The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Bracken reaping the fruits

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 10, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Bracken reaping the fruits

The left-arm seamer would be Australia's first-choice opening bowler at the World Cup

KINGSTOWN (St. Vincent): Nathan Bracken may have saved his international cricketing career by learning how to believe in himself.

Following a poor debut Test series against India in 2003 in which he averaged 58.50, the left-arm, fast-medium seamer lost his Australia contract.

He had made his one-day debut three years before and played in the 2003 World Cup but the Indians forced him to refine his arsenal of deliveries, and he had to return to State cricket to finish his education.

``When I lost my contract I was trying to swing the ball, something which was a little bit new to me,'' Bracken said on Thursday. ``The thing for me was having Trevor Bayliss, the New South Wales coach, stand by me right through it so I could keep working on everything, and just getting the ability to back myself and my decisions.''

Earning the re-call

He worked hard and earned a re-call in 2005 for the one-day series against the ICC World team, dismissing Brian Lara twice and Andrew Flintoff once with his newly developed swing.

Bracken has been with the team ever since, and has taken 96 wickets in 57 ODIs, with best figures of five for 67 against South Africa a year ago in Johannesburg.

``Before I was running in, thinking, this is the ball I've got to bowl, but also thinking, what if I go for runs? Now I just go out and bowl it — if that's the ball I want to bowl, if that's the ball I think is going to get a wicket, I just bowl it,'' he said. ``Whether it goes for four or not, if I think it's going to get a wicket then it's the right option, and Ricky backs me 100 percent with that, and so does the team.''

New role

Brett Lee's ankle injury has allowed Bracken to become Australia's first-choice opening bowler at the World Cup, no mean feat with Glenn McGrath possessing a National-record of 355 one-day wickets.

But he has earned the position — including 10 wickets in the triumphant Champions Trophy campaign last year — by trusting in his talent and not fretting over missed opportunities. — AP

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport