Exclusive by Monty Panesar: I don't try to intimidate batsmen

[King]

Cricket: Claiming my first 10-wicket haul in Test cricket is a memory I will always cherish. IÂ’ve only ever had two 10-wicket matches for Northamptonshire and they both came at the end of the season so this was very specialMore... Exclusive by Monty Panesar: I don’t try to intimidate batsmen Last updated at 23:39pm on 12th June 2007 Comments Claiming my first 10-wicket haul in Test cricket is a memory I will always cherish. I’ve only ever had two 10-wicket matches for Northamptonshire and they both came at the end of the season so this was very special. Umpire Aleem Dar gave me the ball to keep as a souvenir at the end of Monday’s match. Whenever I have taken five wickets in an innings I have kept the ball, so I have five in my collection now, as well as the odd stump or two. Scroll down to read more: Jubilation: Monty celebrates with Collingwood, Prior and Vaughan after removing Devon Smith on day four More....

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• Monty scores a perfect 10

At the moment I have them all tucked away in a little box at home — there certainly aren’t enough ‘souvenirs’ to put in a cabinet yet! People have commented on my frequent appealing during the match and I have to admit I probably got a bit too excited when I was bowling on the final day. Perhaps I need to calm down a little but my enthusiasm is such a key part of how I am as a cricketer. When I saw the ball bouncing and turning so much at Old Trafford I just got carried away because it doesn’t happen like that very often. But I’m definitely not trying to pressurise or intimidate the batsman or the umpire. That just isn’t me. Aleem Dar had a word with me at one point, telling me to make sure I appealed before celebrating a wicket but I don’t think he was getting annoyed with me. In fact, he was laughing at my behaviour. He said to me: "I know you’re getting excited, just take it easy." I think most umpires know what I am like now, I’ve been the same since I was very young. But I’ve never been warned by an umpire for excessive appealing. Sometimes I have been told to calm down a bit but that’s all. You can’t play international cricket without trying to be as competitive as possible, but with me what you see is what you get — I am always smiling and excited because I just enjoy playing so much. As far as I’m concerned it is just a game — there are far more serious things happening in the world and I’m just lucky to be doing what I’m doing. I try to keep things in perspective. Outside of cricket I am mostly quite a calm person. It is only in sport that I seem to get worked up. Playing football when I was younger if my team had a goal disallowed I would sometimes moan too much and my aggression would come out. But I was never sent off or anything like that. It is very flattering for the West Indies captain, Daren Ganga, to say I am one of the top three spinners in the world but I don’t think you can put me in that category yet, despite my 10 wickets at Old Trafford. I have taken quite a few wickets for England in the early stages of my Test career but my view is that I have to keep being successful for a much longer period. There are world-class spinners around who have been producing the goods consistently for five or 10 years. In my opinion these four guys are the best in international cricket at the moment (Shane Warne would comfortably make the list but he no longer plays for Australia): Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka): Definitely the No 1. His unique action means he is capable of turning the ball on all surfaces. Anil Kumble (India): He is very experienced so it is relentless pressure, pressure, pressure and he bowls vicious leg breaks. Harbhajan Singh (India): He seems to make the ball spit at you so consistently and he has mastered a dangerous doosra (off spinner’s equivalent of a leg spinner’s googly). Daniel Vettori (New Zealand): He provides left-arm variation, alters his pace cleverly and keeps taking wickets on green pitches. The skill of a true spinner — the art — is what I’m still learning. I am not an artist yet. It is all about subtle variations and strategies. Vettori and Harbhajan are the masters of that kind of stuff. People talk about top spinners having the ball on a string and that is what I am trying to achieve. Phil Tufnell had the ball on a string — he knew how to bowl to different batsmen at different pace. He was a real genius of left-arm spin. There seems to be a lot of talk about whether I need more variation in my bowling but that’s something I have to acquire as I go along. There were even suggestions that I bowled a doosra at Old Trafford, but I think the ball must have just hit a pebble in the rough and gone the other way! Our next match is at the Riverside and I don’t expect the conditions to suit me as much there. So my message to the fans is: Please don’t expect miracles. I’m not going to take 10 wickets every time.

