Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

143 Triumphs and tribulations as Chairman with regulations. The genuine stitching holding the two halves of the Kookaburra together tends to cause the two edges to ruck a little. This centre bit stands a little bit proud as opposed to the full width of the six genuine stitches on the English ball. It’s this difference in the area of the seam that isn’t so pronounced with the Australian ball that I believe gives the bowler less movement from the ball off the wicket.’ Mike feels there are implications for how Australian bowlers develop. ‘From an early age their seamers have to think more and work harder to get the ball off the straight, and I think in general they utilise more variety in their bowling – change of pace, change of line and so forth.’ He adds: ‘They also have different role models to copy, and I think there is more emphasis by their coaches on getting some sideways movement of the ball rather than just concentrating on hitting the seam on a length and waiting for something to happen. Allied to all this, of course, is control. If you don’t have that, the batsman doesn’t have to work so hard for his runs.’ Exemplifying his belief that the Australian bowlers had a greater variety of deliveries in their armoury, Mike’s report of 1995 added: ‘In the Fifth Test, four of our batsmen were yorked. I did not recollect four decent yorkers bowled by ourselves.’ In passing comment on batting technique, Mike again emphasises how conditions have shaped differences between the two countries: ‘I think Australian batsmen in general are stronger in the straight bat shots off the back foot, and the basic reason for this is that the ball moves less off the wicket than it tends to do in this country, so if it’s a 50:50 length ball, you’ll find more English players pushing forward to smother any movement than you will Australians, who feel they can rely on less movement and therefore get in a position to play the more attacking shot.’ Mike’s paper in the wake of the 1994/95 tour noted that the Australian Cricket Board already had their top players on twelve- month contracts and paid them handsomely, while the states had low rates of pay and had to accept the Board pulling players out of their Sheffield Shield matches – David Boon had just played his first game for Tasmania in two seasons. It was Mike’s view that international players should be paid well, but he believed in the incentive of win bonuses for success in Tests and ODIs. His views mirror those of Mike Atherton as a strong supporter of the central contracts that have subsequently been introduced. However, Mike sees the downside: ‘With the amount of representative cricket that is played now, it makes it very difficult when, as a county, you’ve