant for his career – and not in a good way.

Before posting this interview, I looked back at the wickets he took in this Test in YouTube and you can see that by the end of this first innings he was on his knees. It was hot in Melbourne on day three but he kept running in, as he always did.

A player like that was and is worth his weight in gold but ultimately Angus bowled himself into the ground in this match – he sent down 59 overs – and a hip condition flared up which took the best part of three years away from him at international level. He missed the next Test in Sydney, and although he played in the fourth match of the series in Adelaide he was clearly not 100 per cent fit. He missed out again in Perth for the final Test and, in fact, didn’t play another Test until August 1993. Those three years, if injury-free, would have seen Angus in his prime, and although he ended up achieving a great deal in his career, it’s impossible not to look back and wonder just where he would have ended up in the pantheon of great England bowlers if he’d been fit during that time.

As it was, he missed virtually the whole of the 1991 season as experts struggled to come to terms with the hip issue that he’d developed and at one stage he was even given a pair of electric underpants to try and encourage blood flow to the affected area. There was surgery too and although he came back in 1992 his figures – 23 first-class wickets at 55.34 –
suggested his international days were over.

Then, suddenly, in mid-1993, he clicked again, was rushed back in to the Test side at the backend of an already-lost Ashes series and was a key figure in a consolation win at The Oval. Happy days indeed, but also tinged with sadness over the amount of time he had been sidelined.

Listening back to this interview I was reminded of an incident in the first over of the day in Melbourne that was almost a disaster for both Angus and England as, in delivery stride, he went over on his right ankle. At the time, especially on replay, it looked horrific, but he picked himself up and got on with the job – typical Angus.

This was one of two post-play interviews I did, the other being Jack Russell who took six catches in the innings to equal Rod Marsh’s Ashes record. Like Angus’s performance, Jack’s effort was outstanding too as the Melbourne Cricket Ground pitch wasn’t an easy one to keep on, with low bounce being one of its chief characteristics.

It really was a fantastic day for England with the final wicket of the Australia first innings falling just before the scheduled close of play. It left Graham Gooch’s side with a lead of 46 with two days left. Could they go on and put themselves in a position to win the match on a pitch that, in those days, became progressively harder to bat on as time went on? The answer was an emphatic no but in the rosy glow of perhaps the best day of the tour that was all in the future. And England fans could dream, couldn’t they?

Angus Fraser interview, 28 December 1990

This was my third interview of the day, after Chris Lewis and Angus Fraser, marking perhaps the best day of the tour for England thus far – not that it had much to beat.

Jack was a pleasure to speak with and it was pleasing to conduct an interview like this with him, after he’d enjoyed a record-equaling day with six catches in an innings, given the last time we’d spoken on tape followed his dropping during the World Series cup matches earlier in the month.

Back then he admitted he wasn’t sure he’d get his place back for this Test for him to get that call and then to respond with an excellent display behind the stumps was a nice story to capture.

After listening back to this interview I looked back on YouTube to see the six catches he’d taken and all six were pretty much regulation aside from one where he had to dive to his right to grab a low edge from Dean Jones from an under-edged cut shot. It was just one of those days when the batsmen edged everything rather than played and missed, and Jack was there to take advantage.

Several things stick in my mind about the day: I do remember him having to stand relatively close to the stumps for the quicker bowlers because ball was keeping low; I recall how exhausted Angus Fraser appeared towards the end of the day, something that may have contributed to the injury he suffered that played such havoc with his career for the next three years; and there was also the lunchtime entertainment which involved a dog (a whippet if my memory serves me correctly) out on the middle of the ground catching a frisbee in his teeth. Things have certainly changed in the intervening years.

So, England had a lead of 46 with two days left and the scene was set for them to be able to put pressure on Australia if they were good enough. Sadly, from mid-afternoon the following day, rather than rise to that challenge, they crumbled in the face of it.

Jack Russell interview, 28 December 1990

It was a case of feast to famine for me – and the England side – over the final two days of the 1990 Boxing Day Test.

For me, having had three interviews on the third day I then got none at all after day four and had to wait until the end of the match for a post-mortem with Graham Gooch; and a grisly post-mortem it was too after England lost from a very powerful position.

Day four, after a promising beginning, turned into a disaster with England, at one stage 103-1, bowled out for 150, losing their last six wickets for a scarcely believable three runs. David Lloyd, the Press Association cricket correspondent on the tour (not the former England batsman and later coach but, instead, a superb journalist and a wonderful friend to me on the trip) summed up the day and the tour thus far when he wrote: “After spending two months searching for the bottom of the barrel, England today scraped it bare in Melbourne.” And although they picked up two late wickets on that fourth evening to give themselves a glimmer of hope, all I got was a ‘sorry’ from tour manager Peter Lush when I appeared for my post-day interview; no-one was willing to put his head above the battlements after a day like that.

