I was not good enough for test cricket on last tour: Swann

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: January 4, 2010

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Cape Town: England’s new poster boy, Graeme Swann’s outstanding form in the ongoing series against South Africa, where he has been Man of the Match in consecutive test matches, is in stark contrast to his tour to the same country 10 years ago, when he came to the African nation as a 19-year old. Swann said on Sunday that on the last tour he was miles away from the test team and all that he was concerned about was drinking!

Swann has moved to the third position in the ICC rankings for bowlers after his nine-wicket haul in the second test propelled England to a huge victory. The win took England 1-0 up in the series with two matches to go. However, things weren’t quite the same when he toured South Africa as a young spinner in 1999-2000.

“The difference between this current tour and that one is like polar opposites,” the 30-year-old Swann told the Mail on Sunday. “I would turn up at the next hotel and the first thing I’d find out was where the bar was located. I was young and stupid and I didn’t realise that sometimes you need more than one alarm clock to wake you up.”

Swann was not picked for any of the tests on the 1999-2000 tour and he was candid enough to accept that he was not good enough in those days. “When you are 19 you think you know everything there is to know,” he said. “You’re convinced you’re right and that everyone else in the world is old and senile, out of touch and wrong. At the end of it (then coach) Duncan (Fletcher) sat me down for my tour review and praised me for my ‘tenacious’ attitude in training but I didn’t need to be told… I was nowhere near good enough, a million miles from playing Test cricket.”

After England’s historic win in the second-test at Durban on Wednesday, England skipper Andrew Strauss said that Swann has been a key figure in the team’s resurgence this year. “Graeme has had a massive impact over the last 12 months,” said Strauss. “He has always been a very attacking spinner, he gives it a rip, bowls an attacking line and with the extra pressure of test cricket, that can be invaluable.”

Swann added that, in hindsight, he was pleased he did not feature in the test side 10 years ago. “I’m very glad I didn’t play because I certainly wouldn’t have done justice to myself and I may have made such a hash of it that I never got another go,” said the spinner who has also contributed to England’s success with the bat with some splendid innings lower down the order.

“Even if I had done okay, in all probability I would have formed too high an opinion of myself and ended up disappearing from the game and stuck in a day job I hated,” he said.

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