The Pink Report

Just Chillin’ With Herschelle

OK, so it’s down to the wire. Hold onto your most optimistic hopes for the Yahoo!Xtra Northern Knights tomorrow in Christchurch that the rain shoos and they can get back to that winning feeling and reel home a big one to make that final. If the Aces could do us a favour and thump the Stags, that would be just great, too, but I’m hearing that the large rain front sweeping the country means there could well be two points apiece at Pukekura Park for a washout, which would summarily end the Knights’ HRV Cup. The weather really needs to butt out of cricket.

That’s enough from me. One of the treats for us all in the last few weeks has been having a sportsman the calibre of Herschelle Gibbs in our midst. Engaging and charged up with positive energy, anyone who’s crossed paths with Herschelle while he’s been with the Knights will have got a sense of his commitment to give as much of himself as he can to both the team and their supporters while he’s gigging with them. This after all is a pro who was willing to spend his Christmas Day in a hotel in small, quietened city, half a world away from his family back in Cape Town. So without further ado, I’m handing this column over to my guest blogger for the day to find out what he’s made of his time in pink (or as he says, ‘executive salmon’). Thanks for joining us, Herschelle, it’s been a pleasure.


Herschelle’s Guest Blog:

I’ve never been one to enjoy my breaks from cricket. I hate not playing, I really do! If I haven’t played for three weeks, I get that itch, I need to keep playing. The thing is I know when to switch on and switch off, so it’s something I’m able to do. So, having two months of time off at my disposal is really not for me and I was in the situation earlier this year of knowing that I would have December and January off, as there’s a long break back home in South Africa between our 40-over competition and our Twenty20.

It was about four or five months ago that I was talking with Scott Styris and I said to him, ‘What’s the story, is there any chance of me coming over to play in New Zealand, because I’ve got all time off? So Scott put it to David Cooper and the rest is history.

I arrived in Hamilton at 2am on a Tuesday morning, got to the hotel that would be my home for the next wee while and realised I’d stayed there before. I just couldn’t put my finger on the year. It was either 1999 or 2006, or 2005 or 2004! I settled in nicely, I’ve had a few good nights in Hamilton and enjoyed meeting the locals, although my sleeping patterns for the first 10 days were absolutely lousy. It took me 10 days to adjust. Obviously there’s quite a difference between the time here and in South Africa, virtually half a day. I tried sleeping tablets, but that didn’t quite work, but we eventually got there. At least my pillow was quite decent. It’s always important that you have a good pillow in the hotel! That’s what I’ve learnt over the 20-odd years of travelling and living in hotels: definitely need a good pillow.

My first day here was a fantastic day, almost 30 degrees... and then the next day it bucketed down. For the next three days, in fact. I was waiting for the heat to come back, but instead of we got humidity. I’ve got used to that humidity!

The first week, we went out hammer and tongs a little bit and it was good to get to know the lads in the Knights. All good lads. I can see in the practices that they are all very keen and they are a very close-knit unit, which is great. All understand their cricket, but at the same time I’m here to try to impart as much knowledge as I can. I’ve gained a lot of experience over my career and so I try to be frank and to share my experience to help people to learn and grow and become better cricketers.

The first two or three games, I thought I’d sit back and observe, see how things are done. Then in New Plymouth, the night before we left, I opened up properly, talking about the odd mistake in that game. Because I’m a batter, in general I tend to favour the batters more when it comes to the talks. The things they do on the field, the way they practise, what to think and how not to think: all those sorts of things can make a huge impact on any young player developing and ultimately that’s what I’m here for, to give them some advice. Hopefully they can use it for the rest of their career. Develop good habits when they’re starting out, rather than taking time to really develop.

What did I sense? First of all, that there’s enough talent in Northern Districts, no question of that. It just needs to be nurtured, now. Learn the thought processes. Sometimes players can make it a little bit too complicated for themselves. You hear quite a lot of their talk... and when they come to ask me a question about cricket, I can tell that they’ve thought a lot about what they were going to ask me.

Especially in Twenty20, a lot of what you need to do is on the actual day. I keep saying to them that the only thing that counts in Twenty20, and one day cricket in general, is your ability to do the same things, day in and day out. That’s all it is: repetition. The only thing that changes is conditions. Your field placings don’t change because you see the same field placings every game. You see the same type of bowlers. So it’s the easiest format to learn and learn quickly. The guys that do quite well at it are the ones who execute their skills under pressure more often than not. And that’s all one-day cricket is.

I’ve been lucky enough to have played in every type of one-day cricket situation you can imagine. Unless we’re chasing 450 or 500, I can say that there’s not going to be a one-day game scenario in future that will be unfamiliar to me. I’ve been in every position you can think of, five wickets down for 10 runs, you name it, I’ve seen it all - in every type of conditions. That is why I can impart my knowledge and tell them that no matter what the actual scenario, the constant is that there are always a few critical moments in every game. I told the players in New Plymouth that the more they can recognise the actual moment in game and what needs to be done, the better they will be for it.

In the game at Mount Maunganui, for instance, we made the same mistakes as we had made in the previous game at New Plymouth. Two guys got set, but they got out when I thought they should have anchored the innings a bit more so that other guys could come in, make the other team bowl around them. Same two mistakes in two games. Unfortunately, it was two senior players who made those mistakes, and that doesn’t sit too well, because they should recognise the situation. And I said to them, ‘Look, it’s going to happen. You’ve just got to recognise those moments’. You play the situation, and that was what the situation needed: someone to recognise that.

They can reflect on that, for only they themselves will know why they didn’t recognise that moment. You can talk about it as much as you want, but it’s still up to them to learn. Hindsight’s a wonderful thing, of course! That game in New Plymouth was very much a luck game, whoever batted first on that wicket was sort of on a hiding to nothing. Unfortunately we didn’t quite crack it there, but the thing is at Mount Maunganui we made the two same mistakes.

I’ve enjoyed my time, however, very much. I don’t feel any pressure coming in as an overseas pro and enjoy it. I didn’t do too badly in Yorkshire and played 16 games there. The Yorkshire team is a very young team, too. They are going to be an unbelievable team in the next couple of years and I think if this young Northern Knights bunch sticks together, they could become really good too.

Tim Southee is definitely a bit of a character. He has the exuberance of youth, but he has a bright future. You’ve just got to be careful of the difference between enjoyment and being professional. Hopefully he realises that quickly, some young players work it out much further down the track.

Have I found my inner pink? My executive salmon? I’ve no issues at all with wearing pink! I’m all for it. It’s very 2011 and you’ve got to keep up with the times. Even in the Heineken Cup there are a lot of rugby players wearing pink. The biggest change for me being here was simply that is was a very quiet festive period, completely different to what I’m used to back home, But I enjoy a bit of peace and quiet.
 
The people have been very supportive here and very friendly. I’m an easy-going sort of person and I genuinely enjoy the interaction with people that cricket affords, so that’s been a highlight of my time here in Northern Districts. And it’s been a pleasure to experience some time with the Knights, truly. If for the future they can learn one thing from me having been here, then that’s success for me. Of course I’d like to get at least a 50 or a hundred in the next game, that would be fantastic - and we obviously need to win, and win with a strong run rate, so we’ve got it all to play for. Often the best victories are the ones when when you leave it to the last. So let’s hope!

Cheers and be happy,
Herschelle