The long run is everything mate
Roy Colbert - 21 February 2001

(Two cricket fanatics with their views on the game from their Dunedin sofa.)

"Mate, I know you're going to ask me if Shoaib Akhtar throws."

"Wouldn't dream of it, mate. That's technical talk. We've left that sort of thing to the experts in the past, and I think we should leave it to them again."

"Absolutely. If we start getting technical we won't know where we are. Can I just say though, as a purist, it warms the heart to see a genuine quick coming off a long run."

"The long run is everything, mate. And not many people know this. Remember when Dennis Lillee first came over here in one of those Australia B sides they used to patronise us with?"

"1970. How could I forget the first glimpse of Dennis Lillee?"

"Well Lillee, as you will remember, had the longest run ever seen at Carisbrook. I was just reaching into the chilli bin for my third Speights and suddenly there was Lillee right beside me, twenty-six rows into the open stand behind the sightscreen."

"I remember. We were laughing ourselves rigid. Ron Brierley was sitting with us that day if I recall, great lover of the game, Ron. He threw a tomato at Lillee's head."

"I turned to Lillee and I said 'Bugger me, Den, whatcha doing up here?' and he said to me 'Sofa, this is where I start my run.' It was then that I said something to him that would change the face of cricket for the rest of the twentieth century. 'Den' I said to him 'if you want to become a serious force in the game, you gotta start your run INSIDE the boundary.' And he did that very thing, and the rest is history."

"You never told me that story before, mate. But now that I think about it - and I don't want to get too technical here - I don't think there has been a single successful fast bowler in the last twenty years who has started his run outside the boundary."

"But the run-up still has to be long mate, it puts the fear of death into a batsman. Especially when they sprint like Akhtar does. It's a magnificent sight."

"It is. As a purist, you don't mind who Akhtar plays for. In fact, it is better that he isn't in our team, because we don't play pace very well, so that makes him look even faster."

"It does. But I do point the finger at Coach Trist here ..."

"Canterbury man."

"... Canterbury man, yes, bringing out the bowling machine after they were torn to shreds at Eden Park and cranking it up to over 140 miles an hour to give our batsmen the right sort of preparation. Call me old-fashioned, mate, but isn't preparation what happens BEFORE the game?"

"Well when Glenn Turner was the coach, mate, that's what preparation was. But they got rid of Turner and brought in an Australian, who taught us how to sledge, and then a bowler, who couldn't teach us how to bat. So we're left with a team that's great on verbals and struggles to score runs."

"The Christopher Doig legacy, mate, I have to say it."

"Mate, Doig put twenty-two million in the coffers. That's not bad when the national team is being carved up all over the world."

"It's not about money, mate. If it was, they'd have that punter guy Steel Balls as the CEO."

"Now there's a thought. Finally, mate, great to see Inzamam-ul-Haq batting here."

"Absolutely, mate. Billy Bowden clearly wanted to see him bat as well, turning down the plumbest leg-before I've ever seen in Auckland. Vettori deserved better than that, he had the ball on a string."

"He did. Thank God for Vettori, he's bowling like a magician."

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