What made things worse was that much of England’s batting capitulation was self-inflicted, a point reinforced when I watched the collapse back on YouTube prior to uploading this interview. Bruce Reid took 7-51 in the second innings (and 13 wickets in the match) but most of his wickets, certainly on day four, were from balls the batsmen didn’t have to play; he showed little sign of bringing the ball back into the right-hander, that most dangerous of balls from a left-arm fast bowler but found joy just by angling balls across the batsmen and, like lemmings off a cliff, player after player chased those balls, nicked them and got out. Graham admitted the failing in this interview and also admitted that, in retrospect, given the side’s previous batting frailties, he’d pushed the accelerator too soon as his dismissal, driving at a wide ball from Bruce Reid, was the beginning of the end for his side’s hopes in the match.

Listening back to the interview, I quite enjoyed it as it was a decent one that covered all the major points of contention. I’d spoken to Graham enough on the trip by this stage for us to have developed some sort of rapport and even when he disagreed with me, he did so in a way that was polite rather than aggressive. My one moment of angst as I listened again, 30 years on, came as I referred to “us” when I mentioned how the bowlers had brought the side back in to contention on day three. As I wrote earlier on the tour on this site, I still viewed myself as an England man first and foremost at that stage of my journalistic career (perhaps fair enough given I was working for the Test and County Cricket Board’s official telephone information service), only developing the appropriate level of impartiality over the next couple of years of following the team home and away.

As ever on this trip, there was little time for reflection as, from here, it was off to Sydney for the penultimate group game of the World Series Cup less than 48 hours later, and again against Australia, to be followed by the third Test three days after that, the latter a must-win game if England were to have any hope of regaining The Ashes. On the evidence of what had taken place so far, that hope looked a distant one as we prepared to welcome in 1991.

Graham Gooch interview, 30 December 1990

It’s partly a reflection of the nondescript day that England had on day one of the third Test in Sydney that I ended up speaking with someone who didn’t actually take part in the action with Angus Fraser being on the other side of my probing questions.

That said, Angus’s absence from the side through injury was also a significant talking point so it gave me a chance to speak with him about that too.

He had been sidelined because of a hip injury suffered in bowling 59 overs during the second Test in Melbourne and although he then played in a World Series Cup game on New Year’s Day, it was felt there was no way he could be risked over the course of a five-day match, especially as England, without an all-rounder, had only four specialist bowlers.

During the interview I asked whether he might be back for the must-win World Series Cup game in Melbourne two days after the Sydney Test (a match England had to win in order to play in the finals) and he was optimistic; as it was, he did make it and also piloted England to victory with the bat), but again, listening back to this, it’s clear that no-one has yet grasped the seriousness of his hip injury, a problem that was to rule him out of Test cricket for almost three years.

I was interested to note the way I asked about the fact only four bowlers were selected; this was a running theme throughout the tour, the lack of an all-rounder who could justify his place in the side as either a batsman or a bowler. That, allied to the continuing batting failings would mean that for the next Test, in Adelaide, Jack Russell was left out to accommodate an extra bowling option.

Something that struck me as I listened back to this interview was the high level of background noise. That was a legacy of having to do the interview in the Sydney Cricket Ground Members’ pavilion, always a lively place on matchday and especially so by the time close of play came around, with everyone having enjoyed the hospitality there throughout the course of the day. The fact that I did the interview in such an environment was also a reflection on the fact that dedicated media conference rooms were still some time off at that stage and I was in no position to drag Angus to a quieter spot to conduct the interview; it was very much a take-it-or-leave-it scenario for me in those circumstances.

The other thing to note is that because of my relatively primitive recording equipment (a reel-to-reel tape recorder and no headphones) I had no way of monitoring the interview as it was taking place; I simply pressed record, watched the reels go around and hoped the recording worked. There was no way of checking that until afterwards, by which time the player spoken to was invariably climbing on to the team bus so even if it hadn’t recorded there would have been no way to rectify the situation.

Australia’s total of 259-4 was a solid start from their perspective and although Angus talked positively about getting the home side out for around 350, on a pitch that was pretty much blameless things looked pretty forlorn for England, even at this stage – at least that was the way I saw it. It was one reason for my question about whether, even at this stage, the dressing room was thinking the Ashes had gone (England had to win to retain a chance of winning the series, already being 2-0 down). I’ve since realized what a naïve question that was as, having been in plenty of professional cricket dressing rooms over the years that followed, I know that top players don’t allow themselves to think like that. But to an outsider like me, it was already looking like a tough mission to win the match from this position.

Angus Fraser interview, 4 January 1991

First things first: I have to give Devon Malcolm enormous credit for fronting up to me for an interview after bowling 45 overs! It’s the sort of workload that would make modern bowlers blanch but Devon’s stamina and heart (as well as his pace) were never things that were open to question. As he mentioned in the interview, he’d actually bowled roughly the same number of overs in an innings in his debut Test, also against Australia, at Trent Bridge in Nottingham in 1989 when he sent down 44.

The fascinating thing for me as I looked back at the scorecard of this Sydney Test was to see how many more overs Devon bowled compared to the other front-liners – his 45 dwarfed Gladstone Small (31) and the spinners Eddie Hemmings (32) and Phil Tufnell (30). There were contributions from Graham Gooch (14) and Michael Atherton (five) as well, but Devon’s effort was Herculean, especially in the face of an Australian total of 518.

