Steve Waugh chatting to Adam Spencer | Curious Thinkers 2019

[Applause] great to have you here right good a very great to see you there's so many questions that come flooding through on the app as well you get named Australian cricket captain at one stage of your career where you're ready I'm not sure why they're ever ready the Australia captain it's in a lot of ways I was because of 33 years of age so I was my game is in good shape I was comfortable playing for Australia on your get score runs I knew I had the respect to the other players so when I was given the captaincy I think I was ready if I was given a cap see at 20 to 23 I ought have been lost because there's much more to captaincy than just being on the field and making the right decisions you've got to look after the media for start then you've gotta look after the sponsors and respect the spectators all the issues that go around the team because being on playing on the field as I say is easy but you got to 15 or 20 different people around the team you gotta manage so the answer quick answer guess is yes I was ready a 33 if I was given the job at 23 I wouldn't be ready because there's no real instruction manual to be Australian captain you sort of learn on the job what by the time you'd come to the end of it where there's certain things you've gotten better at were their skills you didn't realise you didn't have when you started that by the end you'd round it out yeah definitely I mean for instance I guess you know running a team meeting or getting up and making speeches that wasn't my thing I was very shy as a young person even now I'm reasonably shy so to think that you've got to make these speeches and I'll give an example of how nerve-wracking it can be was when you actually meet the Queen and who says Kathleen you go the responsibility of making speeches I'll actually you know talking the Queen and maybe small talk and sort of representing yeah the Australian cricket side and the first time I had to introduce the players to the Queen was at the World Cup in 1999 and yeah a on the field at Lord's which is a hallowed turf and you're lining there all the players are lining up so you're having a quick check of all players and just making sure they're all there and for some reason I just a bit of a mental blank and I was looking at two of the players own thing that's Damien Martyn and Damien flame you know I can't remember having to Damien's inside some reason I started trick myself it is it - Damien - the cricket side well yeah I play with him for ten years course it was but I run alone me the order and I went to Diamond Master Damian Marc because I got introduced so he played Damien Martyn like wing-shaped Queen's hair and then looked at Damien Fleming I totally forgot his bloody nine so Wayne pretty experienced she's moved on and we sort of probably had a bit of a laugh about later on a flim so I can't believe you'd like you forgot my name in front of the Queen sorry mate it was just one of those things and then a couple years later with the same thing we're at test match at 2001 again at Lord's where you play in an Ashes series who they don't do it anymore but back then the Queen came out and met the players in lunchtime on probably the second day's play so the same thing in the players had lined up again along the on the hallowed turf and I was introducing the pliers and I need Damien flow me was coming up sir did not forget his name is time so going along you know Chuck Neil I'm at Matthew Hayden and Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist and and got about three or four away from Damien Fleming I would see him in the court of him I and he was mouthing the words don't forget mind if the coin can't liberate him in trouble I lied his name right and so that's I guess an example of the pressures you don't expect the captain to be honor but I worried about those things more than playing because cricket was easy for me and capital aside came naturally but all our things around like having fifty I press conferences a year where you got to front the media I got to learn how to handle those pretty well but initially you're sort of a bit intimidated but I knew it's journalists to trust I knew that the half Foley's would come first up the first couple of questions and then the question is that left-field the real questions would come so I learnt how to prepare better I knew where the issues of they were and I learnt it at a press conference it's up to me to get my message not not answer the questions I want it's um it's all about what I want to say so they can control of that yeah and that takes a lot of learning and again a 23-hour would have had no identity an example of that at 25 is probably Steve Smith in Cape Town where you know they asked about what happened and he said I'll look we made a mistake we'll make sure it won't happen again and that just didn't realize the gravity of the situation didn't think it through and thought they could just move on from that well obviously it was quite a bigger issue than that and he should have got better preparation on someone should have said look you need to answer that way so you might be surprised no there's a couple of questions on the app about double get to it but just going back you just reeled off a few of the players he's an area Matthew Hayden Adam Gilchrist Shane Warne and every person involved in the current Australian cricket team is going I just would one of them could we just have one of them you were some people have had to captain teams in all sorts of endeavors where it must be real like the Australian World Cup rugby that's just finished must be really hard captaining a team that is probably not good enough to win it and that's a challenge you had such an embarrassment of riches at some stage does that bring about its own different set of challenges yeah a lot of ways I would have been I actually would have really enjoyed the challenge of have anything that wasn't expected to win because then you can create something special I always look at Stephen Flemmi and they there was he's a great captain but you know it was a good captain but he had the opportunity to do to make mistakes and no one cared about it because they didn't expect in the win so you could throw a caution the wind and didn't come off was no big deal but if you're expected to win and something doesn't go right then a fall straight back on the captain so there is different types of pressures and when you've got a really experienced side who are you know qualify quality players they all want to be the starter I want to do well so you can't have every bowl of taken fibre you should kind of be one scoring hundreds so hosing down everyone's expectations and making play as a unit that's the biggest challenge when you've got high-performing players some high maintenance some with big egos I'm pulling all that together and managing that that that's a challenge and having a really good side completely unrelated to anything