FROM THE ARCHIVE: Michael Bevan on Test cricket and facing England

Michael Bevan was the first Canberra-born player to represent Australia and came to be seen as the world’s finest one-day batsman, a left-hander whose nerveless mastery of tight run-chases led to the term 'mthe finisher'

In 2010, Richard Edwards interviewed Australia’s Michael Bevan for the October edition of the magazine.

Michael Bevan was the first Canberra-born player to represent Australia and came to be seen as the world’s finest one-day batsman, a left-hander whose nerveless mastery of tight run-chases led to the term ‘the finisher.’ But his Test career stuttered, blighted by a perceived weakness against the short ball, and he ended up pigeonholed as a limited-overs specialist.

What are your early memories?

Playing representative cricket against all the other states for what was really a minnow Australian Capital Territory side. Back then I was more of a fast bowler than a batsman. I didn’t really start taking batting seriously until the age of 16 when I injured my back.

Did it hamper your development coming from the country’s smallest state?

Given that I always wanted to play for Australia, I knew I would have to change states at some stage but that problem was really solved for me when I was included in the Australian under-19 side and then picked for the Australian Academy in Adelaide.

What are your memories of your first-class debut for South Australia?

We were playing against Western Australia at the Waca in December 1989 and I spent my first two days in the field basically chasing leather and standing at cover watching Geoff Marsh [who scored 355 not out] smash cover drives past me. I did manage to score a hundred in my first innings, though. The wicket was like glass. It’s not like that now but back then the ball was still swinging after 80 overs so it was an unusual experience playing and missing regularly when you were nearing your hundred.

Alan Border’s retirement handed you your international chance in 1994…

AB had called it a day and I suppose you could say that I was the first player to take his place in the Australian side, and for a 23-year-old they were pretty big shoes to fill.

How was your first tour, to Pakistan?

Travelling over there was a new experience but I was pretty excited to be making my Test debut and playing with some of the legends of the game. I scored 80 in my first innings and had a good series. It was probably the best I’d hit them in Test cricket even though I had a pretty dubious start.

I remember taking strike against Wasim Akram for my first ball and he nearly took my head off. After that I did pretty well and I’ve no doubt it was because the wickets and the reverse swing in Pakistan were similar to what I had been used to at the SCG. In the end we lost that first match by one wicket after Heals [Ian Healy] fumbled a stumping and the ball ran for four byes. He was distraught walking off afterwards.

You played two matches of the Ashes series after that Pakistan tour and were then dropped. Was that hard to take?

Funnily enough, being dropped from the Australian team in an Ashes series was probably the first time I had learnt anything about myself and my game and I actually improved as a player after that. Looking back now that was obviously a good thing, but starting that Ashes series so poorly was a real low because I couldn’t work out why I wasn’t performing.

You had such a great record in England but struggled in the Ashes. Why was that?

I played two Ashes series and in both of them I did particularly poorly. I think I averaged over 50 against the West Indies and over 60 against Pakistan, but against England I averaged eight and 13, so there was no in-between for me at that point. It’s hard to put your finger on why that might have happened but, while playing in the Ashes is something that every Australian cricketer looks forward to, from a personal perspective it was a pretty challenging time and ultimately it’s always hard to enjoy it when you’re going through that kind of trot.

A lot of people blamed your failures at Test level in a weakness against the short ball. Was that fair?

I couldn’t work it out at the time because I’d never really had an issue with it in the past but the more it happened, the more of an issue it became. I don’t think I helped myself, I probably put too much focus on trying to play it well and give it too much priority. I probably lacked a little belief.

This article first appeared in the October 2010 issue of The Cricketer

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