When I asked him about how easy – or difficult – it was to operate as one of only two quick bowlers in the line-up, given England had gone in with two quicks and two spinners, it was interesting to hear him launch into something of a defence of Gladstone Small, his seam bowling partner. Gladstone’s only wicket came courtesy of a brilliant leg-side stumping of Dean Jones by Jack Russell, and while Gladstone would take that, the idea of having a wicket against your name as stumped when earning your living as a pace bowler might be a little demeaning. Gladstone certainly struggled in comparison to Devon and it was no surprise he did so given he was just coming back from a hamstring injury. His inclusion was due to the injury absence of Angus Fraser. That summed up the tour in many ways – as soon as one injured player was on his way back, another would take his place in the treatment room.

My main recollection of this post-match interview was the feeling of deflation I felt, the ‘here we go again’ sensation of watching England ground down again by Australia; in the first two Tests England had their chances but here, after two days, it appeared as though it was a return to 1989 with Australia racking up another massive score. At least the first two Tests had been, for large parts of their progress, very competitive, with England even taking a first innings lead in both matches; here it seemed like normal, 1989, service was being resumed. Given the way England had collapsed in the first two matches, I couldn’t see much hope of them reaching 319 to avoid the follow-on but on this occasion I was delighted to be proved wrong.

Devon Malcolm interview, 5 January 1991

The fact I was talking to Micky Stewart after the third day’s play, a day in which England, and Michael Atherton in particular, had done well was indicative of the era in which this interview took place.

In modern times, players are spoken to at all times of the day, before, after and even during play, but back then, if a player was not out overnight it was an unwritten rule that he was off limits to the media as he was still in the middle of his innings.

It may seem laughable now but that was the protocol and, on that basis, despite the fact that Michael was the story of the day from an England perspective as he was 94 not out having batted through the day after enduring a lean run beforehand, it was Micky who was my voice of the day.

Not that he was anything other than good value, as he always was with me. He was full of praise for Michael and also spoke well about dealing with Bruce Reid. Bruce had taken 13 wickets in the previous Test and two of the three wickets to fall during this day’s play (the other was a needless run-out, of Wayne Larkins) and Micky felt that slowly but surely England’s batsmen were coming to terms with the problems he posed.

Another positive from the day, aside from Michael Atherton’s batting, was the form of David Gower; having scored a hundred in the previous Test in Melbourne, he came in during the final session of the day in Sydney, made batting look very easy indeed and was at his fluent best.

It was interesting that despite enjoying one of the better days of the tour so far, at least from a batting perspective, Micky was quite restrained in what he said. I guess, having sat in the dressing room in the first two Tests – as well as numerous other matches on the tour thus far – and witnessed all the batting collapses the side had produced, one could understand his failure to be bullish about the prospects of a decent score from this position of 227-3. After all, the side still needed 92 to avoid the follow-on and having lost six wickets for three runs in the previous Test just a week earlier, a sense of reserve was wholly justified!

At least we could have a laugh towards the end of the interview: “What’s the ideal scenario over the last two days, Micky?” “The ideal scenario?” he replied. “To get a bit of a lead and then bowl Australia out for naught.”

Micky Stewart interview, 6 January 1991

This was one of my favourite interviews of the tour, and for a couple of reasons. It is the only one I have a photographic record of, thanks to the brilliance of Mark Ray, on that tour as a journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald, and it came at the end of an excellent day for England, something that was a real rarity on the trip.

England got past the follow-on figure and relatively close to Australia’s mammoth first innings total thanks to Michael Atherton’s stoic knock, plus a brilliant hundred from David Gower (my favourite innings of his, I think) and a fluent contribution from Alec Stewart; Graham Gooch declared the innings deep into the final session and two Australian wickets before  decided to close meant the match was suddenly very much alive again.

I remember myself and the other members of the media trouped down to the England dressing room at close of play and there was almost a celebratory air about the place; there were photographs of the two centurions, David Gower and Michael Atherton, sipping champagne if you can believe that, and the players were wearing sponsored t-shirts – David was in Rabbit Telecom and Michael was in Sprite. The champagne was Verve Cliquot. How do I remember it all? Well, there were three of England’s tour sponsors and none of them had got much mileage thus far on the trip so tour manager Peter Lush was determined to push the boat out with the team finally enjoying a decent day.

Both David and Michael spoke with the written media but I got just the one interview – Michael, as I’d spoken with David after his hundred in Melbourne. The interview took place in the players’ dining and viewing area in the front section of the visitors’ dressing room, one of series of rooms the visiting team use at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Behind it is an area where the players change, along with a shower and bath area and, right at the back of that part of the pavilion, a small treatment room used by the medical staff. These days media conferences take place in an adjoining building, in a dedicated room, but things were a little more relaxed in those days.

If you look at the photo of me interviewing Michael you’ll see a couple of interesting things: one is that he still has his champagne glass in his hand (and there’s one other on the table in front of us) and the other is that I’ve wrapped the microphone cable around my hand. That was to stop what was known as microphone or cable rattle, the effect that came when the interviewer moved the microphone from him or herself to the interviewee and back again. If the cable was loose it would make a rustling noise as the microphone was moved, something that sounded like the crumpling of paper. With modern digital recorders, many of which don’t use external microphones with cables, that issue has been largely eradicated.