you've just mentioned there in terms of maintenance or egos or anything like that on the topic of Shane Warne nobody made you feel yourself everything you've got in someone like worn a once you know possibly once in the history of Test cricket player yeah I highly opinionated incredibly not incredibly backed his ability and there must be people who lead teams like that here what's it like what's the secret to getting the best out of someone who genuinely thinks they're the best ever as it is how do you harness that and not make it something that works against themselves or the entire group yeah look perception is given to reality a lot of time you'll be surprised a lot of those guys do you think you've got everything out of control and they're very confident actually the opposite opposite to that and even Shane was a bit like that in a lot of ways I mean remember test match in Cape Town where was his hundredth test match and big celebration and yeah I'm bad to go to toss 35 minutes for the game so toss is at 30 minutes before the start this is 5 minutes before I'm going out I've got my blazer on my cap ready to go out and the physicochemical look I come up and said I warned he won he thinks he can't play so what I'm about to go twice like I've written the names down on the street he goes ah he's got a bit of hamstring issue and he thinks he can't play and I said Errol who is goodbye and I said man can he play a not play guys he could play it's ok he's playing so I didn't even ask him and I went out they did the toss and the in eyeballing 70 overs in the 1st innings he never bobbed morning's life so sometimes you just gotta give guys confidence even though they appear as if they're the most confident and another example of shame was you know when I was became captain I sort of tried to captain differently on my way so a lot of times we we didn't bat first that was soon to be the norm previously that in Chapel once said that phone was saying you win the toss nine times out of ten you're back straightaway the tenth time you think about it bat I thought all that what doesn't really make sense like what's the point of that so I thought well we had a really good bowling side so I wanted to win the Test match as quickly as I could take whether out of the equation and sometimes I bowled more so than batting which man was a different scenario for our spinners because normally your bat first and you in means you Bowl last whether we get sterling a lot so it's great for your spinners so Shane sit in the media when I started doing this that he's rolling the team had changed that now he he wasn't going to take as many burgers because we weren't bowling the fourth innings anymore I thought bloody hell luck you know that's not real positive coming how am I going to sort of make this work in the media so when they asked me about that I said you look that may well be the case but he's such a great bowler I think you can take five wickets on the first morning of Test match so it doesn't matter whether the available for so I tried to turn around and it didn't have any sort of fall back on that so sometimes you've got to convince some trick-trick players but yeah there are high maintenance players low maintenance players in the team and you've got to work out which button to push I mean as a leader always said treat people equally bit differently so non-negotiables like being on time uniform hatred spectators then on the ghost well but you still want individual Flair charisma and talent to come through so let them play their own way but there were certain things I had to comply with when you look at your test career it goes from pre full-time professionalism but pre the hyper-modern athlete yeah soon you know you've got your plays like the fuse large and life coders who'd probably you know could have lost a couple of kilos in its ability speak but all the way through to your at the beginning of the super professional athlete age but also you get the impression these days in terms of the way people lead here Justin Langer the Australian coach will now regularly tell these players that he loves them I get the impression Bob Simpson was not a sort of hey dude this Mon you know that I love you has have we and I'm speaking to an i FL coach recently who said 60 or 70 percent of his job these days is personality management and understanding people as people yeah as opposed to tactics and strategy has have we moved into a new era in terms of that leadership in school yeah yeah so it's a long question style that's pretty part a ving Tsun that but the first part was yeah it has changed when I first started playing I mean we responsible bad been standing edges so our trains room was full of smoke literally it was a haze it's may be coming to change anything you couldn't see anyone I was like is there those boxes and boxes of free cigarettes and more than half the players were smoker so was you you know I probably smoked thousands of cigarettes without smoking one in the first five years playing for Australia and the other sponsor would have been some like VB or foster or Forex so game on the smashing cans a beer and smoking it's time they changed over three hours after game and eating meat pies and sausage rolls and whatever so that was them these days they come off the field they have a nice bath some some sort of museam bar and a hydrolyzed drink or something so yeah the game has changed I mean 89 Boone he drank 52 to full strength hands to be on the way to England that's how we started our ashes campaign was who's gonna drink the bit who's gonna try and break the drinking record and Bernie did that which is great start the to us now hood why you got a strand of the year there that was just unbelievable I wife wouldn't recognize that he did it so probably wouldn't go on gone down that will fit with the family bit um so yeah it times a total change I went resit on the last ashes go and the guys don't drink any alcohol from Sydney to London so it's sort of frowned upon a mate they don't do it that's that part of the question second part yeah yes yeah the different type of love yeah I mean yeah Bob Simpson was yeah why he coached he was Co X when I first started playing we didn't have a coach my first Test match was physio and a manager and managers job was to make sure the beers were called they got the tickets organized so you didn't have no true no no first test match him Boxing Day Test match 95 we flew down the day before day before the test match that Christmas afternoon we flood in Melbourne Dane came starting next morning I knew two of the players Dave Gilbert date and Greg Matthews so I'd never met the rest of the team so I was in a team meeting introducing myself the first time they're playing for Australia the next morning these days I went England recently and there's 17 players in the squad 18 support staff so the game has changed massively and I think that sort of leads in the question about how many players because they