INTERVIEW WITH PAUL STRANG

JW: What is your feeling about your personal performances during the last season in Zimbabwe, starting with the tour by England?

PS: This was the tour that we were all up for, and playing against England was great for us, because most of us have family there and play in leagues over there. So the English players are very well known to us. I thought I did all right against them, without setting anything alight. I played solidly, batted reasonably well; it was a bit unlucky that in the Test matches they feel they got the better of us, but the one-dayers were good and I played a part in winning them.

Then I got this slot with Kent, which was probably a direct result of how I did against the English guys, because of all the television over there, and obviously forward-looking people at Kent said, "Yes, why not?" They took a risk, I think, because obviously I was not one of the more well-known superstars around the world, whom they could have had instead.

After the England tour we went down south to the triangular tournament. I had a particularly good tournament down there, as did the team, but we just failed to finish it, which is something that is becoming more and more of a problem. Western Australia are getting into very good situations and we are winning more games, but we should still be winning more than we do. That's my personal feeling; I don't know why it happens.

Then I went over to England and I thought I had a pretty good season with Kent; obviously I would have liked to have scored more runs with the bat, but on the bowling side I think I did as well as could be expected. The pitches didn't suit me this year; there was a lot of rain around, so we played on a lot of seam-orientated pitches, so I bowled a lot of overs, basically just tying up an end, and got a lot of wickets through sheer weight of numbers of overs bowled. And I managed to turn in five or six match-winning performances in all competitions, and this helped Kent along to three second places. It was a bit disappointing, that; it would have been nice to win something, especially in my first year there. But it wasn't to be, so I just look back on it as a fairly successful season. Now, as you know, Carl Hooper is going back; he's got a long-term commitment with Kent, so Nottinghamshire made an approach to me, and I've just signed a two-year contract with them.

JW: What was the first you heard from Kent?

PS: The club approached me through their secretary, who contacted me just after the triangular tournament in South Africa, and I finalised it up here when we were playing India in Bulawayo. But we had been talking for about three weeks prior to that. They said there was a good chance Carl Hooper might not make it for the 1997 season, and if not they would like me to be their overseas player. I said, "Sure, there's no problem with that," and when Carl Hooper couldn't make it due to international commitments, they signed me up. I first heard from them over the phone -- Barry Dudleston I think gave them the numbers -- then they got hold of my parents, and things went from there.

JW: And how did the Nottinghamshire contract come about?

PS: How did that come about? -- let me think! Oh, yes -- as soon as Kent knew that Carl Hooper was coming back, Nottinghamshire obviously found out, and they made a phone call to me. They made an offer, we had negotiations, and I went over to England for a week, finalised the offer, and as a result got a two-year contract with them, playing at Trent Bridge, which should be quite nice.

JW: What do you think were the greatest benefits you got from your time at Kent?

PS: Definitely as a player I'm more experienced. I played 18 first-class games in six months, and over here we probably play 18 first-class games in three or four years in Zimbabwe. So, from the experience point of view, I was playing every day. I got into the habit of playing cricket in many different situations, seeing teams in totally losing positions going on to win games and teams in winning positions losing them. I was also learning that when I bat, if I'm confident and just play one ball at a time, the game goes on. You mustn't feel pressured at 60 for six, because often Kent recovered from 100 for seven to 250 or 300 all out. We were very good at that this year, so I learnt a lot from that.

JW: Thanks much of the time to you!

PS: Well, we had a great tail: Steve Marsh batted incredibly well, Mark Ealham was always down there, and all the bowlers could slog 20 or 30, so at the end of the day it was a great team effort. I learnt a lot about playing cricket continuously, how to pace myself, how to motivate myself mentally when I was tired -- all these things are very important to a cricketer. They only come through experience; you can't be like that naturally, I don't think, unless you're a very special person.

JW: Who did you find, in the Kent set-up, that you got on best with and made friends with most easily?

PS: Most of the guys -- there are a few eccentric people there, but generally they're a very well-balanced side, between youth and experience, the married guys, the educated guys, those who have done the hard professional slog. As a team the spirit was fantastic -- I've never played in a team where the spirit has been so good. There was such a positive vibe, and everyone was pulling together for a common goal. I bet John Wright had a lot to do with that -- he was a very good coach and he pulled them all together; he made sure we were all focused and he worked very hard on the mental side.

JW: Did anybody in England give you any particular help or special advice with your cricket?

PS: No, not really; there's a lot of advice floating around, but no one in particular comes up and says, "Try this" or "Try that," "Try and bowl flatter," and so on. The hints just float around and you have to try to work it out for yourself. I think that's quite an important part of the game. People can give you advice, but you have to sift through it and at the end of the day work out what works for you. You put it away, and if things aren't working you must reassess it, and try to find out why they're not working.

It's a big mental game, I've decided after playing a couple of years of international cricket and this year in England: cricket is very much a mental game, to me at any rate.

JW: Which would you say was your most memorable match over there?

PS: Well, we beat Essex. We had a tough run-in to the title, and we beat Essex comfortably. We scored 500-odd and I got about 60 not out, then got five wickets in the second innings. The next game was Gloucestershire, and the same thing: I got a few runs and then I bowled them out in the second innings. So those were memorable games; also obviously the Benson and Hedges Cup final, where we got to Lord's but got beaten by Surrey. I had a great run in that competition and played all right in the final. It was a good competition for me.

I only took ten wickets in a match once, which was against Lancashire, and I don't actually think I bowled that well; they just batted badly. Those are the games I remember.

JW: There was quite a bit in the press and on the internet about how you planned to fly back to Zimbabwe on the Saturday of the match against Yorkshire, which would have meant leaving the game in midafternoon to drive down to London. I didn't hear how it was resolved, but I gather you didn't actually travel back on that day after all. What actually happened?