The funny thing was that Michael only made 11 runs on the day, having started at 94 not out, but it was an important innings for him after failures in the first two Tests of the series and although it’s hard to believe, it turned out to be his only Test hundred against Australia. He was actually almost beaten to three figures too on that fourth day as David, who began unbeaten on 33, launched a furious assault on the bowling and monopolized the strike. 

Michael gave me some solid answers and it was a very pleasurable chat, one which I can still smile about all these years later not only because it brings back memories of a positive day on a largely negative tour playing-wise, but also because in the years to come, when he became monosyllabic with large sections of the media, an interview like this would have been impossible.

Michael Atherton interview, 7 January 1991

Listening back to this interview, all I can do is cringe, wince and listen to it with my fingers in my ears. It was an absolute car crash and time hasn’t improved that sensation.

Phil was my interview subject after he bowled superbly in just his second Test, taking 5-61 on what was, admittedly, a helpful surface. But while bowling was his forte, answering questions for an inexperienced interviewer like myself was assuredly not.

Things started to unravel pretty quickly: I kept saying things that I hoped would prompt him to elaborate but he was pretty much monosyllabic, not through any malice on his part but simply because he had little experience of doing interviews at this stage of his career.

My mistake was that many of my questions were rhetorical and I answered them myself in the asking; and for someone without the skills to pick up what I had said and run with it, Phil found himself pretty much tongue-tied.

I remember when he was put in front of me by team manager Peter Lush, in an alcove of the dressing room in the members’ pavilion at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Peter gave me a look, as if to say: “You don’t know what you’re letting yourself in for,” and if I read that look correctly then he was spot-on.

That said, I let myself down a bit too as it’s clear listening to the interview that I wasn’t as prepared as I could have been. Of course, I wasn’t to know I was going to be speaking to Phil at close of play (there were no media managers to relay messages up to the press box in those days) but I should have been able to make an educated guess about it and noted down a few questions beforehand rather than be off the cuff, as I was. As the interview went on, I can hear myself becoming more and more flustered, so things went from bad to worse.

Anyhow, it was a good lesson in a couple of ways for me on that trip: make sure I was better prepared and also try to avoid interviewing Phil again!

Something that is really starting to annoy me as I listen back to these interviews is the way I keep using the expression “I suppose”. Take this interview as an example: “5-61, your Test best figures in just your second Test, but I suppose not the result you or the team wanted.” Like I wrote at the top of this piece, enough to make me cringe, wince and listen with my fingers in my ears!

For the record, England bowled Australia out by tea time and would have done so much sooner but for Graham Gooch persisting with his spinners, Phil Tufnell and Eddie Hemmings, for too long in the face of lower-order resistance, instead of turning to his faster bowlers.

When Australia were finally dismissed, England needed an unlikely 255 in 28 overs and although Graham Gooch and David Gower gave it a go (I still remember the buzz that went around the press box when David walked out to open the innings with Graham), the asking rate was far too high on a turning pitch and with no fielding restrictions. In this day and age of Twenty20 cricket, it might have been looked on as an achievable target but back then it was next to impossible – and so it proved.

England had regained some pride, which was something, even if any hope of regaining The Ashes had now disappeared. And, true to the amazing itinerary faced by players and media alike, it was now time to hot-foot it to Melbourne for the final qualifying match of the World Series Cup, set to take place less than 48 hours after the end of the Test. England had to win to qualify for the final but, not having beaten Australia so far on the tour, it looked a tall order.

Phil Tufnell interview, 8 January 1991

This interview came at the end of the second day of the fourth Test in Adelaide, just over two weeks on from the defeat in the final qualifier for the World Series Cup. England had bowled out Australia for 386 and had replied with 95-2 with the two days of the match memorable for the debut hundred of Mark Waugh. 

Mark had replaced his brother Steve in the side and batted beautifully on day one, helping Australia recover from a precarious 124-5. I’ll still remember that innings as one of the best I’ve seen in Test cricket and two shots stick in my mind: the first was his push down the ground for three to get off the mark off Phil DeFreitas, nothing more than a push but with exquisite timing: and, after England took the new ball late in the day, a square cut for four over backward point off Devon Malcolm, bowling from the City End. In those days, the press box was square of the wicket, in the open air (albeit under cover) in front of the home dressing room amongst the members’ seating, so I had a fantastic view of the speed the ball left the bat. My position also meant had a ringside seat for the reception Mark received from his team-mates when he came off the field at the end of the day.

I did do interviews with the squad after the World Series Cup match, as well as before the start of this Test and after day one but sadly they have been lost.

My interview with Angus here came after he’d turned his right ankle in the field, an injury that forced him to the dressing room. The suspicion was that he was far from fit anyway with the hip injury he’d suffered in Melbourne continuing to plague him and he was honest enough to admit it during this interview. Listening back to it I’m actually quite impressed with how much I pressed him on whether or not it was right for him to play in the circumstances and, all credit to him, he didn’t try to avoid those difficult questions. It makes for a decent listen, I think.