are a lot more fragile these days they don't really like criticism not used to it then it probably not used to thinking as much for themselves because they've gone through the system of pathway cricket whether the stars they get looked after they've got this you know people constantly around and telling them what to do and how to do it and they've been coach got the best coaches best you know analysts around they get all this information but then sometimes on-field in the heat of the battle they don't know how to improvise I think on the figures I've never had to do that and if someone tells and they stuffed up they take it very personally so someone like just saying if you've got to be very careful hey you give you information appliers where as backing out I was if you're a decade someone called you a and you just had a copper on the chin so it's it's it's very different you want a question in from the audience that the baggy grain culture is in many ways credit around your period and then in some ways directly to you ever I'm wearing that cap on the first session of the first day of the test match etc and this person asks you have any thoughts on corporate equivalents mean everyone talks culture yeah there's no organization will proudly say we don't have a culture hmm do we overthink the concept what does it even mean what does concur mean at its heart yeah I don't know if it's an overused word I guess culture means sweet you know what you stand for hey you want to be perceived by others and and what your values are in a lot of way and I think good teams organizations when people walk into that that environment they know straight away this is a good good place they get a good feel about it's got that x-factor you can't really put your finger on it but you sort of know when something's good when it's when it's a bit off and obviously the Australian team is a bit off in Cape Town nothing to go on back on the other path now and maybe example of culture changed and that's not a really simple example was every morning you know Mitch Marsh one of the younger players said look I might and be playing a lot during this test series but I'm gonna win the morning so every morning I'm gonna walk and we're gonna do a half an hour walk and we'll go to a coffee shop and have coffee and whoever wants to join me on that that's they can come along well that's bloody great an issue from a young work so every morning I went with him there's three or four regulars and there the guys come in and out but the point was that regular on those morning walks we go and get coffee and then walk back to the hotel and many times you see homeless people on the streets and and and quite often these guys are buying extra coffees to hand out on the way home back to back to the hotel thought that's something haven't really seen in a Sports ID before that you know they actually buying coffees not thinking about themselves they're thinking about other people on the way home in the change now for the first test we won had the massive celebration and of course the beer goes everywhere own people caring like pork chops with 20 minutes half hour we used to carry on for three or four hours and leave the room and absolute mess in this walk out and say thanks from us thanks for coming well we've cleaned you up and and and that was it but after we had the celebration of the edge best and I looked round all of a sudden there was like 15 guys tailing down the walls and cleaning every bit of rubbish up and the room is spotless and that came from the the or backs the Ottomans legacy so I mean the All Blacks post change the most senior players would be the last leave and they would make sure that challenge room was clean yeah so Justin's big on that and you know and and learning those lessons in our I had the privilege of having lunch with Sir Alex Ferguson with Justin miles over there so always trying to learn off different people and you had some great messages but the one that resonated with me was I had read a bit about Sir Alex Ferguson I said is it true that until you make the first eleven you're not allowed to wear colored boots you have to wear black boots he said yes that's that was my hunt upset my rule because I said if you've got to earn the right you've got to deserve to wear colored boots you can't just wear color boots in the sec 11 you have to do the hard yards and if you make the first team then you can wear whichever color boots that was just a little example of the culture of Manchester you know when he was there they had to earn your stripes and know your place and respect what was going on so good sandpaper gate have happened under a team you captain could something like that if I knew about it no way yeah yeah I mean the odds words are kept in you you would know it's going I think I never asked the guys I was here with him for months I never asked one question about it because it's gone and there's no point in dragging up again but I think the issue Steve Smith probably had was that he may have been aware of it and didn't want to know about it I think if you walk past that then I guess you're guilty by not doing anything about it I mean it's definitely not in his makeup to do that Steve Smith but as a captain leader you've got a you go take the fall because you're in charge of an organization and the interesting thing I think in the case of Steve Smith and I think this applies directly to the corporate world there's no doubt that he's the most talented cricketer in that team yeah but from what I understand really struggles with the totality of the press conferences and keeping sponsors happy so obsessed with these cricket struggles need a decent night's sleep as it is yeah you see the perfect example and sometimes in the corporate world as well the boss of the whole show doesn't have to be the most talented person they have to be the most appropriate person to be the boss yeah if I've always said if if Steve Smith had had a Steve war around who could have been Australian cricket captain and your job would you just been to tell he might just go and keep averaging they're the second highest average in the history of Test cricket and if you might come and talk to me if you think I should make a bowling change I'm happy to listen but you just want straight up I think he would have had a completely different yeah yeah and this difference between leadership good leader good leadership and good captain's I think that's different roles and and it's hard to get both I think yeah Michael Clark was probably a really good example of a really good captain but not so much great leadership the other guys probably didn't to follow him in as much as some other leaders because he's a little bit different the way he did things that was his own style so I'm not here to criticize him but it's hard to get both in the one package and someone like Steve Smith you know he's um I've never seen someone more obsessed with their batting he he lives and breathes cricket