[King]

Good stuff, Monty seems very grounded and has a good head. He's not getting carried as yet. I quite like Aleem Dar, he is one of those rare umpires to come out of Pakistan that is as good as anyone can be. He is already a top class umpire and knows how to handle the players. I have plenty of respect for Aleem Dar.

[Ram]

" There were even suggestions that I bowled a doosra at Old Trafford, but I think the ball must have just hit a pebble in the rough and gone the other way!".. what a contrast to a certain Mr.Glenn Mcgrath , who actually had the spunk to suggest that he deliberately made the ball bounce low in the infamous Harper-Sachin-Shoulder-LBW incident.. Ofcours he never bowled that ball again in his career... maybe he just "forgot" how to bowl it... :tounge_smile:

[King]

" There were even suggestions that I bowled a doosra at Old Trafford, but I think the ball must have just hit a pebble in the rough and gone the other way!".. what a contrast to a certain Mr.Glenn Mcgrath , who actually had the spunk to suggest that he deliberately made the ball bounce low in the infamous Harper-Sachin-Shoulder-LBW incident.. Ofcours he never bowled that ball again in his career... maybe he just "forgot" how to bowl it... :tounge_smile:

Or replace it with I have found out "Tesra" the third one Saqlain or I have found a new ball Harbhajan Singh :tounge_smile:

[Ram]

Or replace it with I have found out "Tesra" the third one Saqlain or I have found a new ball Harbhajan Singh :tounge_smile:

:haha::haha: BTW , why is this Panesar guy being so brutally honest in his columns anyway ? Like other trash talking superstars, he should also declare a bunny before every series, question Murali's action and say he aims to be the best spinner in the world and all that blah blah..... Then we can say --- Yes , he is an intnl cricketer now...

[Lurker]

Good bloke this Monty is. His celebrations and quite infectious and it was quite funny to hear Ian Chappell talk of Monty as "smiling Sardarji" when Monty took 5 at Perth. Coming back to this interview, nice and honest interview. Shows him in good light. I just think he is perhaps too lavish in his praise towards Harbhajan and Tufnell. If Bhajji is an artist then he is the kind whose canvases never sells, as for Tufnell being a left-arm genius gimme a break. Good bowler yes but left arm genius? To be called a genius you should be able to get in top 10 bowlers of that kind, I doubt Tufnell makes it. xxx

[Ram]

Though i think Panesar is over cooking this I-am-modest-guy thingy... either he is really lik this , or he is extremely adept at image-managent...

[Guest dada_rocks]

There were even suggestions that I bowled a doosra at Old Trafford, but I think the ball must have just hit a pebble in the rough and gone the other way! :thumbs_up: Bowlers know when they get lucky and honest ones even accept that. Despite whole world going gaga over mystery ball from warne he has been on record saying it was fluke it must have hit something. Good on Monty lage raho, and yes it's a game after-all except when we are playing against Pakistan:giggle:

[Guest dada_rocks]

Or replace it with I have found out "Tesra" the third one Saqlain or I have found a new ball Harbhajan Singh :tounge_smile:

that teesra series ended up being his last series.. Even dossara is just renaming because old-timers say prasanna used to bowl it 20 years before him..

[Holysmoke]

Anil Kumble (India): He is very experienced so it is relentless pressure, pressure, pressure and he bowls vicious leg breaks. :hysterical::haha:

[gator]

Lurks.... Tufnell was the Siva of England... he lost it somewhere.... but he had the goods...

[Guest dada_rocks]

Anil Kumble (India): He is very experienced so it is relentless pressure' date= pressure, pressure and he bowls vicious leg breaks. :hysterical::haha:

When Kumble gets turn it certainly is vicious given the speed of his delivery.

[Lurker]

Lurks.... Tufnell was the Siva of England... he lost it somewhere.... but he had the goods...

