Andrew Richardson Talks Cricket

CaribbeanCricket.com's roving reporter Michelle McDonald follows up on her previous article about up-and-coming Jamaican fast bowler Andrew Richardson. This interview was conducted on the third day of the Round 3 Carib Beer encounter between Jamaica and Barbados at Sabina Park.

Since conducting this interview, Richardson has gone on to better the figures which prompted this interview, picking up 5 for 42 from 18 overs against Kenya, and has so far taken 28 wickets after 7 rounds. Here, Richardson talks candidly about his cricket career, his injury, his aspirations, and more.

AR: Thank you very much. Yes, it is my best figures in First Class cricket, but I'm not entirely pleased with it because I didn't complete the 5 wicket haul and the last pair put on about 60 odd runs so that was very much disappointing for me even though I had to leave the field because I had cramps, but I still should have finished the job. I think I should have finished the job.

This is your first season playing in the 4-day regional competition for Jamaica, however, last year you played for the West Indies B team. When you were selected last year, did you set yourself any specific goals for the tournament? What were they?

Yes, I did set specific goals. I wanted 30 or more wickets but unfortunately I didn't get to the 30, I got 21.

Any other targets you set for yourself last year?

Last year I wanted to get some runs. I didn't set really a target on getting runs but I just wanted to bat as long as possible. That didn't materialize.

What targets have you set for this year?

I'd like to get about 35 wickets this year.

Last year, you also played against the Australians in the Vice Chancellor's match. How was that experience for you, playing against the number 1 team?

It was a good experience. It was a good learning experience playing against some of the top batters in the world.

Was there anything that you picked up from there that will help you in the future?

Just be a bit more patient when you're bowling to batsmen who are good. If you find an area that they are weak in, try to keep at that as long as possible in order to make them crack. Most of them, you can't really blast them out, you have to just let them make a mistake.

So you think a lot of young fast-bowlers may be too enthusiastic and think that once they go out there and start bowling they're going to be taking wickets.

Yes. Once the body feels warm and things start flowing you probably feel like you can blast out anybody, but not when you're playing against the top guys.

Before that, you toured England with the Under-19 team in 2001. How did you feel about your performance?

Very disappointed. At the time I was just coming back off an injury, I wasn't playing cricket for more than a year, and basically was trying to find my rhythm again, I'd just started playing cricket again. I started the tour very well, I got a few wickets in a couple of practice games - I was the top bowler in all of the practice games - and things just never materialized as how I wanted it on the tour of the UK. In fact, mid way, close to the end of the tour, I started feeling pain again in my back. I didn't play in the 3rd test. I didn't play in some of the final warm up games either because of my back. I didn't play in the 3rd One Day.

Tell us more about your back injury, how you picked it up and so on.

I started feeling pain in about June 2000 in the local competition. I just had a pit of pain in the left side, but I thought it was just a muscular strain. Then I went to a doctor and he told me that it was a muscular strain. He told me to stretch and rest for a couple of weeks. In fact, it went away and for months it was away. In the last game of the youth tournament in 2000, the finals against Windwards, I didn't bowl in the last innings because I couldn't feel my left leg. It was just stiff and the pain was just excruciating and I came home again, I saw the same doctor and he told me that the strain had gotten worst. I must just rest for two weeks.

Was this an orthopaedic specialist?

No, he was a sports medicine doctor. He works with the sports medicine people in Jamaica. He told me just rest for the two weeks, and the two weeks rest period that I had was just the time between the end of the youth cricket and the trip to Australia, so I just rested that two weeks. Then I went to Australia in October 2000 and when we landed we landed in Australia like today, and the next day we were on a plane to play a game in Brisbane and then we played the very next day. No rest. A 4-day game, and I broke down in the 4-day game.

That's the same thing that happened to Darren Powell isn't it?

Well basically that's what happened to Darren Powell, only thing was that mine was a stress fracture and I had it here and I took it to Australia, but I didn't know. Nobody knew, because we all thought it was a muscular strain.

Have you returned to full fitness?

I think so.

You were off for a year?

Yes, more than a year.

So that's what Omari Banks is looking at, because he has a stress fracture.

Probably. He probably can come back before a year because he's a spinner and his is probably not as bad as mine. Mine was pretty bad. Mine was a clean break in the L3 in the spine, a clean break.

What sort of rehabilitation work did you have to do to return to full fitness?