and batting and it's really hard for him to sort of introduce all these other elements into his thinking because he's so obsessed with being the best batsman so yeah I haven't really made any comment but I'll be happy to see him just bat for Estrada and help out whoever has leading leading the team Tim Payne is doing a pretty good job I don't think he has to come back and ever be captain again I think he's valued to the side is just being an amazing batsman and as you say he doesn't sleep during that Test match its best and I was amazed that in five days he got a hundred and forty-four 142 he hadn't played first-class scream for six to eight months he had the crowd booing him had the most amount of pressure probably ever on a batsman and to do that was probably the most extraordinary test performance Nili of all time let's leap yeah yeah because for the for the non cricket fans in the audience even everyone would have seen the headlines we're talking he someone coming back from the lowest it could possibly be what what did that rip the cricketing part of it was amazing but the human journey was inquiry what was it like to be there cuz you were an environment of the team sitting there knowing you were watching history like that yeah look I mean I was just watching you know I'd mean that closer to him for a long time so I was just amazed by his preparation the amount of cricket palsy hit I couldn't do it I would have been a mess before the guy would have been mentally buggered and and physically naked as well he literally batter for grain he was a bowling coach and he throws balls not with his arm these days it's called the Wenger so the thing you throw the but that you know if you got a dog you throw the ball tennis ball the beach here yeah so he in the net scene would add three or four hours in three or four days leading up each day just the throw downs and I was watching and you know he came out after the nets and go and great he could say hey going yourself I can't find my hands something in what the hell is he talking about can't find my hands like is the world's best best but surely know where your hands are on the bat but he's so obsessed and so particular how he feels that just didn't he couldn't get the feel right another hour later he comes out he goes oh I'm like hey I found my hands I'm good there's no problem and he'll say stuff like you know Lord's they've got the big honor board he says well you might as well put my name down on the on the board now I'm gonna get hundred he just no but he's not there right he's not be I never took it as him being bragging or arrogant he just knew he was gonna get 100 because he's like a computer everything goes into his brain he analyzes things and I said when you're not sleeping what do you do he goes well my eyelids are closed but I can't go to sleep so I I think about all the boulders and how they're gonna bowl to me so I've got every scenario covered so when he gets in on Test match no ball is a surprise it's already in his head and when they produce it's like I know what the answer is to that and you can just see him like he just and he completely throws the opposition off because he's I describe him like being him like a matador he sort of hangs a cape out there and they Bala then he lets it go and he wants the ball of the ball at his stumps because he said they won't get me out if a ball of stumps because I won't miss it and then as soon as a bowl of stumps and he's picks him off and and the only time I saw him in a bit of trouble was in the last test with Sam Curran because that was a guy I came into the test pretty late and he swung the ball around and he had in that time really analyzed and putting in these sit there with the eyes Peter Sam he didn't he didn't have it in our watch the first guy was nothing he's out of sync he doesn't know what's going on he's soon really struggling and he was he's applying shots and he's mine I'm gone he's trying to work him out as he goes along and then he finally got it and he was okay so the fact that you said I watched him for the first couple of hours and he looked a bit unsteady the fact that he wasn't out there for a couple of hours looking a little bit off show you know his size of the achievement yeah look he's he's certainly different and amazing and I do feel a little bit for how you'll go when things aren't going well because he's so totally focused on a lot of ways I don't think that's really healthy I mean but again he's a one-off he may proof break them all but I think if you only got one thing in your life had doesn't go quite right what do you fall back on or how do you relax or you know what's the short circuit to to get away from it so that'll be his danger when if he doesn't do well how does he can't compartmentalize it because he's not used to failure let me ask you let's go through a bit of some of that the highlights of your career let's go back I was talking F interview Ricky Ponting the former Australian captain last year and I asked him when did he first realize actually I'm pretty good at this and he told a story about when he was about 11 was playing in Tasmania played for a little club called Mowbray so you're talking country cricket in Tasmania he was in the C grade team and someone got ill on the morning so he had to play in the a grey grand final yeah and Tasmanian Country cricket it's the grand final so no one felt twice about trying to knock this 11 year olds head off his shoulder and he scored about 40 odd or something and thought wow okay can you remember before not a test centre if you remember an innings early in your career where you finally thought okay I clearly have something you never really think that too much I mean all those imaginary Test matches in the front and back yards even you think your archive do you finance your brothers which turned out to be pretty good preparation but try think I probably yeah similar sauce story my first game a great crew you know I was ain't 13 I think playing for banks down and I got a call I blade just someone was seeking was Friday night and they said Kenya five fifth grade maybe fifth grade Dave ooh and I said I 13 I don't think I was pretty young and the captain was he saw the guard members and biker not that not the fashion go of it he was oh that's a 60 so he's old school and he was pretty tough and I came in the change room he just basically said I'll keep because you're replacing someone you can bet at number 11 okay now result whatever and so first things that we got bowler for at 81 90 and I was 25 and all that padding 11 foot did okay their second innings I they might get a bit promotion it's not your betting 11 again and sure enough I got 30 not out and the second things go below 500 again and it didn't say well played I think that this probably one of those moments although okay so I'm done alrighty like I'm you know 25 no 30 and I out and no one else got any runs and against these adults um maybe I'm okay you go on to have the