Drinks with ... Brendon Julian

image courtesy Fox Sports

It’s fair to say that Brendon Julian is one of the most polished professionals in front of a TV camera these days, whether reading the sports news or hosting Fox Sports’ Inside Cricket. For that reason, it’s too easy to overlook the fact that he was a terrific cricketer during a good stretch of Australia’s “golden age” (’93-’05). At 196cm (6’5”), he was a fine left-arm quick and a punishing batsman. But it was his bad luck that he was vying for a place in Australia’s first XI when we were churning out the superstars, and so he only ever got seven Tests. He retired in 2001 at just 31 to pursue his TV career, but he has always remained in touch with the game, and whenever he ventures opinions on Inside Cricket he invariably makes perfect sense. Which is why Inside Sport sat down with him for a post-Ashes analysis and preview of the Aussies’ South Africa tour this month – which he will host in its entirety for Fox Sports.

The Ashes were a pretty dramatic turnaround for the Aussies. What was the difference, do you reckon? Can Darren Lehmann take all the credit?

No, I wouldn’t say it’s all Darren Lehmann. I look at the start side: they seemed more settled going into the last couple of Test matches in England. I don’t think there was such a big divide between the two sides anyway ... There were a couple of games over there we could have won but didn’t because we didn’t play well enough in those situations. But when you come back to Australia, you’re feeling confident anyway because you’re at home. You could see the way they were talking in the press leading up to the Test matches ... Yes, you can talk and get spanked and you look like an idiot, and that first day of the first Test when we were five down, I thought, “Here we go again” ... We were lucky with a couple of rearguard actions from Clarke and Haddin, so you needed a little bit of a spark. But to me that wasn’t the whole summer. What’s been most disappointing is, I don’t think England came to Australia in a good state of mind. Alastair Cook had struggled even in England, and he still struggled here; I always said that I didn’t think Jonathan Trott was in good form in England. So I always felt there was a bit of an opening at the top of the order for England. Peterson came out thinking he could just turn it on when he got to the big stage – but he hasn’t been good enough to do it. Yes, he’s had flashes of it, but his thought processes need to change for him to be successful again. So all of a sudden you’ve got three main guys who weren’t in good nick. So if you take them out, then you’ve got Joe Root, Carberry and Stokes all newcomers. So the only guy holding it together was Ian Bell; he held it together in England, but he just couldn’t do it again here. So if you scratch the surface of England, they were vulnerable, and I said that right from the start. Then take the flipside of that: once they can’t score 250 or 300, the bowlers end up doing a lot more work. And Anderson hardly bowled an outswinger. You’ve got to be swinging the new ball ... I think he’s become so used to the ball reversing in England that he’s lost his natural shape to bowl an outswinger. In England, if the new ball isn’t swinging, they make it reverse after 15 overs – but it didn’t do that here. And then Swann gets given the ball and the wickets aren’t turning. So things like that can be cracks – I wouldn’t say they were cavernous holes, but if everything didn’t go their way and they got put under pressure, there was an opening for Australia. So our batting has been solid, but Mitch Johnson was the difference. One spell of bowling at the ‘Gabba, one spell in Adelaide, and all of a sudden you’re two-nil up ...

At least Lehmann gave them the confidence to know that they weren’t going to lose their spots after one match ...

Darren Lehman has definitely had an impact. He said to them at the start of the summer, “Look, the guys who’ve been picked in the first 12 will get the first three Tests no matter what.” So I think a lot of the scars from Mickey Arthur and Michael Clarke have been put aside. Darren Lehmann has gone, “Look, I don’t know if you guys are getting on, or if you’re mates or you’re enemies or whatever, I don’t even care. I’m happy to wipe the slate clean – just play really good cricket.”

You played a bit with Lehmann, didn’t you?

The World Cup in ’99. And a lot against him.

Did you ever get the impression that he was going to be coach material?