I had to do a lot of work in the pool. (Chuckling) I learnt how to swim during that period. So I learnt how to swim and started to do a lot of gym work, tried to get myself stronger.

They don?t teach you that at KC (Kingston College)?

(Laughing) No the pool down there is empty you know. We play football in the pool!

Were you under the guidance of anybody? Did anybody develop the gym programme for you?

Yes, I got a programme from one of the coaches in Australia, Troy Cooley, he now works with the ECB (England Cricket Board's national fast bowling coach). He wrote a programme for me. Also my physiotherapist. I had two physiotherapists at the time, first when it was diagnosed I had Miss Karen Rattray and then she left so I had to start seeing Miss Elizabeth Robinson and also Dr. Mansingh took me up when they diagnosed that I had the stress fracture and I worked with the doctors and the physios.

Did you have to adjust your action drastically?

Yes, I had to.

In what way?

Basically I was not really a side-on bowler but I sort of had a side-on action. The biomechanics experts told me that that was putting a lot of strain on my back and they helped me along the way in order to get my foot coming around a bit more, just to basically get sort of chest-on more. I was more side-on before but I'm trying to come around a bit more. It still could come around a bit more but basically I'm not having pain now so I don't see the need for that right now, and as long as I'm bowling and getting wickets and I'm not getting pain, I'm going to practically stay this way. If I find the time and find out how to adjust myself while cricket is going on, well, if it happens, it happens, but I'm basically now trying to keep it going to be pain free and get wickets.

And all of this, was it also overseen by the Jamaica Cricket Association?

By the Jamaica Cricket Association and the West Indies Cricket Board, yes, both of them.

So you say you are fine now?

Yeah, I'm ok, now. I'm good now.

I noticed in the first 3 rounds of this year's Carib Beer competition, you have bowled exactly 21 overs in each match. This is in comparison to last year, when you bowled between 30 and 40 overs in all but two matches. Is this related to the policy that the WICB set in place so that young bowlers like you are not over bowled?

Not really. Not really.

It is exactly 21, in each of the 3 games.

Exactly 21 overs? Me ah bowl too much! I think is too much, I should get guys out more often, I wouldn't have to bowl that long (big guffaw)!

So the 21 is just coincidence.

Just coincidence. Just coincidence.

You know there is something that was put in place though.

I know. That was put in place sometime last year, about September. In fact the first time I saw something like that, it was when we were in Australia. When I broke down, they gave me the same guide. They told me that when I start coming back this is how it should be. I should bowl this amount, this period of time, exactly. That's how they structured it.

So you would have to then tell your playing captain that you can't bowl more than this.

Yes, that I can't bowl more than this amount in a day's play.

Gus Logie, the West Indies coach, criticized the fitness level of the players when they assembled in Antigua prior to the African tour. How seriously do you take your physical fitness? What is your routine like on match days?

Very seriously. On match days when I get to the ground, I always try to be one of the first persons out of the dressing room in order to get warm. I do my private warm up before the trainer takes over. I try to do some stuff before so that I'm loose for the trainer, to be much looser when you get into the game.

What about when you're not playing cricket?

I go to the gym. We get passes from the Cricket Association to Spartan Gym. When I'm not playing cricket, I'm a student at UTECH (University of Technology). I started school but now I'm on a leave of absence because with First Class cricket, it's hard to go to school and play.

The senior team players have been accused of partying late into the night during a match. Assuming that this is accurate, what is your opinion of this? Would you personally be able to perform the next day if you stayed out late?

Well it would have affected me. I wouldn't be able to concentrate. Well you must be a bit tired because rest is very important so I personally, I just go to my bed if I know I have cricket the next morning, because I don't want to come and fall asleep on the field and then the crowd get on you. That is not good.

So for example last Saturday night, what time you went to bed?

I went to bed Saturday night...about 9:30, 10:00. Quite early.

I read that you also played football and did track & field at Kingston College (KC), but settled on cricket. Why?

Yes, what happened is that I started playing football for KC. I even captained the U-14 team and at the same time I started doing track I didn't start to play cricket as yet. But I wanted to do the long jump U-14 at boys' champs and they didn't give me a space on the team. So I got vex and I went and played cricket. I tell them I not coming back, I'm not coming back to track training anymore because they have guys who I'm better than doing the long jump, so I tell them I'm not coming back. And they always cuss about that.

Did they tell you the reason they didn't select you for the long jump?

