The Pink Report

G Whizz

A flurry of milestones has gone toppling all at once for evergreen Graeme Aldridge. One minute the 34-year-old mainstay of the Yahoo!NZ Northern Knights’ bowling attack was playing his 100th one-day game for the Knights; the next he was taking his career best first-class figures and knocking off 250 wickets for ND while he was at it. 

“G” started the season on 244 first-class wickets, behind only Joey Yovich (255) and Cliff Dickeson (282). Now he’s bounded up to 254, and has taken a five-for in a first-class innings 11 times for his side. That’s just one behind Auckland defector Bruce Martin’s record dozen. 

On the one-day lists, Graeme is the eighth player in the select club to have played 100 games for Northern Districts, after Robbie Hart (122), Grant Bradburn (121), Michael Parlane (117), Joey Yovich (110), James Marshall (110), Mark Bailey (103) and Matt Hart (102). He’ll play his 102nd one-dayer tomorrow at the Mount and we caught up with him there to find out what it all meant to G himself.

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So the big question, how’s the weather at the Mount?

G: It’s been raining all morning, but it started to clear around midday. So instead of training at 10am, we trained at 1pm and it was looking all right - blue sky. 

So you’ve been busy setting personal bests here, there and everywhere. Which of the milestones has been most significant to you?

G: The 100 games is quite big. I didn’t really think about it much leading up to the game - once you’re travelling around playing, you just live for the game coming up and you don’t really think about extraneous things too much. But it’s the sort of thing I’ll look back on with pride once I’ve finished. I’m proud of it - but it will probably mean more in five or six years’ time. 

How did the team recognise it on the day, or the day before?

G: Grant Bradburn mentioned something about it and James mentioned it just before we went out, and then I got the opportunity to say a few words during the warm-up on the day of the game. So that was nice. But at the same time, it’s a game like any other and you’re just trying to go out there to win the game for ND. 

Alas after the loss in Dunedin and the washout on the weekend, we’re not doing quite so well on the one-day front, so far.

No, not yet. We’ve only had one and a half games though, so it’s not time to panic. On the other hand, it is only a short competition (eight rounds) and we need to get going at some point. We only need to place in the top four of the six teams to make the business end, and I looked at the points table this morning and we’re third equal (the Volts lead the competition with 9 points; the Aces and Wizards have 7; the Knights and Stags have two; and the Firebirds zero). A win here or there and we’re back in it. 

I tend to think washouts can play too big a role in such a rapid-fire competition, but I guess at least your game wasn’t the only one rained off on Sunday. 

Yeah, a shame though as in hindsight it would have been a good chase the other day. We’ve definitely got the batting to do it, and if we’d got up there we would have got a jump on Auckland and CD, who were rained out. But it wasn’t to be. So we’ll just have to beat Auckland tomorrow.

What’s the track like at the Mount?

It was very good on Sunday, actually. Probably the best one we’ve played on there, to be fair, and it was good to see the improvement at the ground. It had a bit more pace in it, which helps scoring. It’s quite a big ground, but it’s always had a fast outfield too, so those two factors sort of cancel each other out.  

That bodes well for the four HRV Cup games there this summer...

Yeah, definitely. I think over the past couple of years that we’ve been here for the HRV, they haven’t been bad tracks, but just a little bit slow, which makes scoring hard - and obviously Twenty20 is all about big scores and quick runs. Hopefully the Blake Park groundstaff can keep the pace in it when it comes to that time of the year.

Last week was a big win at Seddon Park: long time since you’ve had a four-day win at HQ!

It was very satisfying. I actually had never really been aware of the home record stats there until last season when they were highlighted to us - and because it was the first win at Seddon Park for some of the guys in the team, it was very significant to them. I was just glad we managed to go into the Plunket Shield break with a reasonable lead in the competition. I think that was the most satisfying part. Looking at the two teams, Canterbury had a very young side and it was a team we should have beaten on paper. So after the first day, it was pleasing that we fought, came from behind and really got our noses ahead. Then we put the foot down and kept it there. 

It seems a shame to be putting away the whites at the moment - the four-day team’s going from strength to strength.

Yeah, that’s the only negative about it. But I think we’ve got enough experienced guys in the group now that, come February when it’s time to get back in the whites, nothing much will change. Nothing really changes a whole lot with our team anyway, between the one-dayers and the four-dayers.

Do you change in the way you prepare for the one-dayers, yourself?

There’s just a few specific deliveries you’ve got to train a bit more in the nets, like your slow balls and yorkers. That’s the only difference really for myself. 

How was Zimbabwe?

I enjoyed the trip. I got a chance in the Twenty20s and the one-dayers; didn’t get a chance in the test. I think what I’ve taken out of it is a rough idea of the standards in international cricket, albeit that Zimbabwe isn’t one of the best teams internationally. I know how the Blackcaps work now in their team environment, I know what’s expected of you once you get in there and hopefully there’s another chance not too far away. If there is, I’ll be able to slip back in there quite easily, knowing how it all runs now. 

What was the country itself like?

A bit run down at the moment, but you could tell it was a nice country at one stage and that they’re trying their best to make cricket big again. They’ve got a core of players who can compete internationally, though I think when they get back into international cricket full-time their depth might be tested. But they’re working on it. From our point of view, the downer of the tour was losing the one-dayer when we bowled pretty awfully and couldn’t defend. But we won the test well in the end and every other game on tour. It wasn’t the easiest place to go and play - the heat and altitude (almost 5000 feet above sea level, which makes the air thinner in oxygen) and the conditions that we played in took some adjusting to. 

Did you get nosebleeds from exerting yourself in the altitude? I’ve known a few cricketers to have had that problem there on tour.

It wasn’t too bad - but I remember getting them on the New Zealand A trip. It took a few days to get used to. 

Did President Mugabe come over to shake everyone’s hand? When I was at the Harare Cricket Club in 1988, the game stopped dead, everyone had to line up and shake his hand, and then carry on playing with two of his heavies, armed with automatic rifles, standing right in front of the sightscreen at either end. Not that anyone was going to tell them to move!

No, not this time! We knew his house was across from the ground though, heavily fenced with security all around him and on the road.

So now, with you creeping up the first-class wickets list, do you think about Cliff Dickeson’s record? Is it in your sights?

Yeah, if I get it this year I’m going to have a very good season. If not this year, I’d love to knock it off next season. It’s something I’m looking at, but at the same time it’s not high on the agenda. For me it’s more about playing every game, helping us win by taking wickets, winning games and titles. Things like Cliff’s record are an outcome of that and so yes, hopefully, I might eventually pass him. It’s a record that’s been around for quite a while now. 

Final thoughts before Round 3 tomorrow?

The game tomorrow’s a big one for us. We’ve got possibly a guy on debut in Anurag, if he gets a game, and if Joey is still injured then Daryl has only played one game so far and gets his second here. If James Baker plays, it will only be his second game, too. It’s a new team and we’re playing a strong Auckland team, so if we get up, that will be a good one. I think you just need to be a bit patient and let guys find their feet, and hopefully they find them quite quickly and help us win games. 

It feels like half the team is in Australia at the moment.

Yeah, I think I read this morning that we’ve got seven over there at the moment. I’m not sure if anyone’s going to fly back early, but we’ll see what happens I guess.