PS: The Zimbabwe team wanted me back for a practice on the Monday, but as it turned out the New Zealanders were playing a three-day game against Mashonaland, and I wouldn't have been involved in that match anyway, because I would have been rested. That meant there would have been no one around to do nets with, so Davy Houghton said, "You might as well finish the championship game over there and play the Sunday game, then fly back on Monday, because we're only starting nets again on Tuesday." So it worked out well in the end; obviously, if it had been different, I would have come back on the Saturday. We had made the arrangement two or three months before the end of the season, and so the ZCU and Davy were quite good about it.

JW: How would you say that your season in England has affected your batting and bowling?

PS: I think I can only go back to saying that I'm a more experienced player now; I don't know if I have become a better player as a result. My batting certainly has changed, though: I've learnt how just to hang around and support the batsman at the other end and take my time. You get so much more time to bat over there, and in the past I liked to play my shots and ride my luck -- and actually that's how I made most of my runs, just riding my luck and being positive. I think I've just learned when to play that type of game and when just to sit there and graft it out.

JW: You seemed to be bowling a bit flatter against New Zealand.

PS: The pitches we played on here were very slow; if you give it a lot of air it's very easy for the batsmen to get back and attack you. The Bulawayo pitch was a bit different; we gave it a bit more air in Bulawayo. I thought it was a better pitch than the Harare one: the Harare pitch became better to bat on as the match went on. There was no rough to utilise and no bounce at all; the ball came off very slowly and you had to bowl quickly to try and beat the bat.

JW: So you were really just adjusting to conditions rather than making a permanent change to your regular style?

PS: Yes, that's something I've learned to do. I'm normally very quick through the air and I don't know why everybody suddenly thinks I've quickened up. I've always been very quick, but I'll vary it on the day, either slightly quicker or slightly slower. I tend to be a quicker bowler who has a slower ball, as opposed to a slower bowler who has a quicker ball.

JW: Perhaps you can just comment on your performances against New Zealand.

PS: I was a bit disappointed; I certainly wasn't jaded, although a lot of people thought I was. I was tired at the end of the series because we worked very hard. It was mentally quite a tough series, and I was more mentally tired than physically tired. But we got into situations where the spinners were expected to do a job; Adam bowled particularly well, I tended to hold up an end, and I think that pressure counts at the other end. So it was my job to hold up an end and go for less than two, and he was quite expensive, but got all the wickets. That's often the way it works.

We were supposed to bowl them out, but I don't think we had the pitches to do it. The first pitch at Harare seamed around for the first three days, spun a bit on the fourth and then flattened out on the fifth. So it's very difficult when the pressure is on you to bowl teams out and you haven't actually got the resources. But it was nice to bowl at big totals. I was a bit disappointed with my batting, but I did a job when I was supposed to. I don't think I let the side down at any stage by failing to bat well; I got in and did what I could, and didn't really give my wicket away at all -- at least, I didn't think so! I was looking to be positive, and I generally fielded well. The highlight for me was that second one-dayer, when I gave away 13 runs in 10 overs, and I think I'll struggle to better that in my life!

All in all, I was quite happy with it, but a lot of people expected a lot more. One season in England and suddenly I'm expected to be a different player. But it's not like that: a season in England makes you a wiser player, but you don't come on in leaps and bounds at my age. Any improvement is gradual.

JW: Just make sure you don't go wrecking your shoulder through overwork, like Shane Warne did!

PS: Well, physically I do get tired these days; I've had non-stop cricket for three years on the trot now, and I can't remember the last time I had a proper holiday. Certainly you get your time off, but often it's not time spent away from the game; it's a week off sitting at home, but you've got to be around because you've got to do your fitness training. I can't remember the last time I went for a month and just did nothing on holiday. But it's my job, and I've got to play for eleven months a year, but if opportunities come up in England, the experience that one can gain over there is very important, and I don't think we should be turning down offers as players in England, even if it might shorten our careers. That's just my personal view; it's my job and who knows if that offer is going to come round again? Especially if it's a good offer -- if it's a very mediocre offer and not likely to improve your cricket, then seriously consider six months off, but every offer I've had from England has been an improvement on the one before. So I'd be very silly to turn anything down.

The strain is actually more on the knees than the shoulder, because we run a lot. We do a lot of physical training. But I'll be there -- the mind's strong, the mind gets me through it.

JW: Anything else you would like to say?

PS: Not at all. I'm just looking forward to the coming season. We've got a tough four months ahead of us after the New Year. I think it's going to be a very testing four months: a lot of the guys are up for it, and we'll see how it goes. Sri Lanka is a hard place to tour, New Zealand at home will be tough to beat, and I'm sure that after the results here they fancy beating us. Then we play Pakistan here at home, and they're a tough side anywhere in the world. Then we have a couple of one-day tournaments, before most of us go straight back to England.

JW: At least when you go back to Sri Lanka this time you have two other Test-class spinners to back you.

PS: Certainly, yes, but people say the ball turns there, so why don't we do our job? Their spinners bowl us out, so why don't we bowl them out? Their batsmen play spin a lot better than we do, mainly because they're brought up on those pitches. Our guys are good players of spin; I think they're some of the better players of spin around. But, compared to the Sri Lankans who have been brought up on spinning pitches and expect the ball to turn, our guys get a bit of a fright when they see the ball turning as much as it does. It turns prodigiously there, more than you can imagine a ball could possibly turn. So our guys just aren't quite in sync.

Last time we played Sri Lanka, near the end of the tour, the guys were getting the hang of it. At the beginning of the tour was where they struggled.

End