The silver lining for England with Angus having to go off the field was that England had picked five bowlers for this Test with Alec Stewart taking over from Jack Russell behind the stumps. Having said all that, although it was five frontline bowlers on paper, the reality was it turned out to be just three at stages during the Australian first innings as, in addition to Angus being absent, Phil Tufnell was also missing for a long period and was confined to his hotel room with a sore throat. It pressed Graham Gooch into action as a bowler, and he did a tidy job, taking 1-23 in nine overs.

After the defeat in the World Series Cup game in Melbourne, England had travelled to Albury on the New South Wales – Victoria border for a hastily arranged four-day game against New South Wales and promptly lost that (a match I remember for me suffering food poisoning and also for Eddie Hemmings and Devon Malcolm being given lessons in boomerang throwing during a break in play), but did manage a win in the match that followed, another four-day game, this time against Queensland (including Graeme Hick), their only first-class win on the trip. 

The shine was taken off that victory by the controversy over David Gower and John Morris’s fly-over above the ground during the match, something that resulted in both players being fined, and I remember that as it was me who answered the phone to David in the press box beforehand when, at the air-field, he called to check the score (as he knew they’d have to rush back to the ground if England were collapsing); who knew then that the incident was probably the beginning of the end of David’s international career?

Angus Fraser interview, 26 January 1991

This was one of the more bizarre interviews I did during the tour – as you’ll hear from the sound quality at various stages.

After the third day’s play, England’s players left the ground immediately and so I wasn’t able to get my post-match interview at Adelaide Oval; instead, I had to head to the team hotel, the Stamford Plaza on North Terrace, about a 10 or 15 minute walk from the ground, to speak with Phil DeFreitas.

Having arrived at the hotel, I then discovered that Phil, along with a few other players (I can remember Gladstone Small was one of them) were warming down in the jacuzzi located on the roof terrace. So, up there I headed.

Once there, I started the interview and you can probably hear at various stages Phil getting sledged by the other members of the squad there for his answers. That made it a tricky assignment for me but even trickier was the wind at the top of the building. It was a glorious sunny evening but the wind was very strong, as you’d expect on top of one of the tallest buildings on North Terrace.

It makes the interview difficult to hear at times, but although I had reservations about sending it back for publication, I did so and we just about got away with it. This was another example of the modest technology available in those days, with no ability on my part to monitor the recording as it was being done. That said, once I’d heard the recording back, there was no way I could ask for it to be done again as my pride wouldn’t let me. Silly, I know, but put yourself in my position on a first tour in front of senior England players. I’d found it a little intimidating to try and conduct the interview with players shouting in the background and to then have to return to the spot and ask to do it again, well, I just thought it was a non-starter.

The interview was actually reasonably positive given what had happened to England during the day, collapsing (as so often was the case on this tour) to concede a substantial first innings lead and then without both Phil Tufnell (sore throat) and Angus Fraser (sore ankle to go with his injured hip) for the last session. In the face of that, England did well to take four relatively cheap wickets in that last session of the day and although Australia still led by 225, Graham Gooch’s men were still in the match. Australia, though, still had David Boon at the crease, batted deep (Greg Matthews came in at number eight) and given England’s batting frailties throughout the trip, it was tough to see them chasing any sort of score.

This was the day when David Gower was dismissed in the final over before lunch, much to Graham Gooch's chagrin. That wicket furthered England's collapse and was a major talking point but, aside from talking in generic terms about England's collapse, I steered clear of asking Phil to comment on other players, which I think was fair enough.

Phil spoke pretty well, I think, about his late call-up for the match and the fact it was the first time he’d reached 40 in a Test since his debut in Brisbane four years earlier. It was just a shame about that howling gale…

Phil DeFreitas interview, 27 January 1991

If you want a barometer of how a side has performed during any given day then one of the best means of assessment is to see who you get the chance to speak with after stumps are drawn.

The fact I was speaking with the England coach Micky Stewart rather than one of the players sadly said it all – two wickets all day, and one of those was nightwatchman Merv Hughes, and even then he’d batted for almost an hour and three-quarters.

From a promising position overnight, with Australia 68-4, and despite the fact that both Angus Fraser (hip and ankle) and Phil Tufnell (sore throat) were both fit to bowl, the home side rolled on, with David Boon and Allan Border in particular rubbing salt in the wounds on what was, admittedly, a very good batting surface.

It meant Allan was able to declare at the fag-end of the day and have a crack at the England openers Graham Gooch and Michael Atherton having set the visiting side a distant 472 to win. The pair got through to stumps without being parted but, given the side’s history of batting collapses on the tour, it was a brave man who would predict anything other than an Australian win, especially as England’s tail for this match was longer than usual because of the decision to play the extra bowler.

Micky was honest enough in his assessment of the way the side bowled on this particular day; listening back to the interview I think I was a bit charitable and Micky was more realistic, that the bowlers didn’t bowl as well as they had done in taking four wickets in the short session on the third evening and that, coupled with the pitch offering little to seam to spin bowler alike, meant it turned into a day of hard labour.

