“I think I got out twice on the one day, tried to slog one and got out, and then by the end of the day we were battling to save it and I got out again. Then I raced off to the airport once the game was over, we saved the game, and then I met my daughter for the first time.
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“It was in an era when that was just what we did. When my son was born, Dean, a couple of years earlier, I was in the West Indies. So I didn’t see him for a couple of weeks. It was a very, very different time.”
Konstas is ‘a long-term player for sure’
How different, exactly, was summed up by the fearless batting of 19-year-old Sam Konstas on Boxing Day, tearing into Jasprit Bumrah and company with a series of ramp shots that set the Australians on their way to a memorable triumph.
Border, though by his own admission a traditionalist, likes what he sees from Konstas, and expects more to follow. Border compares Konstas’ attack on Bumrah to how he felt as a captain when Sir Ian Botham was raining blows on the Australian bowlers.
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“If you look at that first day, India really had no answer. All of a sudden he put it to them and they really had no answer to that batting,” Border says. “Traditionally you have the field up for the new ball, so what do you do? You start spreading the field.
Old firm: Steve Smith receives the Border-Gavaskar Trophy from Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar after Australia won the series 2-0 in 2015.Credit: Reuters
“Having been through it with someone like Ian Botham – he didn’t do it all the time but every now and then he’d start whacking it – it’s very hard to get it right. What do you tell the bowler, what field do you set, it’s really difficult not to go on the defensive, and then once you do that, the opposition have got the momentum. It’s really difficult to combat.
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“I’m a big wrap – only watched him play a few times, but he’s got a great technique when he needs to have one, and he also can play a lot of shots if he has to. So he’s got both games – he’s going to be a long-term player for sure.”
‘How are you travelling?’
It’s been about 18 months since Border revealed to the world that he has been tackling Parkinson’s disease for some years, an admission that brought a flood of well wishes and a further reminder of the frailties of life.
As a Fox Cricket commentator, Border’s condition has been very public. But he speaks happily of how it is being managed through deep brain stimulation treatment and also of the love shown by friends, colleagues, teammates and foes around the world.
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“It’s going as well as can be expected,” Border says. “My 100 per cent is a bit different to a lot of people’s. I’ve had deep brain stimulation – they actually put these electrode-type things into an area of your brain that they know hasn’t been affected by Parkinson’s.
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“And you’ve got this little machine you can ramp up or down, and it’s an alternative to taking some drugs to manage it. I can get around, have a game of golf, go for a walk, those sorts of things. I won’t be running any marathons any time soon, but I’m coping pretty well.
“I get a lot more phone calls saying, ‘How are you travelling?’. So that’s good that people have got that in the back of their mind. They’re thinking of me, so that’s good.”
Border has also reflected on some great friends he has lost in recent years: Shane Warne, Dean Jones, Andrew Symonds and Rod Marsh to name four.
“It’s tragic when blokes lose their lives early,” he says. “Warnie, especially, hadn’t checked himself out as far as his lifestyle, diet and all the rest of it.
“He was a larger-than-life character, and we’ve lost him way too young. That was, I reckon, a preventable death, because if he’d been to a heart specialist he would’ve been straight onto the operating table.”
Border with Shane Warne at the SCG in January 1994.Credit: Brendan Esposito
There is similar pause drawn from the 10th anniversary of Phillip Hughes’ death. Border admits that, over 16 years playing for Australia, he never thought it was possible to die on the field. But he did recall one occasion where he could not see the ball.
“The game, itself, lost a little bit of innocence, because I don’t think anyone ever thought you could actually die playing cricket,” he says. “I remember facing Michael Holding one day in Perth, bowling with a white ball and the old Perth wicket was white and I was shitting myself, because I couldn’t see the ball. It was so hard to pick up.
“Bad light is a funny one – if you need 10 runs to get, nine wickets in hand, you’re never going to come off for light, are you? I think, especially with lights now, you have to play a little bit longer. But the trouble is if someone does get hurt, what’s the litigation potential?”
Smith is ‘in the top echelon ever’
Steve Smith has reached the SCG needing 38 runs to become the fourth Australian to pass 10,000 in Tests. Border was the first to do so, in January 1993, before overtaking Gavaskar to claim the world mark later that year.
He rates Smith among the very top of all players apart from Sir Donald Bradman – in the company of Greg Chappell, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara.
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“It’s a testimony to the hard work he’s put in,” Border says of Smith. “He’s not the bloke where you say to your son, ‘Here’s a technique you’ve got to follow’, but it’s worked for him, and that’s a good sign that you know your game. He’s done it so well, because it’s not a technique for everyone. He’s in the top echelon. There’s prettier players, but not many who’ve got that record.
“Averaging 57 or so is in the top echelon ever, if you take one certain bloke [Bradman] out of it and he’s right up there with the very, very best. As far as Australia’s concerned, we’ve had Greg Chappell, Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, those sorts of players.
“But now Steve ranks equally with that group, no problems whatsoever. I’m a huge fan of Tendulkar and Lara, they were phenomenally good cricketers, but Steve is definitely up with that lot, for sure.”
‘I wouldn’t be going past the Ashes with Usman’
As for the future, Border implores the Australian selectors to look closely at how they will regenerate the current team – not just by moving incumbent players on, but being careful with the young players who replace them. He raised the example of a young Steve Waugh as an instance of picking and sticking.
“We’ve got to start the refreshing process – I think everyone realises that. They’re all in their 30s apart from Konstas, basically,” Border says. “We’re going to need three or four new quickies, [and] at least one opening batsman. I wouldn’t be going past the Ashes with Usman [Khawaja], [and] then there’s Smithy.
“But if you’re going to pick guys, give them a decent run at it. Don’t try guys for a game or two [and] then move on – that’s the worst thing you can do. Steve Waugh is a good example. He was a very different player after about 30 games, [and] then got dropped. But when he came back in, there was a harder edge to the way he played his cricket, and the results started to come for him.
India’s Virat Kohli talks to Australia’s Sam Konstas (second left) as Usman Khawaja (right) steps in.Credit: AP
“Our Test team will be the hardest side to pick. The rest of the formats we’ll be very well covered. It’s just getting the right blokes on the field at the right time. But [in] Test cricket, replacing Starc and Hazlewood will be harder than they think, because we don’t have obvious replacements.”
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India, meanwhile, have helped produce a blockbuster series, featuring the best-attended Test match in Australian history at the MCG. Border regards relations between India and Australia as far more personable than during his time, but points to Virat Kohli’s attempt to ruffle Konstas as a symbol of the rivalry’s real spark.
“Because of India’s greater involvement in the game financially, it’s just become stronger and stronger,” he says. “The pie that the players can take their slice from is getting bigger and bigger. It’s a growing prestige, that trophy. In 1986 we started something with the tied Test in Madras.
“That’s where the rivalry started, the clash of cultures and all the rest that went with it. The players know each other very well now, but the rivalry is not dead. Virat Kohli doesn’t do that every day of the week, and that was frustration about a young kid taking the game away from them. They get on well off the field, but on the field it’s on. No prisoners.”