Because they said I had two more years left in Class 3 so they going to wait until I'm 14 to which I said "I can't wait two years". I was about 12 at the time.

So that's why you went to cricket?

Not really you know. I used to play cricket before but the thing is that I knew I could play cricket, but just as I started playing cricket I tell them I not coming back to track and field anymore, I will stay with cricket.

What made you want to become a fast bowler?

Mikey Holding.

You saw him bowling?

Saw him. The first time I saw him on tape I was about 6 years old. My father used to have cricket tapes at home and I saw Mikey. I saw him getting guys out, like that 14 wickets he got in that game, yeah, I used to always watch that clip and say "yeah I want to try and bowl fast". I used to play backyard cricket with my friends. I always got them out and I said "I'm going to try and bowl faster and faster everyday".

So when you first started to play cricket for Kingston College, Michael Holding (a KC old boy) was who you most admired. Who do you try and bowl like now? Who do you try to emulate now?

Nobody. I try to be as comfortable as I can. I don't try and emulate and really try to be like anybody in particular. Because if you gonna try and do that basically you have to make changes in your bowling technique, in your style. I do basically what I think will work for most of the guys - common line and length, subtle variation of pace, and hopefully that works. I see it work for most of the guys. I guess accuracy and pace probably is the key.

The West Indies bowling attack has not been the same since the retirement of Walsh and Ambrose. You're still very young. You must fancy your chances in the future?

Yes I do.

Do you think that the injury has affected your chances?

Well definitely yes. It has set me back big time because basically I didn't play for a year and that year that I was off, basically it took me another year to sort of get back to where I was before I got injured. It was a long time, because I had to sit down and watch a lot of cricket and that was very very very hard to do. So I just had to do what I had to do in order to come back.

What did you do in 2002?

I played for UWI in the Red Stripe Bowl. I wasn't fit to play in the 4-day competition. I came back afterwards for UWI because I registered for UTECH and it was a combined university team.

What do you think it will take on your part to earn a call up to the senior side?

Get more wickets. Get more wickets and make more runs.

But Tino Best got 39 wickets last year and he played one match.

Well Tino got selected based on the number of wickets he got, so if anyone is able to get the wickets, the selectors will have to have a look on you, even though it's always down to the selectors to make the decision. But you would have to put yourself in a position for them to justify the selection of you.

If you look at Fidel Edwards, if you look at Dwayne Smith and even Jerome Taylor, that theory would have holes in it.

That's why I say it's all down to the selectors. They have to decide who they think is suitable to represent the region at a particular time.

Have any of the past West Indies fast bowlers come in the nets and helped you?

Yes, Courtney (Walsh). In fact Courtney was in the nets with us this week. Courtney always comes around, when he has the time. Courtney always shares a good word with us, always has very inspirational things to say and he always tries to spots things you are doing that doesn't seem to be right. He always tries to help you out in technique and strategies. He is always good like that.

You turned up late because of illness, to the Shell Academy in Grenada. What caused this?

I was in Maryland playing cricket and I got food poisoning. I was in the hospital for a few days. I was supposed to come home from Maryland like today and leave for Grenada tomorrow, but because I got sick I had to stay a week. So I spent a couple days in Maryland and a few more days here. I went to the Academy about a week and a half late.

Tell me about that experience because I noticed one person who should have gone - Dwayne Bravo - opted out. Was it useful?

For me personally, it was. If you're going to be at a place for 3 months and you're going to play cricket every day, you must improve. If you don't want to improve, something's wrong with you, you shouldn't be there, so if you're gonna be there, you have to put in a lot of work. We had the gym so I got a lot of strengthening on my legs and there were a lot of times when you had free time and you'd go and practice on a particular area. So it was very, very, very, very important for me.

What is your favourite cricketing moment?

Yesterday (day 2, Barbados vs Jamaica). Because my mother was here to see it. My mother doesn't really get the time to come and watch cricket all the time because she has to work so she only can come on a Sunday. That's why I really wanted to get 5 wickets yesterday but just one of them things. You just have to live with that.

Is there anything else at all that you would like to say?

Anybody who has a good word to say to me, positive words, I'm always open. Don't be afraid to talk to me, I don't bite. I talk to anybody who is willing to talk to me. I'm a very friendly person even though probably I don't smile a lot. But I'm very friendly, easy to get along with, not a lot of things bother me and I'm always open for a joke.