Dirk Nannes made his debut for Australia in 2009 at the age of 33, just three years after making his first appearance in first-class cricket. A left-arm seam bowler capable of bowling with genuine pace, Nannes didn't appear to be destined to play cricket after he devoted a significant amount of time to skiing, going on to compete at World Cup events in the sport. He had actually made his international debut for the Netherlands in May 2009 and was part of the team that defeated England in the 2009 World T20 but was plucked from the Dutch side by Australia after a number of impressive performances,
Nannes retired from first-class cricket in 2010 after injuries prevented him from participating in the longer format of the game, choosing to concentrate on limited overs cricket. He has experienced success in T20Is, playing 17 matches and taking 28 wickets at 16.39. Nannes was the top wicket-taker in the 2010 World T20, claiming 14 wickets as he helped Australia reach the final of that tournament.
Nannes as well as being a familiar voice and face in media circles, is regularly plying his trade in Twenty tournaments around the world where he has represented Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, Melbourne Renegades amongst others.
In an exclusive interview with PakPassion.net Nannes spoke on a number of topics including the standard of fast bowlers in the Champions Trophy, Australia's performance at the tournament, the two new-ball rule and the contentious topic of ball tampering.
by Saj Sadiq (18th June 2013)
PakPassion.net: Your thoughts on the Pakistani giant Mohammad Irfan?
Dirk Nannes: I like him. I am surprised its taken this long for him to show up in international cricket and why he hasn't been around a bit more. He delivers an awkward bounce and he's generally pretty accurate. He's been bowling good yorkers which, actually, is surprising because I thought it would have been quite hard to do for him.
In the two games that I've seen him play, he's bowled good yorkers. He's a bit slow around the field, but you're going to get that when you're over 7 foot. I like him because he hits the wicket pretty hard. He doesn't give the batsman too much width to play with. I think all the Pakistan bowlers, particularly the left-handers, and I've been watching them pretty closely, are all very similar in the way they go about their business. They hit a 'first-class' length pretty hard and don't try and float the ball too much to get a lot of swing. They don't try and do too much with it, which a lot of the time can be pretty successful. I think that's the right way to go about it. The little I have seen, I've been impressed with.
PakPassion.net: Wahab Riaz, came into this tournament on the fringes of the starting lineup. However he's impressed and bowled with good pace throughout the tournament. Your thoughts on Wahab and any areas for his development?
Dirk Nannes: I saw him in the game against South Africa and he bowled pretty well. He bowled fast and accurate. In the past he's been guilty of being a bit inconsistent where he would bowl an absolute genius spell and the next spell he would get absolutely belted everywhere.
As a fast bowler, sometimes you have a good day and a bad day, but his good and bad days were wildly different - there were probably issues of consistency with him. However, like I said before with Irfan, he has a good intent in terms of hitting the wicket hard. Any bowler that does that is pretty good in my book.
PakPassion.net: India haven't been blessed with too many fast bowlers in the past. They now have Umesh Yadav, who is capable of cranking it up to 140-145kph. He looks like a pretty good prospect?
Dirk Nannes: If he can stay on the park, for sure! His trouble historically has been is that he gets injured all the time. But he's fast, he's learned to move the ball and he's got a slower ball now. He can also move the ball both ways. He also has a solid, strong build and he's athletic. He's one of the few shining lights in the fast bowling department for India and there's not that many around to speak of.
At the moment they're going fine because they have their full pace barrage up and running. Probably the only exception to that is Zaheer Khan who when they picked the final squad wouldn't have been fit and they would have questioned whether he would be fit enough for this tournament. The last couple of games he played in the IPL he bowled exceptionally well so I wouldn't count him out in future, but for the time being they [Indians] are going well. They've got a couple of good young kids ? although, they haven't got an out-and-out paceman, but the youngsters that are coming through hopefully they can keep them on the park and I'm sure that's what they're aiming to do.
