Marsh with the bat: he would have been a hit in T20, no risk. Marsh with the bat: he would have been a hit in T20, no risk.
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Kevin Pietersen’s gone off the boil quite remarkably this year, can you see him having a big series?

Yep. In my opinion he’s a great player. He’s a little bit different, Kevin, but he’s a fantastic batsman who can rip you apart. And the more Australia tries to upset him, the better he’ll play. The less people talk about him, the less anyone even mentions his name, the better chance we’ve got of getting him out cheaply. I worked very closely with Kevin at the Academy and I know for a fact that you’re better off forgetting about him, not talking to him on the field, not trying to upset him in any way, because he’ll come back to bite you. He’s a fine player – second-best batsman I’ve had as a kid behind Ponting.

Given all your involvement with English cricket, what was going through your mind when they won the ’05 series?

It was a hell of a series – nothing was going through my mind except that it was fantastic cricket! I wasn’t actually a selector for that series – they wouldn’t allow me, must’ve thought I was going to throw in a bloke who couldn’t play … But it was a heck of a good series. It was quite enthralling from my point of view, watching blokes I’d had in the English Academy like Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff playing against all the guys I’d had in the Australian Academy. I didn’t feel I’d done anything but good, because it was definitely some of the best cricket I’ve ever seen.

Do you think you would’ve enjoyed playing in this ultra-professional era?

If I was in this age bracket, then yes, because I love playing the game. Would I have liked to be playing in the early 1900s? Yes, I would, because I love playing the game. I would’ve always played cricket. I fell in love with it at a very early age and have remained faithful ever since.Everyone says I would’ve been a good T20 player. Well … I don’t even remember too many one-day matches I played, but I certainly remember every single Test match. And I think most players are still like that today. They won’t remember T20 cricket, they might remember the odd 50-over game, but they’ll savour every single game of Test match cricket that they ever play.

 The Test teams you played in were always revered for their “hard-arse” approach to the game, but now the Australians are castigated when they try and employ a rugged approach, and it’s given the Australians a poor reputation in some spheres. What’s changed?

Well, the best way to intimidate an opposition is to have two great fast bowlers – and we had ‘em. We could intimidate anyone without saying a word – and that’s where it’s misconstrued. Everyone thought we were non-stop chat on the cricket field, but that’s absolute rubbish. Most of the intimidation came from balls pitched just short of a length going past people’s nostrils, without helmets on. That’s intimidation! We were the bullies, fine. But we were the bullies because we had Lillee and Thomson. I don’t think we said any more or any less than teams in the 1930s. Though I imagine if someone French-cut Bill O’Reilly for four he’d have had a bit to say …I see video images of us taking a wicket over in England in 1972, and we’re all just standing there. There was no jumping around and high-fiving; you just took the wicket then thought about how you were going to get the next bloke out.