Over the preceding 24 hours it was announced that Worcestershire seam and swing bowler Phil Newport was being drafted into the squad as cover for the bowling injuries, with Angus Fraser still struggling with his hip injury and Martin Bicknell unavailable with a rib cartlidge injury. Phil was with the A side in Pakistan and Sri Lanka and was about to jump on a plane to Perth, the scene of the fifth and final Test of the series and Micky deals with that in this interview.

I have to admit that I could see nothing other than an Australian win on the final day, although I would have been happy to be proved wrong.

Micky Stewart interview, 28 January 1991

Listening back to this interview is an interesting experience because I can sense Graham Gooch just didn’t want to be there! I think I was the last commitment he had before jumping on the bus back to the hotel and it was just a case of him wanting to get it over with as soon as he could.

Graham had batted superbly to score his first (and, as it turned out, his only) Test hundred in Australia and, having started the day at 19-0 chasing 472, England had at one stage reached 203-0 in mid-afternoon. I can still recall that first hour after lunch when Graham and Michael Atherton were rattling along at around seven runs per over and it was just about the first time on the trip when it was possible to revel in reporting on the England team.

Sadly, the exhilaration didn’t last and a mini-collapse of three wickets for 10 runs after tea briefly gave Australia the chance of a win given the length of England’s tail before Phil DeFreitas and Robin Smith blocked out for the draw.

So, positivity around the England camp for a change but, although I may be mistaken, that doesn’t seem to be reflected in Graham’s tone when he spoke with me. He was a little short with his answers and I can only chuckle now when I listen to his answer to my question about the impending arrival of seamer Phil Newport ahead of the upcoming Perth Test and the chances of him playing in that match – “Well, he’s not coming for a holiday,” said Graham.

It’s interesting, too, to hear Graham’s reluctance to blow his own trumpet. I asked him about his innings and his form, but he quickly batted away that question, which was a shame. I write that because my memories of the innings are of a terrific effort where he really took the attack to the Australian bowlers and put them under pressure for perhaps only the second time in the series (the other being David Gower’s assault on them on the fourth morning of the previous Test in Sydney). It was a terrific display of attacking batting and an example of real positivity which, I also recall, was reflected right from the start of the day. I remember arriving at the ground thinking it had the potential to be a either a tedious day, if England batted for the draw, or a very short day, if England collapsed as they had so often on the trip. But in the first over the day’s play the ball was edged down to third man and Graham and Michael sprinted an all-run four and that set the tone for the next few hours.

From here it was off to Perth for the final Test of the series – and what a journey that turned out to be for me!

Graham Gooch interview, 29 January 1991

If ever you wanted an interview that summed up a tour then this was it: a batsman sounding utterly dejected despite playing a fine innings, left to reflect upon a poor shot that cost him his wicket and also another batting collapse on a tour of batting collapses.

Allan Lamb played extremely well on this first day of the Perth Test but gave his wicket away in the final session, trying to pull a ball that was too far outside the off-stump for the stroke, and that was the catalyst for England losing their last seven wickets for just 32 runs. The speed of the collapse was such that David Gower, batting at number five, was left high and dry.

Another reason for the collapse was that England again opted to play five bowlers and so with Phil DeFreitas coming in at number seven, the tail looked long. That’s exactly how it turned out.

Allan was honest in this interview – “it’s not a 244 wicket” – but also hoped the bowlers could once again try to bail out the inadequate batting. In Perth there were always opportunities for bowlers because of the bounce, which brought the slip cordon into play, but you can tell from Allan’s tone that he knew the batting display by the side on a pretty blameless pitch simply wasn’t good enough.

This was the first of a few busy days for me with my additional commission for Reuters news agency, in addition to my work for my primary employer, Rapid Cricketline. With Rapid Cricketline I would do telephone updates every half an hour or hour through the course of the day’s play, depending on the time back home in the UK (there was no point in doing an update every 30 minutes in the dead of the night as no-one would be calling to listen at that time), and for Reuters I would be filing reports at the end of every session, plus an update to my final report of the day including quotes from any post-play media conferences. It was challenging but also exhilarating stuff and the day would really fly by.

Allan Lamb interview, 1 February 1991

This interview wins the prize for including the most ridiculous and optimistic question of the tour. It came at the end of my interaction with England coach Micky Stewart and followed a day when England had bowled Australia out for 307, conceding a first innings lead of 63.

“What sort of lead are you looking for or when might you consider a declaration to give yourself enough time to bowl out Australia?” I asked.

Now, I can see what I was trying to do, to inject a bit of positivity into the situation. But with three days remaining, 20 wickets already having fallen in the match, England’s history of collapses on the tour and the fact they were playing with an extra bowler in the side so that the lower order began with Phil DeFreitas at number seven, the idea that this team, having failed with the bat for the best part of three-and-a-half months, could actually produce a substantial score now was far-fetched to say the least.

Even Micky found the question ridiculous, and he was a member of the touring squad! But after his initial chuckle, at least he gave it a better answer than it probably deserved.

This was another day that illustrated the gulf between the two teams; while England’s lower order was as substantial as a house built on sand (witness the first day collapse of 7-32 as the latest example of that), Australia’s last four wickets added 139 to move them from. 168-6 into a lead that looked a useful one. The bowlers worked hard but, as was so often the case on this tour, England lacked that killer touch when presented with an opportunity to do something significant.