PakPassion.net: The two white-ball rule, many observers around the world thought it was something that would help new-ball bowlers, but it appears that in this tournament, it hasn't worked like that?
Dirk Nannes: It might help if the ball was swinging! When it's not swinging the two new balls go the distance ? they're good hard balls! Sometimes the advantage for a fast bowler is having a ball 35-50 overs old and it just gets soft and hard to hit. You can set your field, for example, a straight field to try and bowl full to get people to hit down the ground to mid-on or mid-off.
When the ball is hard, it's very difficult to get a batsman to do that because they can hit the ball 360 degrees around the ground. When it's a slow and an old ball, you can't do that as well. The two new balls can also make it difficult for the spinners too because it's a new ball and you can just get whacked everywhere.
(laughs) They thought they'd bring it in to help the bowlers, but don't believe everything you hear! It's a batsman's game after all.
PakPassion.net: Why hasn't the ball swung at all in this tournament, barring one or two matches?
Dirk Nannes: I have no idea! Normally here in England, it swings around corners, or at least in the first few overs. But, the wickets have been very dry. I really have no idea why it hasn't swung but these are unusual conditions for England.
PakPassion.net: Would you agree that there has been very little seam movement too?
Dirk Nannes: The wickets are too dry - unusually dry and dusty. You don't often see one-day tracks that are so dusty in England. You see that whenever that hovercraft rain cover comes over the wicket and the dust goes everywhere. That's why you're not seeing any seam movement ? the wickets are so old and flat.
This should not have too much impact on the swing apart from scuffing the ball up. The first ball of the game you normally get the white ball to 'hoop' but at the moment, you're not really seeing that.
PakPassion.net: We're seeing fielding teams throwing the ball in on the bounce, sometimes two bounces, to try and gain an advantage. Your thoughts on the ruling where the fielding team is being warned by umpires for throwing the ball in on the bounce?
Dirk Nannes: It's a tricky one. As a bowler you are trying to do everything humanly possible to swing the game to your advantage. Throwing the ball into the crease and getting the ball to reverse swing can save your team 50, 60, 70 runs if you can get it done early enough and get the ball hooping for a long period of time.
Everyone wants to do it and throwing the ball into the wicket is one way of doing it whilst holding the ball cross-seam is another method - Any way you can rough the ball up is a good thing. Now the umpires over the last 3 or 4 years are cracking down more and more, to the point that one throw and they are on to you! As soon as you throw once [like that],you get a warning for it! It gets frustrating from a bowler's point of view because you can't scuff the ball up.
I don't think that this is necessarily the right way to police it, especially with two new balls. You know, there?s all that controversy at the moment about whether England are scratching the ball or not or tampering with the ball. The easy way to fix it would be to let the umpires to decide at the end of an over; "Well I?ve had the ball in my hand six balls ago, now I?ve got the ball in my hand again and it looks completely different to the ball I had an over ago. Let?s not penalize you but just change the ball."
PakPassion.net: As they did the other night when England were bowling?
Dirk Nannes: Yes, just change the ball, you don?t have to accuse anyone of anything just change the ball and move on, you know, you?re not trying to tell anyone they are guilty of doing something, you?re just changing the ball and no one should argue with that.
PakPassion.net: Ball tampering has been a controversial subject over the years and its reared its ugly head at this tournament. Have you seen any evidence of any ball tampering during the Champions Trophy?
Dirk Nannes: In this tournament, I haven?t seen any evidence, no, but anecdotally, seeing someone swing the ball in its 8th over, my word! I?ve never seen that done before. Yes I don?t understand how people could do that as was the case in the recent England Australia game. Who knows how they got it to happen - but anyways! The trouble that England have at the moment is that they are the best in the world at reverse swing at the moment. Everyone is trying to do it, it?s just that they?re getting a lot of flak because they are so successful at getting the ball to reverse swing.
PakPassion.net: Whereas teams like Pakistan, who?ve been able to do it at will over the years are struggling with that. Now there?s a few raised eyebrows how England can do it so quickly?
