Reiffel Player turned umpire Reiffel Player turned umpire. Image: Getty Images

During the second and third Ashes Tests, Shane Warne was getting stuck into the performance of South Africa’s Rudi Koertzen. Does commentary box criticism of the umpires frustrate you?

Not really, because everyone’s there to be criticised. If you make a mistake then you own up to it and move on. But when you’ve got to watch a replay four times to work out the umpire’s made a mistake, then it’s not a mistake. You know, he gets one shot at it in real time with the fieldsmen yelling at him and the crowd roaring. It’s a little more difficult than people think. Then again, these guys are top of the tree and they should be making good decisions. There’s no doubt about that …

You had considerable success during the ‘93 and ‘97 Ashes tours. Did you have to make significant adjustments when you bowled in England?

Personally I didn’t have to adjust at all because my style of bowling was so suited to English conditions. I just had to do what I’d always tried to do and that was bowl straight, seam up, put the pressure on. With the ball over there there’s plenty of swing, plenty of seam – if you put it in the right spot long enough something’s going to happen … But for the guys who want to bang it into the wicket, the out-and-out fast bowlers who want to go over there and bowl short, it just doesn’t work. You’ve just got to bowl a fuller length for a longer time over in England.

So did our fast bowlers fail to make that adjustment?

Well, it’s the first time they’ve been there, so it’s not an easy thing to just pick up … I thought they did pretty well. Look at the individuals throughout the Australian team; they outplayed the English in all the statistics – except the one that counts.

Given that individual statistical dominance of the Aussies, how did we lose the series?

It was just inexperience – we missed the crucial moments. When we were sailing well, everyone was going along with it. But when we had a bad session, no one put their hand up to stop it; they all crashed with each other. In a good side there’s one person who puts his hand up every session. They didn’t do that. They all went well in some sessions and all went badly in others. Look at the stats – we were way ahead of England and I think we’ve got a better team, but that doesn’t matter.