degree we touched on some of the highlights 32 test centuries 10 times in Test cricket you're dismissed between 90 and 99 mmm I don't know if you know the most in the history of Test cricket yeah most 90s um meter I'd give I'd give anything to score 5 runs in a test matter to score 90 I couldn't believe it but it's meant to be also in some ways it's a it's a failure to get that close to 100 yep what's a tip you're an expert what a test 90 like yeah well it's an incredible achievement got to pull you out firstly because you're big on stats and you've got a couple of mathematical books but you weren't quite right there oh I got 10 90s but I was dismissed 8 times I didn't get out 10th on his suit [Laughter] [Applause] so an actual fact Michael Slater in a whole Drive event 9 times in the 90 so you're up there yeah I'm up there definitely huh yeah I up my feet on yeah yeah I think I may be you know I took a long while to get a test 126 test matches 42 innings and I was born of a bit of a tough school Alan board of captain he was sort of reluctant captain we lost a lot I didn't win a tennis match until 18 months in my career so it was hard yards back then I think runs were special to me I malaga my first hundred it was like he graduated there was a big emphasis back on those well this sort of he's now but back then it was a big thing about how many hundreds of scored with you you were you know a really good test better match batsman so maybe every time I got to know any I just put a bit too much pressure on myself and I look at the modern-day pliers and they get to 90 and I think I can get 100 next to balls at 4 and a 6 where's back then we thought let's get 10 singles make sure we got it so is one thing I could change in my career would be my mindset when I got to 90 and just not worry about just playing my shots and I'm sure out of those eight times I got out and maybe four or five of those I would've got hundreds so it shows something about sometimes sometimes you can fear something too much or want it too much and then take your eye off the ball so yeah I definitely was probably too conservative and wanted it too much on the test hundreds I'm pretty sure it's I'm not sure if it's actually in the Constitution but if you ever interview Steve or you are obliged and I'm almost excited to do to touch on one amazing moment this is January the second two thousand and three are playing in when the old enemy it's the scg it's the fifth test it's the first day Steve's gone out to bat we're not in a great situation where you go it it's a bit sort of up and down we start to get it together near the end of the day we're going to the last over of the Test match you're on 95 let's roll the video through the first few balls you're very circumspect respectful you're on 95 at this stage something has to happen you give that a bit of a whack it races out there your runs free yeah so just pause that video for a second that takes you to 98 yeah there's two balls to go but you're not facing any more hmm no mess is not good is it did you did is there part of you that's thinking let's just topple 97 I'll have a slog at this you're not even thinking about yourself at that stage runs off and I was fired no so how's 95 stay there richard dawson bowling i thing and this guy's not a bad bulb it not the scariest test bowler face I'm banking on him going to loose balls I think I can get a single on a 4 or a 4 and a 1 we whichever way around it was gonna be and but I thought what I've got to do is just respect him as well because you can't get too carried away cuz that's the moment get in trouble I thought I'll just trust myself he's got about some loose balls just wait for to happen and chiron for the first three balls you ball right on the money of a defensive shot so I thought well I'm out running a bit of time there were three balls if they're gonna do something a next ball are sort of manufacturer that's shot and hit up through a point did you think for a second it was going that all the way to the fence - the thought wasn't gonna run for because it was a cover there was no point and I thought I'd hit that we'll have to get it close to the boundary pretty quick I reckon I can get back for four but as I turned around for the second third you misjudge that and then I was sort of committed to three enough bloody hole like you know I've stuffed up here I don't think I'd get it my initial thought was you've missed the opportunity it will link right to get it then I thought hang on Gilly the other end is of betting genius he'll make something happen here and thankfully Hussein bought into it because he could have brought the field up and made it impossible for Gilchrist to get a single really but I think he wanted me back on stripe because he knew if I got back on strike with one ball to go that I would probably go for it and there's a chance of them getting a wicket so drop the field back and I guess we're gonna play the video it let's have a look here but get roll it on here and there isn't even a little bit of gamesmanship here when gillies facing this fall he just pulls away for sex so the mine games are on you're confident gillies gonna work a one here I'm not thinking much on I reckon at the time I'm I'm hoping PCE actually ball that'll like something I think they wanted a single just pause it there so there's not a bit of you that's thinking running to there is that no I don't think in there I've got another chance probably inside day is it and I mean I'm asking you to recall stuff from fifties on yep good stuff I'll remember don't worry are you is it it can't just be just another ball now look I knew there was that moment in my doesn't come along very often fill a lot of players in fact most times it doesn't come along but I was singing back when I was actually at that moment thing about Doug Wallace because when I was growing up there's a few people over 50 years so watching Doug Wallace hit Bob Willis last fall day for six a perf anyone see that on TV oh yeah a few there I was watching a cheesemaker dad like he's just six last bullet 100 just walked off as if nothing else happened forty is a gold eppley so then I've got that mountain court this is my chance like I can get us for for last ball to get one hundred or two runs or whatever and I go walk off and with all the applause and I won't have to go to bed tonight 98 not out and probably sleep for about one hours you go if you're not not out or 80 not out overnight you think about the next day how you're gonna get 100 C you go through every ball in your mind so it's pretty torturous so you actually want to try and get there so you get a decent night's sleep so ya got down and I thought well again just trust my instinct I knew that I think I was in I play my favorites shot which was a slog sweep across the line something and don't play that unless it's the right ball so all those thousands of hours of practice some just let it happen naturally and that was my thought as he came into