That failure to win the key moments had come in every Test on the tour: the first Test in Brisbane, where they’d secured a first innings lead of 42; the second Test in Melbourne where, on the fourth afternoon, they led by 149 with nine second innings wickets in hand; the third Test in Sydney, where the last three wickets in Australia’s second innings batted for the best part of an hour-and-three-quarters to make a final innings chase impossible; and the fourth Test in Adelaide where Australia were 124-5 on day one and 68-4 at the start of day four only to score 386 and 314-6 declared respectively. The home side always had the ability to wriggle off the hook whereas England never could and never did.

Micky was an excellent interviewee, as ever, but listening back, you can hear from his answers and his tone that he knew this was another missed opportunity. He had to be positive, and the situation was by no means disastrous, but I think both he and I knew it was going to be very difficult for England from this point onwards.

Micky Stewart interview, 2 February 1991

When you consider my interview for the day was a player who batted at number eight and made 40 not out, you don’t have to be a genius to realise that day three of the Perth Test wasn’t exactly a day to remember for England.

Facing a first innings deficit of 63, they were humbled again by fine bowling from Terry Alderman, Merv Hughes and Craig McDermott and, but for a gutsy effort down the order from my interviewee, Phil Newport, would probably have lost in three days.

As it was, Phil, with help from Devon Malcolm, got England up to 182 all out, to set Australia 120 to win, and by the close of play the home side had reached 39-1, losing Mark Taylor to the final ball of the day as they pursued 120 to win.

It was a tough day at the office for England’s batsmen and, despite his brave effort with the bat by Phil, it was a tough assignment for him to speak with me. As I listened back to the interview I was struck by how direct I was with at least one question – “So, was it good bowling or bad batting?” – and in the face of such directness he gave me some decent answers.

Looking back, I wonder what Phil would have said if I’d told him he would never play for England again after this match. He and Gladstone Small never featured again at Test level for England although Gladstone was a member of the World Cup squad the following winter in Australia and New Zealand.

The circumstances of this interview were also interesting as it was the prelude to the one rest day of the series. I can’t recall why the rest day came (my best guesses are that either it meant the end of the Test coincided with a connecting flight to New Zealand, where England were due to play three One-Day Internationals to round off the tour, or that given Perth is usually very hot in early February and with the match marking the end of a long tour, it was felt the players would need the chance to recharge), but it left everyone in limbo for over 24 hours given Australia needed only another 81 to win with nine wickets in hand.

That rest day was the chance for the media to play a match of their own, with the Australian media meeting the England media at Nedlands – ironically the venue where Graham Gooch cut open his hand in a practice session in October, an incident that began an unfortunate stream of injuries that handicapped the tour. It also gave me the opportunity to interview the coach Micky Stewart and get my one journalistic scoop of the tour…

Phil Newport interview, 3 February 1991

This was an interview conducted on the rest day of the Perth Test and resulted in my one journalistic scoop of the tour – with coach Micky Stewart confirming he wouldn’t be quitting at the end of the tour.

Usually when a side fails as spectacularly as England did on this trip there is a search for scapegoats, the people to blame for the failure, and Micky was right in the crosshairs given his role in selecting and coaching the team.

But in this interview he makes it quite clear he has no intention of walking away and fact I got such a comment from him was something that was picked up by cricket media in both Australia and England.

The way the other reporters cottoned on to my interview was that I filed the quotes for Reuters news agency, who I was working for at the Perth Test. Once Reuters posted the story I’d written, it was then spotted by the sports desks of the reporters I was working alongside and they, in turn, used the quotes for their stories.

The biggest buzz I had on the trip was when Mike Beale of the Daily Star, someone I’d sat with in the press box for the whole trip, came up to me in that press box the next morning and said: “Well, you made everyone work hard last night didn’t you?” He said it with a smile which said: ‘Well done for getting that story.’ It made me feel ten feet tall.

I did the interview in the morning of the rest day at the team hotel and listening back to it reminded me of how Micky’s comments about wanting to remain in his post came about. In time-honoured reporting style I asked him a few straightforward questions before I got to the big question, but you’ll hear after his initial answer that there’s then a pause before he elaborates. That was because he asked me to turn off my tape recorder so he could think of a more considered answer. It was great for me as it meant I had more meat on the bone, so to speak. It was also gratifying for me too, as it meant he felt comfortable speaking with me to share his views on what was a pretty important issue for him and for English cricket.

The interview itself is, I think, the longest one I conducted during the tour but then it had to be because it was a wrap-up, from Micky’s perspective of what had been a very disappointing tour. It makes for a good listen, I reckon, as he explains what went wrong and why it went wrong. And talking of something that was wrong, listening back I noticed I got the number of runs still required by Australia wrong – I said 89 when, in fact, it was 81. 

Once I’d completed the interview I returned to my hotel and headed to Nedlands to play in a cricket match between the Australia and England media (needless to say, the Australia media won) and then headed back to my hotel in early evening to file my interview to Rapid Cricketline and also write my story for Reuters. I got it done quickly enough so that, when I picked up a copy of The Australian newspaper the following morning, there it was, as one of the stories on the back page. That was a feeling that no amount of money could buy.

