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AV: I'm sure you have been asked this question time and time
again and am equally sure that you will be asked this question in the
future as well. I'm talking of the infamous underarm delivery incident
in the match against New Zealand. Would you say that was the flip side
of this same competitive edge?
GC: Yes and no. It had more to do with what was going on in
Australian cricket at that time. World Series cricket had just come
in. The whole programme had changed. One day cricket had become a very
big part of the programme and we in Australia had two touring teams
instead of one. We played six Test matches in the summer as opposed to
our opponents playing three each, weekend games... The programme was
really quite difficult for the Australian team. At the same time, the
Melbourne Cricket Ground pitch was not upto standard and we played
most of our cricket there. It was the frustration at all things that
were wrong with our programme that negatively impacted the players. I
had been fighting for a number of seasons to try and get the
administrators to understand what they were doing to us. It was very
hard on the Australian players, particularly the key players, who were
playing all of the matches - the Tests and One Dayers. As captain, I
was very frustrated at that stage. I was tired, mentally and
physically. I was frustrated with our players that day and in a couple
of games leading up to that match. We also had one more Test match to
play that summer - that was against India and the series was still
very much alive at that point. All of that impacted on us the
Australian team and me as Australian captain. The decision I made
really had more to do with all of that than with winning or not losing
a cricket match. I wasn't fit mentally at that stage to be captain of
the Australian team. That decision shouldn't have been taken. I would
like to think under normal conditions that decision would not have
been taken. It was really my way of showing what I thought of the
whole thing, I was frustrated and angry with the way things were
going. Whilst it was within the laws of the game it was certainly
outside the spirit of the game and it was a decision, probably the
only decision, that I would not like to take again. It was certainly
the wrong decision to make.
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