Bowl but before that I got to the crease are we gonna stop until we haven't done this before we started you know seconds none up we'll go all the way through so you tell those going it was what we're about to see all right okay yeah so I'll get to the crease sort of wipe the sweat off my brow and it's funny you trick yourself into things when they banning very superstitious because I had the red hanky in my pocket I always use that when I want about it and wipe the sweat away and I did it this time pulled out wipe the sweat away I look down and a couple of strands of the red rag had dropped it on the crease line and it's funny what you convinced yourself I thought well that's it that's an omen like that's it's meant to be I'm gonna get 100 like it's that's good luck like it's nothing to a bloody good luck but you think cricket is like that you trick yourself into believing stupid stuff and so that was that then Alex jute was actually pretty good you guys are my you write your own scripts to you're like you know this was pretty pretty pretty amazing so he's sort of I think he wanted me to get hundred-hour look how I played a lot against him and then NASA went into the mine games and he went down to the bottle richard dawson and they talked about could have been what they're gonna have for dinner what movie they're gonna watch there's nothing about cricket obviously was just wasting time and setting up the scene and trying to build it up and put a bit more pressure on try to just before the ball comes out the crowd you'll notice in a second of screaming you talk about Steve Smith than the booing hmm with that do you hear it and block it out do you genuinely not even hear it is it just background as you could you tell the crowd work going wild well I guess it's a bit like if someone's bored here today they sort of half blocking me up they sort of know I'm talking and they're not sure what I'm saying it's a bit like that when you're playing cricket I reckon you're in the middle you can hear all noise but you sort of block it out it doesn't really matter to you sort of that white noise that's going on but you don't really understand take it in too much and it's funny because when I got the hundred it was like someone turned the volume are full and I was I could hear everything it was just everything always just came out like a exaggerated a bit before that ball now you you know where the buzz on the ground and you know people once you get a hundred but I was just try and say look stay focused just another ball this guy's you know he's not the greatest Bowl I look the opportunity will come if you trust yourself and spoiler alert let's roll the video and see what happens okay hopefully I can get it [Music] richard dawson dinging i'm about to become the great trivia question of all time here yes let's make some money other buddy isn't he [Applause] you'll take that any day the week did you realize the moment hit them did you realize that's that's gonna be one of the iconic images in the history of tests we can how long after something like that is the adrenaline calm down and you realize well hold it I've done something let's just watch another boring he want me to get a hundred away ball that ball it's not fully on it so he gets a freebie but when I hit that I didn't feel to come off the bat but I knew straight away was four and as I say that's when the the volume would turn up and I was like this massive influx of noise and emotion and yeah it was a huge relief because I was not a lot of pressure going there the test mentioned the journalist was saying when he gonna retire you passed your best and then I remember one question when a journalist asked me said what's been the highlight of your career and I said well hopefully it's going to be in this match and I didn't realize this was going to happen but I guess that was the mindset that I was I was determined to prove the few people wrong though they had something to show video walking off it was the noise was amazing you know I just went and Tranio sat down and not in say word i sat in the floor and I think my dad was there and John how was it John how was regularly there and they transformed he was a great supporter hey Steve hey gang prime minister hang on okay yeah yeah be like that he was video was he was a really good support so they're all around and then the noise outside was just I was like a rock kind of like an uncle that was a it just continual noise and it's changing for me to go outside so I went on the balcony sort of waved and that's what happens three times so many people were there for like 20 30 minutes and often so people if I give it 10 minutes of my career I'll give you those 10 minutes because it was it was like nothing else that ever experienced and it was a great honor I supposed to to to score that in front of my own crowd also share that and for people to feel so good about it one of the other highlights you career must have been those dingdong battles between Bankstown and Petersham in the urban 1980s can secure McKenna the Handy opening batsman a medium pace a buck was it yeah was he I love it but you also you you've met him in a context outside of cricket where he impressed you tell us about that - speak about sledging Petersham invented sledging Dave chard and Brian Reilly all those guys you play those guys you're they invented sledging Peterson create Club because I'm from a baseball background so when you're plating a series guys like I'll never playing first time his pitch him and your batting and you're hitting a shot in the guys commentating on your batting in that I'm a that's a she - Charlie where do you come from with your bloody hopeless and then when they're batting in you you feel you must feel the ball I'd be sledging surging you're feeling I'm thinking these guys from so that was Roy learn how to sort of you know have banter on the cricket field but just quickly on the topic of searching before we moved away and you did you say - Hershel Gibbs how does it feel to drop the World Cup or something like that Motors pretty close sure well let's not change it I can't remember exactly but it's good a know that effect yeah something like where did you make Kiran again well yeah we're cure was on my first couple of captain's captain's rides which is coming up in two weeks on that's a major fundraiser for my stable foundation charity and that supports kids who suffer from rare diseases so I wanted to come up with a fundraising event that people would come to me the following me and say I want to be back on that event I don't I don't want to keep asking people to come to functions I think um you got to give a life experience and this was definitely a lot of experience we said let's come up with a concept where people want to come and everyone was in the bike riding so I said let's let's ride from Sydney to Bombay just threw the idea up and sounded pretty good till I realized how far was I 820 k's and ten a thousand meters of climbing