Micky Stewart interview, 4 February 1991

This is the final interview from my archive of the 1990-91 Ashes tour but not the final interview I conducted on the trip; I carried on interviewing players and team management during the two weeks the team spent in New Zealand after this Test, there to play three One-Day Internationals, but sadly those interviews have been lost.

As for this interview with Graham Gooch, it followed a familiar pattern – reflecting on things that went wrong rather than things that went right. There were precious few crumbs of comfort to grasp at with the final day of the series a complete anti-climax, Australia knocking off the remaining 81 required before lunch and without losing a wicket to seal a nine-wicket win and a 3-0 series success.

Graham trotted out the clichés about needing to be better but, listening back, two things stood out to me: one was that he said there was now the need “to work on restoring credibility in our cricket.” Truly, after an excellent previous 18 months against the West Indies, India and New Zealand, it looked like it was a case of back to the drawing board as too many players on the trip were found wanting with batting collapses galore and poor fielding, and the prospect of the West Indies arriving in the UK in three months looked a daunting one. If anyone had suggested that over the next 12 months England would a) draw a Test series with the West Indies, b) become the first side to win a Test series in New Zealand for 12 years and c) reach the World Cup final, then they would have been laughed out of town. The turnaround that England – and Graham – managed to effect after this tour was spectacular and unexpected.

What also stood out for me from Graham’s interview was his desire to carry on as captain and his willingness to take blame for the disastrous tour. To an extent it was a tough call to blame him for much of what went wrong given that for a month near the start he was injured with a badly poisoned hand that required surgery, but his comment that “I’m prepared to shoulder my share of the blame” was interesting, as was his wish to continue in the leadership role. When I heard him say it, all these years later, it contrasted for me with what he said in Auckland 12 months later when, after a superb hundred that helped England to that Test series win in New Zealand he said “there’s not much petrol left in the tank.”

So, with the series wrapped up, it was off to New Zealand. It was my first trip there and I remember a very enjoyable two weeks, aside from more losses – England won the first One-Day International in Christchurch when they should have been beaten, and then collapsed in the remaining matches in Wellington and Auckland, losing games they should have won. It summed up the tour as a whole.

Graham Gooch interview, 5 February 1991

In October 1990 I embarked on my first overseas assignment as a journalist, a four-month tour of Australia and New Zealand following the England cricket team.

This was the time before the internet and smartphones and, back then, one way people obtained sports news and scores was by dialing premium rate telephone information services (TIS).

One such service was Rapid Cricketline, based in Leeds in the UK, and the previous summer I’d begun work for them as a journalist and commentator with that work including ball-by-ball commentary from each England home international match. The first Test match I worked on was at Old Trafford, the game in which Sachin Tendulkar scored his maiden hundred in that format.

At the end of the summer I suggested to the powers-that-be at Rapid Cricketline that, as it was the official TIS of the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB, the forerunner of the England and Wales Cricket Board), it should have a presence on the upcoming winter tour that included The Ashes. To their credit they agreed. I’m eternally grateful to Bill Wilson, John Boyd, Tony Moss and Dave Dalton at Rapid Cricketline for giving me the green light.

I was given a lump sum from which I had to fund my flights (there were over 40 on that tour, including London – Perth and, at the end of the tour, Auckland – Los Angeles – London), accommodation and expenses, including the hiring of phone lines at each Test venue, and I was expected to file regular audio reports back to the office for broadcast on Rapid Cricketline’s service.

Additionally, once the tour began, Rapid Cricketline and the TCCB reached an agreement that I should conduct exclusive one-on-one interviews with a player or member of the backroom staff on every international matchday as well as the day before and the day after each international.

To give an idea of the type of technology around at that time, I travelled with a reel-to-reel tape recorder but soon discovered I had no means of connecting it to the phone line to play out my interviews. Gerry Collins of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Brisbane came to my rescue, lending me a more modern recorder while I was in that city but later in the trip I was reduced to holding the phone receiver over the speaker of the reel-to-reel recorder, pressing play and hoping no-one walked past making too much noise during the play-out, something which explains the variable sound quality of a few of the interviews.

Some of the interviews from the tour have been lost forever but the majority have survived. The style of interview, especially in my early efforts, is naïve, as are many of the questions, but it’s fascinating as a snapshot of the trip.

As a tour, in a cricketing sense, for England, it was pretty much an unmitigated disaster, losing all over Australia and not winning a first-class match until the third month of the trip, in Carrara against Queensland, a match made famous for the fly-over by David Gower and John Morris during play. For me, however, the four months (it was an old-school tour with matches all over Australia in addition to the international action and I noticed several of the upcountry matches were even missing from ESPNCricinfo!) was a tremendous learning experience, both in life and journalistically and I made some fantastic friends as well as laying the groundwork for my future work with both the ECB and the Australian Cricket Board/Cricket Australia, as well as Sky Sports, Reuters and Agence France Presse, radio and television commentary and six books.

For me, the 1990-91 tour was a starting point and it’s been fun to look back at the beginning of my working life through the medium of these interviews.

Brian Murgatroyd

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