Bradburn keen to revisit Pakistan, recalls debut tour with NZ

Published September 19, 2018
NEW fielding coach Grant Bradburn (second L) giving tips to several Pakistan players during a practice session at the ICC Academy in Dubai.—Courtesy PCB
NEW fielding coach Grant Bradburn (second L) giving tips to several Pakistan players during a practice session at the ICC Academy in Dubai.—Courtesy PCB

KARACHI: The newly-hired Pakistan fielding coach Grant Bradburn has expressed a great desire to revisit the country where he made his international debut when New Zealand toured way back in 1990, while saying he was overwhelmed by the warm welcome accorded to him upon his arrival in Dubai last week.

The 52-year-old Bradburn recently stepped down as the Scotland head coach to become part of the Mickey Arthur-led Pakistan team support staff after ex-Australian wicket-keeper Steve Rixon quit post due to personal reasons. The New Zealander came into the equation after Darren Berry, another Australian who is working for current PSL champions Islamabad United, rejected the offer to replace Rixon.

In an exclusive interview with Dawn, the Hamilton-born Bradburn said from Dubai: “The past few days have been very enjoyable since my arrival in the UAE. It is such an honour to join the (Pakistan) team here in Dubai ahead of the Asia Cup. It has just been fantastic and I am very humbled by the warm welcome of the players who have invited me into their families.

“I can’t wait to get to Pakistan at some stage in the near future as part of my (new) role, especially since making my debut in that country way back in 1990. I have some fantastic memories from that tour. I was very much looking forward to getting to Pakistan ever since by first trip.

“So I am really looking forward to meeting a lot of people there. Isn’t it funny how the cricket world goes around and here I am 28 years on from my first international tour, now as part of a great coaching panel led by Mickey Arthur and working with a bunch of extremely talented and enthusiastic cricketers. These are exciting times for Pakistan.”

The former Northern Districts off-spinner, who claimed only six wickets in seven Tests and another six in 11 One-day Internationals between 1990 and 2001, vividly recalled the trip where the Black Caps were clean-swept by Pakistan who won all three Tests and three One-day Internationals.

“Back in 1990, the great (late) Martin Crowe was our captain and that was my debut tour for the Black Caps; so as a youngster I was very excited to be touring Pakistan. There was a clean sweep for Pakistan as we lost the Test series 3-0 and also lost the one-dayers by the same margin,” Bradburn said. “But it was a changing time for New Zealand as a number of senior players had just retired at that point. The likes of (the legendary) Sir Richard Hadlee, John Wright, Bruce Edgar, John Bracewell and Martin Snedden had all stepped aside.”

Despite the reversals, Bradburn still reminiscences his Test debut. “I debuted in Karachi and I’ll never forget receiving my first ball from Wasim Akram. He came around the wicket and myself being a right hander, I sensed that he had given me a gift of leg stump to be able to get off the mark. I shaped to turn through mid-wicket, the ball swung away and missed everything and the wicket-keeper (Saleem Yousuf) took it in front of second slip. That was my welcome to Test cricket.”

Bradburn observed that from a cricketing perspective, he had so many wonderful memories of his maiden international tour.

“It was an amazing experience in a country where people were clearly so knowledgeable about the game and unbelievably passionate about us being there as cricketers. That Pakistani people had so much love for the game was quite remarkable and they were very hospitable. I’ll always remember that because even the net bowlers who came to help us out were very talented,” he remembers. “We just couldn’t believe the number of quality bowlers who would just come up and offer to bowl at us as long as we wanted. There were so many quality spinners who were always available during our training sessions, which was incredible for us as a young team.

“And then I’ll never forget my first Test wicket — Ramiz Raja, caught by Martin Crowe at short leg. But my prized wicket of that series was the great Javed Miandad, who was actually one of my boyhood heroes. I had posters of players I admired on my wall back home and Miandad was certainly one of them. Martin Crowe was another and as were Imran Khan, David Gower and Geoff Boycott.

“And although I loved all those players, but to have the opportunity to play against Miandad, who was Pakistan Captain in that series, was a dream come true. During the second Test (in Lahore), I bowled him an arm ball which spun away and took the edge, and Ian Smith held the catch. That would always be my most prized wicket.”

Recalling the sight of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis running in to bowl at furious pace, Bradburn noted that they were phenomenal and very intimidating for the New Zealand batsmen.

“Wasim and Waqar, they were just incredible during the series and they were relentless. They certainly cleaned up New Zealand in terms of wickets they took. And then there was Aaqib Javed who bowled a few overs. Abdul Qadir was a wonderful leg-spinner who hardly bowled as did Tauseef Ahmed. They weren’t required to bowl a huge amount because Wasim and Waqar were causing havoc in our ranks,” he recalled. “I do remember the lunch breaks where there were three to four guys (in our dressing room) who always had big bags of ice on their feet to recover from the vicious yorkers that Wasim and Waqar bowled time after time.

“While we were generally outplayed by Pakistan, we all thought we had a great chance of actually winning the third Test in Faisalabad where Chris Pringle got 11 wickets for the match after taking 7-52 in the first innings to bowl Pakistan out for 102. But we were thwarted by Shoaib Mohammad who scored another (his third in the series) century. We saw a lot of him during the tour and he batted beautifully throughout the series. But still we were left chasing something like 240 but fell 50-odd short (losing by 65 runs) of the target. That was the closest we got (to match Pakistan) in the series.”

Bradburn also had fond memories of the one-day series. “Another lifelong memory for me, probably, was my ODI debut in Peshawar. I’ll never forget the atmosphere in that game. It was incredible turning up two hours before the match and the ground was jam-packed with passionate fans.

“There were no sightscreens from our batting point of view because in the coliseum of the stadium the black-painted seats served as the sightscreens. There was no chance of the stewards moving the spectators sitting there when we were batting. But when Pakistan batted, there was a beautiful sightscreen visible to all. It was quite amusing because it was something I had never experienced before.”

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2018

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