Photo: Getty Images

I didn’t. I don’t think he’s a technical sort of cricketer in his approach or philosophy of the game. He’s more touchy-feely: “I’ll go off my guy instinct.” I don’t see him as a coach, I see him as a really good people manager. And he’ll get the right people around him – whether it’s Mike Young with the fielding or a couple of batsmen to chat with them, or McDermott with the bowlers. He’ll have the David Hookes approach – “Look, I’m a good manager of people, I can get the right people, you just tell me what you want and I’ll organise it, and I’ll make sure you’re in the right frame of mind heading into a game of cricket.” And that approach has been very different to Mickey Arthur or, say, John Buchanan. And I think he came in at the rock bottom, and there was really only one way to go. Yes, you could get towelled up again, but I think he’s just gone with his gut instinct and said, “If we’re going to lose, we’re going to lose my way, no matter what happens.”

You look fit enough to still be bowling for Australia. When was the last time you let rip?

I did a bit of backyard the other day down at the beach. I was getting a couple of seven-year-olds out.

So you’ve still got it? How did you come through health-wise in your career? Any long-term complaints?

Well, I had back surgery when I was 20, so I was out for a season and had two screws put in my back.

The stress fracture thing?

Yup. So I’ve gone through that. And then I’ve just had the normal niggles – I had a bad groin and a bad knee, just the normal wear and tear of a bowler. Nothing too extreme outside of the back surgery. But I retired pretty early.

You were only 31. Any regrets that you gave it away too soon?

No, not really. I just felt that my game wasn’t good enough to play Test cricket again and I wanted to play at the highest level – I didn’t want to go back and play another year or two of state cricket.

You picked a bummer of an era to try and be a regular in the starting XI , didn’t you?

Yeah, it was tough times then. I only really got my opportunities when guys got injured. And I’m happy with that. I had a couple of great tours – never lost a tour! Two Ashes tours, ’93 and ’97. The ’95 Windies was a great tour. And we won the World Cup in ’99.

A supporting role on the way to winning the 1999 World Cup. But Julian was there ...

What was the biggest moment for you personally? We spoke to Steve Waugh a few months ago and he nominated that ’95 West Indies tour the highlight of his career.

Yeah, I think it was the highlight of my career because I played every Test match. And we were under the pump. We’d lost a few bowlers (Craig McDermott and Damien Fleming) – I got flown in to bowl with Glenn McGrath and Paul Reiffel and Warney, and that was it. So we were just a young team and we hadn’t won in the Windies for 27 years, and with that line-up we probably thought we weren’t going to, either.

Who was the most lethal bowler you ever faced? Were you on the receiving end of them on that tour?

Oh, I reckon Wasim Akram. He’d be the best bowler in the world. But it’s a hard one. I faced a lot of Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose on that tour as well ... Walsh, Ambrose, Akram, Murali – any of them could be extraordinary on their day. And Warney – even though I only played against him in state cricket ...

Did you ever get to cart him around?

Ah, not really. I played against him early on.

Were you at the Cricket Academy at the same time?

No, I was there the year before (1989). I first faced Warney against Victoria at the Junction Oval and he got five-for. I think it was one of his first couple of games of Shield cricket. No one knew who he was.

And then you were on the field when he bowled the ball of the century ...

Yeah, that was my first Test. I was at mid-on.

Did the rest of the team realise at the time what they had just seen?

Well, he was just bowling the ball to me as he warmed up, as you do, and he said, “What do you reckon?” And I said, “Mate, I don’t know, I’m playing my first Test. Don’t ask me.” And he’s gone, “Okay, fair enough.” And he’s just rolled up and out it came. But yeah, no one remembers my first Test wicket because they were still talking about that ball. }

Now wrangling the Inside Cricket panel on Fox Sports, from left: Crash, Flem, Blewy, Junior, BJ and AB.

You got a couple in that Test, didn’t you?

Yeah, I did. And no one cared! I got down there and I said, “Boys! I just got my first Test wicket!” And they went, “Yeah, well done. But what about Warney’s ball against Gatting?” Because you could see it on the big screen. They kept showing it every five minutes (laughs).

So the blokes did realise they’d just seen something amazing?

Well, yeah, but I think it grew as the series went on. When we were first in the huddle there we’ve gone, “Jeez, he’s fluked that – how did Gatt miss that?” I mean, Gatting was one of the best players of spin going around. Then he bowled really well throughout the whole series, but I don’t think we knew how big it was really.

