Bhubaneswar: Australian fast bowling great Jeff Thomson firmly believes that the excessive money being poured in for the cricketers nowadays is heavily hampering the players’ individual games.
“In our times, we only played Test matches or four-dayers as there were no one-dayers. In those games we played against international players in the domestic level and it helped in shaping us up. These games were basically feeders to the international cricket,” Thomson, who took 200 wickets in 51 Test matches, said while participating in a discussion on ‘The death of the Test fast bowler” at the Ekamra Sports Literary Festival here, Friday.
“On the other hand, too much money is pouring into cricket nowadays resulting in the players ignoring club or the domestic games, which would have otherwise given them the ticket to the next level. Today, they are running behind money playing for various T20 leagues around the world and, in the process, they are damaging their game.”
Thomson, however, did not seem to be too optimistic about the kangaroos’ chances in the upcoming ICC World Cup scheduled for June 2019 in England.
“As the situation stands, I see Australia finishing fifth or sixth. But with the bans (of David Warner and Steve Smith) ending maybe in March, the team will still have two-three months to buckle up,” the former pacer added.
Thomson added that the 12-month bans imposed on Smith and Warner was ‘a bit too harsh’. Asked about India’s chances in the series Down Under starting next month, the 68-year-old believes that the ‘men in blue’ are firm favorites and would streamroll Australia in the Test series.
“Steve and David have been the backbone of the Australian team. Without them the batting looks very average. You (India) have a solid team and a very good fast bowling unit. There is no reason why you should not steamroll Australia,” said Thomson.
Referring to the change in the playing conditions, Thomson asserted that it has made a huge impact. “It is heavily tilted towards batsmen. The balls are a problem, pitches have changed and have become flat, boundaries are smaller, bats are heavier and even miss hits can go to boundaries,” the former pacer added.
Asked to name the five best batsmen in the world he has bowled to during his career, Thomson mentioned Brian Lara, Vivian Richards, Sunil Gavaskar, Greg Chappell and Barry Richards.