‘Erase records of fixers’

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On a bright Saturday morning, a man who made history in this city, returned to the place which holds a special place in his heart. At 61, Sir Richard Hadlee may not be the fast and furious man of the glory days of the past, yet much like his inswingers, the New Zealand legend’s words are sharp, straight and bold.
Hadlee, in the city for the KSCA platinum jubilee celebrations, spent time catching up with his peers and contemporaries.
A man who has worn many hats from a player to a commentator, author, columnist, selector and aspiring administrator, Hadlee, in a candid conversation spoke about cricket and the perils it is currently facing. Excerpts:

On role of bowlers getting tougher over the years: I think there’s more cricket today, the wear and tear on the body is going to be greater if you are play all three formats. Something is going to happen to the body at some stage. You really are going to have to do it all in a short period of time, if you last about 10 years as a pace bowler particularly I think you’ve had a good career, spinners could go 15 or more years.
I can tell you that after the 18 years that I played international cricket, in all forms of cricket including club cricket, I bowled something like 100,000 balls and the body wasn’t designed to handle that sort of wear and tear to the extent that I have a right hip replacement, and a left-knee replacement.

On players being tempted to make money illegally: You have to look at the people who have been caught. Did they need to get involved, particularly the young players? Maybe they see an opportunity to pick up some quick, cheap money to bowl a wide or no-ball. Sometimes they get influenced, it’s a shame that it goes on and it has to be stamped out very quickly and people have to be made examples of and clearly banned, even take it a step further, even have your records erased for life in the game, I think that is the most severe penalty that can happen even more than going to jail is to have your record erased from the game.
If it needs to go to that stage then players are going to think twice before they get involved in something like this.

On overcoming depression and being able to bounce back: Firstly, if you have a problem you have to acknowledge it, otherwise you are keeping it inside and there’s this denial that you think ‘everything’s alright,’ but in fact it’s not alright. There’s nothing wrong in admitting that you have depression or a low or a mental problem.
I was able to do that in 1983. It was tough, I went through depression for six months. I was so busy, I was up and down the country, saying yes to everybody, appearing everywhere.
All of a sudden I got a bit of a heat stroke and collapsed. There was chest pains, headaches and I started thinking ‘What’s wrong with me?’ trivial things become important, like a picture on the wall is crooked so I had to go and straighten it, I would get into the car with my wife for a drive and then after a few minutes I didn’t want to be in the car. I didn’t want to be out there in public.
They were the issues I was confronted with, so I just removed myself from all that to become quite reclusive and you took a step back and eventually bounced back. By the time I finished my career, I could say, ‘hey, I’ve got no regrets, what’s done is done, and I’m proud of that and get on with your life.’

On his views on the current crop of bowlers: I see (James) Anderson and (Dale) Steyn as two top pace bowlers in world. (Stuart) Broad is really hitting his straps at the present.
I haven’t seen enough of the new Pakistan quickies but they are big men and by all accounts they look handful.