I mean, you look at it and go, “Gee, that was a bloody good delivery.” But then it grew from there. By the end of the series it was the best ball ever.

How did you fit in down at the Academy? Were you a model student?

Well, I was in the second intake, so the Cricket Academy was very different – we were in the learning curve. We were living at the university and staying in the dorms. The only professionalism was to get up every morning and run down to Adelaide Oval. We were sort of feeling our way through it all. It wasn’t anything high tech – we went on a few tours and we lived together and we had a great time.

I loved it. It got more sophisticated as the years went on, but the first two years were pilot years to be honest. I was 19. We had a good bunch of guys and we had a great time on and off the field.

Who was the one batsman you dreaded most coming in? The one who could make you look silly if they got going?

Brian Lara. I never played against Sachin Tendulkar in a Test match – only one-dayers. And with Sachin you just felt you could never get him out. Yes, he could probably take you apart, but he could be a bit more patient. But Brian Lara could could come in and just tear you apart on any given day. He was the guy for me.

Who’s the best captain you’ve played under?

I find that a really hard question because I didn’t play enough Test cricket. My first captain was AB, and I was in awe of him.

You would have grown up watching him on TV right through the ’80s, wouldn’t you?

Yeah, massively. I was in awe.

How did your first meeting with him go?

Well, we met in the hotel in Melbourne before we flew out for England in ’93 and I didn’t know half the team. And I just went down to the bar and basically had to introduce myself.

Hello Mr Border?

Yeah (laughs). I hadn’t met Steve or Mark Waugh either, or Ian Healy ...

That would be unheard of these days, wouldn’t it?

Exactly. But that was because I’d only played one or two seasons of first-class cricket at that stage, and those guys were all playing Test cricket, so it was all a bit of a whirlwind for me.

A more than handy hitter in his day.

AB would have been a pretty formi- dable presence, wouldn’t he?

Yeah. Very approachable, though. He was: “How ya going, mate? You want a beer? Come and sit down and have a chat and meet the guys.” He was great.

Do you call yourself a student of the game’s history?

I’d like to think I was. Though Steve Waugh always used to give me a hard time. He was the one who educated me. He installed that when he was captain – he was great for that. He would always give you a background on everything. So I really took to that and spent a lot of time with Steve on tour to learn those things.

So if you could choose any era to have been playing the game, and you could walk into any Aussie XI, when would it be?

Well, look, I’d have to say the one I played in: the ’90s. The whole ’90s was probably what the Invincibles were like. I don’t like comparing eras and stats and all that, but that has to be probably the best era Australian cricket has ever had. And the world players that we churned out ... I mean, the ’80s were the West Indies, weren’t they. They just dominated – into the early ’90s as well. But certainly mid ’90s to 2005, we were just unbelievable.

Do you reckon you had more fun than the blokes playing the game these days?

Oh, I’d be surprised if we did. We had fun and enjoyed it, but I’d be very surprised if the guys don’t do that now. I mean, how could you not enjoy touring the world and playing cricket for a living? I think the difference is in the level of scrutiny – it’s more there now.

Any regrets that they hadn’t invented the IPL or BBL back in your day? You’d have been one of the first blokes picked.

Oh yeah, I would’ve loved to have played T20 a lot more. I think it would have really suited my game. Towards the end of my career I would have certainly changed my game to play at least five more years of T20 cricket. Imagine that: bowling four overs and playing at night time ... You can’t get much better than that.

We’ve got the Aussies about to head to South Africa. Did you ever tour there?

I did the South Africa tour on the one-dayers back in about ’97. But I only played in one of them.

What fears should our guys have playing over there?

Yeah, that’ll be a big tour for Australia because they’ll be so tired and emotionally drained after the Ashes, and the expectations will be on them. I think if Australia wins that series they’ll go to number one. But Hashim Amla will be outstanding. No doubt the Morkels will be good. It’ll be pretty tough and a very heavy workload. But I don’t think there’s any real fears there for Australia if they perform at their best.