Dirk Nannes: I think that?s happened with Pakistan because there is more scrutiny on Pakistan, everyone is watching them. That?s just what happens and sometimes you just need a good proponent of it at mid-on or mid-off or somewhere in the field that can assist in getting the ball to reverse swing. Whether that?s through lollies on one side or scratches on the other or whatever else they are doing. You just need someone to look after the ball properly and England are doing that the best at the moment.
PakPassion.net: What did you make of the recent David Warner and Joe Root incident, have you ever been tempted to clock someone on the chin?
Dirk Nannes: No I?ve never been in a fight in my life, I don?t know where the truth lies with that whole thing so it?s difficult to comment. Clearly something has happened! At the end of the day no matter what has happened clocking somebody in the bar is never the right decision to make, so clearly he?s in the wrong.
He?s been slapped on the wrist or whacked across the head for it, whatever you see the fine as being, but yes, it?s not good for him, especially when you know you?re already in the spotlight like Dave Warner is, he?s always in the spotlight, everyone is looking for him to do something wrong. If it was a Phil Hughes or Xavier Doherty you probably wouldn?t even hear about it, but because its Dave Warner it?s kind of like if something happens to KP [Kevin Pietersen] - Everyone?s going to hear about it so its just poor decision making really.
PakPassion.net: Your thoughts on the Australian bowlers and how they?ve gone about their business in this tournament?
Dirk Nannes: The bowling has been good, I think McKay and Faulkner have both been good, Mitchell Johnson looks excellent again, Shane Watson?s been good with his subtle variation, he bowls straight and doesn?t give any width. Australia?s problem is just their batting, pure and simple, not much else to it. I think the bowling attack is well suited to the conditions we?ve got at the moment - but it would have been nice to have another quality spinner.
PakPassion.net: Take Michael Clarke out of the batting lineup and it?s a fair chunk of the experience, the expertise, especially on these sort of wickets. That seems to be Australia?s problem at the moment, are those batsmen not coming through or is it just that the wrong ones were selected for the Champions Trophy?
Dirk Nannes: It?s not that the wrong ones that have been selected, you can?t be the best team in the world forever - form comes and goes. You can?t replace all those players. So at the moment this is the best we?ve got, its not that they are picking the wrong people. Maybe a couple, you could probably put a Dave Hussey or Aaron Finch or a few of those sorts of guys in this team but by and large there?s nobody who?s knocking or banging the door down, maybe with the exception of Aaron Finch. His form probably demanded that he gets picked but there?s not much else you can do unless someone is scoring thousands of runs at home.
PakPassion.net: Mike Hussey and Ricky Ponting?s retirements so close together seemed to have hurt the team as well?
Dirk Nannes: Yes it?s difficult to replace those guys but life goes on. These are people who have been hitting the end of their career for a long time, so we should be able to plan for them and fill their holes but unfortunately you can?t easily fill the hole of a Ponting or a Hussey.
Probably the big thing Australia miss now is someone like a Mike Hussey who debuted age 30 for Australia or older. At the moment there?s no one thirty years old demanding selection or having had thousand run seasons for the last 3 or 4 years like Mike Hussey would?ve done. There?s just no one of that quality so what do you do.
PakPassion.net: What do you think of Australia?s chances at the Ashes? Some of the English press and fans seem to think it?s a foregone conclusion, but do you think Australia could spring a surprise?
Dirk Nannes: Look, Australia will do well if they can sort out their batting and if Michael Clarke can play - that's of course a big deal - and if Watson can make some runs. Also I think Chris Rogers in there is a good addition, I think our bowling is going to be alright and if our top and middle order can stand up then Australia will certainly be very competitive.
Hopefully it just comes out to be a great Ashes summer. All you can hope for really is close Test matches. Who knows if Australia are good enough to win or not - I don?t know, but it?s probably too early to tell but certainly a lot of pressure on England that?s for sure.