Yeah Gator Tufnell indeed had the goods to succeed at the highest level. What he lacked was mental toughness. I remember Ian Botham mentioning in one of his books how fragile Tufnell was mentally and he would constantly inquire his fellow players how good he was bowling, in nets or in the middle. Not the curious kind of questions but more that gives out a feeling of lack of self-confidence. To call Tufnell(or Shiva) as a left-arm genius is too far fetched though. I can rattle 10 left armers who have much better overall records than Tufnell - Veirty, Underwood, Bedi, Vettori, Tony Lock, Johny Wardle, Iqbal Qasim, Underwood, Alf Valentine etc. and I am not even counting in Sobers in there somewhere or the likes of Wilfred Rhodes. xxx

[yoda]

good stuff there from monty. hope he chokes against us though.

[Donny]

what a contrast to a certain Mr.Glenn Mcgrath ' date=' who actually had the spunk to suggest that he deliberately made the ball bounce low in the infamous Harper-Sachin-Shoulder-LBW incident.. Ofcours he never bowled that ball again in his career... maybe he just "forgot" how to bowl it... :tounge_smile:[/quote'] And maybe you misunderstand the Aussie sense of humour, m_m. :wink_smile:

[CC1981]

good stuff there from monty. hope he chokes against us though.

The day India has to worry about a spinner is the day India should officially withdraw from international cricket.

[yoda]

The day India has to worry about a spinner is the day India should officially withdraw from international cricket.

shaun udal choked our maharathis and we are still playing international cricket.

[Predator_05]

Yeah Gator Tufnell indeed had the goods to succeed at the highest level. What he lacked was mental toughness. I remember Ian Botham mentioning in one of his books how fragile Tufnell was mentally and he would constantly inquire his fellow players how good he was bowling, in nets or in the middle. Not the curious kind of questions but more that gives out a feeling of lack of self-confidence. xxx

Tufnell lacked brains. Ever watched this video ? Check it out

Launch in external player

[Lurker]

The day India has to worry about a spinner is the day India should officially withdraw from international cricket.

I would say India has had problems with spin, though it is prudent to mention not all kind of spins(unless you go back 40-50 years or so). Indians generally have been susceptible to quality off-spin bowling. Murali has fared rather nicely against us and Saqlain Mushtaq did not do badly against us either, specially around the year 2000. Recently of course Shaun Udal did fare decently too. If you go back 20 years or so India did have its problems against Tauseef Ahmed in the match that India lost at Bangalore(Sunny's last test). On the other hand Indians seem to play leg spin quite comfortably. Everyone from Warne to Mcgill have been hammered. And in the good old days Abdul Qadir was treated with disdain. So I do not quite see leg spin as a problem. Left-arm spin is perhaps a more mixed bag of issue. It is perhaps one of the rarest form of spin(just look around and see how many left arm spinners of quality do you see) but if you have to talk of quality left armer doing well against India you will have to remember the likes of Iqbal Qasim and Daniel Vettori. Remains to be seen how India does against Panesar. xxx

[MundaPakistani]

I would say India has had problems with spin, though it is prudent to mention not all kind of spins(unless you go back 40-50 years or so). Indians generally have been susceptible to quality off-spin bowling. Murali has fared rather nicely against us and Saqlain Mushtaq did not do badly against us either, specially around the year 2000. Recently of course Shaun Udal did fare decently too. If you go back 20 years or so India did have its problems against Tauseef Ahmed in the match that India lost at Bangalore(Sunny's last test). On the other hand Indians seem to play leg spin quite comfortably. Everyone from Warne to Mcgill have been hammered. And in the good old days Abdul Qadir was treated with disdain. So I do not quite see leg spin as a problem. Left-arm spin is perhaps a more mixed bag of issue. It is perhaps one of the rarest form of spin(just look around and see how many left arm spinners of quality do you see) but if you have to talk of quality left armer doing well against India you will have to remember the likes of Iqbal Qasim and Daniel Vettori. Remains to be seen how India does against Panesar. xxx

So is it fair to say that D kaneria's 19 wickets in 3 test matches was the best that a leg spinner has done against IND in the last 3 deacades or so.