By CricketCountry Staff
Australian fast bowler Dirk Nannes turned out for Surrey in the domestic T20 competition in England after a truncated IPL season earlier this year due to injury.
Published: Sep 21, 2011, 02:42 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 21, 2011, 02:42 PM (IST)
Fast bowler Dirk Nannes said it made a lot of business sense for him to focus solely on T20 cricket © Getty Images
By CricketCountry Staff
Bangalore: Sep 21, 2011
Australian fast bowler Dirk Nannes turned out for Surrey in the domestic T20 competition in England after a truncated IPL season earlier this year due to injury.
But the left handed fast bowler said that he regained his fitness in two months and hence could perform well for Surrey. H e also added that he is looking forward to continue the same form for Royal Challengers Bangalore in this year’s Champions League T20 (CLT20).
He was quoted in an interview to The Hindu, “That was two months ago; a lot can happen in two months,” he says of the stint. “But it was good; I took a couple of weeks off afterwards and spent some time with my family — a few trips here and there. It was a huge disappointment to miss the last edition of the IPL, such a good tournament to be involved in, but it’s good to be back.” Having retired from first class cricket, Nannes now plies his trade only in the shortest format of the game, in three different countries. “Freelancing is a good job if you can get that,” he smiles. “In my case, I had to quit first-class cricket because I was getting injured often. Look, I am 35 now, and it’s more of a business decision; cricket also is a sort of business.”
“It’s somewhat silly to keep trying to play four-day cricket when you can extend your career by playing T20, and of course you can spend more time with your family as well.”
He also added that it made a lot of sense business-wise for him to focus solely on T20 cricket.
“So far, only three people do the freelancing — myself, (Chris) Gayle and (Shaun) Tait. Our circumstances have a similarity to each other. I don’t think it is right for a cricketer who is coming up to focus only on T20. If you are good at Test cricket, you are good at T20 and vice versa; those formats are not mutually exclusive,” he added.
Known as a T20 specialist, Nannes offered advice to young fast bowlers.
“Some bowlers complicate things too much trying to out-think the batsmen,” he says. “They think ‘OK, now I need to bowl eight slow balls, and then a quicker one.’ You don’t need to do that. Sometimes, they try to bowl a lot of yorkers — it’s a dangerous delivery to try all the time. There is such a low margin for error that if you miss by a foot, it will for a four or six. But if you miss a short ball by a foot, it still can earn you a dot ball. If you are not a good yorker bowler, then you shouldn’t attempt it too often. I go that way,” said Nannes.