over six days and my training for the first event was riding out from Cronulla at the kernel I was a bit of a killer about 50 meters all that a good preparation for this if you look at the first two letter wires and it's free which is 12 kilometer hill and I nearly died on the first hill but it's your bike you've got to make exactly so that was what I realized what I needed I was and after that I trained properly but the idea was there kids suffer each and every day they got great attitudes they never complain and we've got a step into this shoes for six days and feel what it's like to suffer in a lot of ways and get on with it and we always say at the start of each ride you can wind as much as you want but no one's gonna listen or care so it's up to you yeah attitude you take in so it's all about attitude people are gonna raise money to get on the ride we have great Australians come along enemy is coming issue again she's riding towards our start attackers camera mark webber we got Daley Thompson comes out from the UK every year got Craig Johnson coming this year could firmly Michael Milton does it with one leg which it defies belief I mean I've followed him up in Tasmania a place called Queenstown which was 199 switchbacks up this man and he's doing it with one leg and not to him and like you know he's other ladies taken off at the hip right up here so he's literally doing it on one leg so we're these amazing Australians come along and we try and bring along understated Australians issue we've got a young girl called ELISA aza from Tomah we're writing from tomba susie youngest youngest fear mother of a climb everest last year a guy called Tim cope is an adventurer so I try being along amazing Australians they probably haven't had the publicity that they deserve and they speak each night and we hear stories that we have stories of our kids who are quite inspirational and amazing and I've just come from a function actually where a young boy called Liam tittered and who we first supported 11 years ago in his 5 years of age the first thing we gave him was this DynaVox vm machine which was a communication device on his um on his wheelchair and he could only use one while two thing as he could never speak they thought he'd never speak well today 11 years later he interviewed me in front of a thousand people in school so that 11 years and he's done that so it's pretty amazing well the word behind us here curious is a big part of this view because your foundation deals with rare diseases so but the point you make is these are diseases they're rare not many people have them but there are so many tens of thousands of rare diseases and there are so many chromosomal defect etcetera you say rare diseases are surprisingly common yeah but wider and also there's a real bravery on your part in picking this I don't mean to be you could have gone from one of the established cancers could have gone from one of the things where there's a mechanism already existing and it's raised money and pumped it through sure you've almost created this philanthropic industry in Australia around rare disease why did you choose that and how tough was that I don't know what I choose I just happened I mean curious is a word that I really resonates when they always want to be curious and ask questions and inquisitive and that's why I love India so much because there's so many things there I've never seen before a new experience that sort of got me a lot of great moments on the field had life-changing moments off the field where I had the opportunity one day had a day off on 2 & Lomb me day office on tour and a pool and don't do too much but I was always keen to get it and take photographs and meet people and I knew the Calcutta was where mother tries was and I found out that you can actually meet her you go to one of the early morning masses if you wanted to it was pretty simple actually and got a rickshaw there and took one of the security people with me and went to one the early morning masses witness had met mother's razor briefly and just thought she was a most amazing person I've ever met you know deals with the poorest of the poor no regard for material possessions a whole life was helping people I thought maybe I can do that in some small way down the track and the opportunity came a year later when I was in India again and that was to help kids who in this rehabilitation center called Udayan and that was for children who've been brought up in leprosy colonies so they were taking it at that environment giving schooling three meals a day and looked after really well so I went and visited this place had the request of the lady who was trying to fund it and although this is amazing like these kids are totally transformed but I want to see where they came from to see what the difference was and I said could you take me into a leprosy colony and that was a question so shocked a lot of them because no one had ever asked them to do that and but I wanted to know what it was like to live in a leprosy colony and it's as you imagine the worst possible place you could you could go to a visit the place I went to was probably better size of this just 2,000 people living at no running water no electricity you know the sanitation was poor there was the kids are running and mark that the parents were sitting around with open wounds from the leprosy it was a terrible place like hell basically though they lived in sort of ramshackle mud huts with a bit of plastic and bricks and where they could cobble together to sort of have any sort of shelter they want to see pots and pans and that was it and but at the time that the place I went to was any supporting boys and I said well why aren't you supporting girls I said because the boys are the breadwinners that's why we look after the boys first and I said well okay that's fair enough but what are the girls doing my first daughter Rosie it's like Oh what are the girls do like they're stuck in this leprosy colony and they said well unfortunately by the time they're seven or eight they'll have to sell themselves on the streets to make money for family and that again was yeah one of those moments where I think I can't pretend I didn't hear that like you've got to do something about it so that's when I started raising money for the girls wing and that's 20 years down the track there's a hundred odd girls that's it so that started being a charity and I realized it worked and then it when I retired from creaming Australia well I've always been inspired by kids with courage and character let's help the kids have it now ready to turn and then it started with that and then it evolved into after my wife did all the research we found that most of the kids we were supporting fitted in the kateri having a rare disease which is classified their prevalence of less than one in ten thousand of six to eight thousand ready diseases seven attempts of the population will have a rare disease so again we had the conundrum where we were overwhelmed by people come in with such a big need and I thought well let's help the ones who have got no support groups in their government funding and they're the ones with a prevalence of roughly less than two and a hundred thousand and there's about five hundred those readies is they're the ones you don't hear of you don't know their names and often a lot of the kids we support are called Swan so their symptoms without a name so they're never diagnosed when you're never diagnosed because the doctors don't know what it is you can't go anywhere for help you don't fit anywhere so we're the only standalone charity in Australia that does that and that's my wife would dedicate 50 hours a week so that she's not lost 15 years so we have a lot of volunteers Harley my managers at the top there is response for a lot of our fundraising we've got an amazing group of volunteers we only a three paid staff so yeah we try and punch above our weight yeah you do but the thing that is fascinating about it I find is that you I mean this is tough this is a tough space to be in your work hard there yeah but I've seen how rewarding it is fuel as well this is not just a tick the boxes to feel good about yourself yeah I find that fascinating I mean how much that's given to you yeah but it is really hard yeah it is yeah and you're right I mean when people ask me now my role models my role models the kids we support because they're bloody amazing I mean I'm inspired by them i filmed with six kids a couple of weeks ago we filmed the stories for the rise so they're all these amazing different stories each one is unique and different and you know the little boy we filmed cataluña has got a rare condition where his pituitary gland doesn't work and that means basically that's the master control for your whole body so that means you can't control your hormones or your kidneys or your blood or anything so he's got to have injections for the rest of his life every day he's got have medications for every day for the rest of his life and you know that's a constant balance it's very expensive and then we have another boy another child with a conditional crab a disease which life expectancy is three used two years of age so you talk to that family and they know he's not gonna live another 12 months so I mean there's tough stories all on but the way it inspires you incredible you're going back to India also again curious about that place on a photographic project early next year yeah here next year look I am when people are sort of say what are you gonna be in a couple years I say look I hope I'm going to be doing something I didn't expect to do I don't wanna be doing the same thing no no no I'm good at because I think I learned from cricket that you know you got to push yourself and test yourself and find out what you're capable of and to fulfill your potential you got to sometimes take a risk and I don't see it as a failure these days I just as an experience so you know taking the charity on and then trying to raise a million dollars their first dinner where they thought was impossible we end up doing I think a lot of times we stop ourselves because we're scared of failure but I don't be believer in just going for and then working I had to do it later on sometimes it you dragged a lot of people in with you go bloody hole what are you doing this time but you somehow find a way but now forgot the question was a question photography project yes do tell us about that yeah that's part of the L come next year I want to be doing stuff that I'm passionate about I enjoy photography I love India and I've always thought you know what is wise create such a religion in India why what makes it more than a game there so I'm just want to try and capture in in through the lens you know what what it makes cricket a religion in is I'm going all around India and it's not just about playing cricket it's about the people associated with it the people that manufacture the bats just the wire whites away like we're going to some blind cricket yeah girls cricket going up to the Himalayas all these different places and capturing what is the essence of what is the spirit of cricket and I also want to do a documentary next year around a similar sort of thing so yeah they're the projects that interest me and Canon have been a great supporter and I like learning about different things again being curious and working out how to get better at things how to learn different skills and and to put myself out there for people who don't know how intense cricket is that's yet will be on a sport in India a friend of mine was playing on a tour in India handy cricketer and they're playing on this be over and while they're playing they look up and on the road beside the oval this traditional Indian funeral procession starts coming past and it's the body is on a car and there's oxen taking it and people walking in front and behind and it's quite striking and moving and my mate sort of says to the gut should we which probably let's just stop for a second and be respectful as they go past and so they the players or just sort of stop and then a few metres later they realize well the funeral procession stopped there stopping to watch the cricket and so they don't so they play a little bit of cricket and and and you said it was honestly like the procession was walking past thinking well he's not going anywhere and it's it's what he would have wanted anyway these people honestly scatter and you could tell they thought it was just the perfect part of the day for them it's in crow let's close on that you thumbs up you've mentioned the word a couple times kurios I mean you're lucky you're blessed with it mmm why is being curious so important and so fulfilling for people yeah look I mean oh I must admit at school I was always bad at school I didn't really want to learn and I didn't read any books now start a reading book something Jesus bloody fantastic well how much are your learning so to me being curious to ask some questions is the only way learning and develop and fulfill your potential really I think if you don't you're not curious and you don't sort of look for look out for what might be going on or how you can see things differently then you keep doing the same thing day after day and look that might be okay for a lot of people I don't look down or blame people who aren't who aren't that curious but for me I couldn't think of any worse and not challenging things or looking at things differently or taking another task on so being curious I think is the most important trait to have as a person for me and it's been an absolute pleasure to ask some questions of you this afternoon can we please thank our special final guest but curiously for nothing stay for ladies thank you so much

Channel: Cuscal Limited

Views: 6,928

Rating: 4.9000001 out of 5

Keywords: Curious Thinkers 2019, Leadership

Id: wNOpNMT9MdQ

Length: 48min 50sec (2930 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 28 2019