Hands and Heals the Autobiography by Ian Healy

Author:Ian Healy [Ian Healy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780730450344
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

IN SOUTH AFRICA, I’D APPROACHED Bob Simpson to ask him if it would be okay for me to skip the trip to Sharjah that had been tacked on to the end of that tour. I’d already spoken to Laurie Sawle, back after the Adelaide Test, and he had told me I could miss Sharjah if I wanted to. I was sick of the ankle and wanted to get home to my heavily pregnant wife. Laura, our second daughter, arrived on April 19, and a week later I was in hospital myself, for an ankle reconstruction. The plaster cast and surgical boot stayed on for six weeks, and for much of June the lower leg was as stiff as a board. By the time I regained my mobility, not long before the pre-tour camp, I was fatter than I’d ever been in my life, but also far removed from the fatigue I’d felt after the 20 months of cricket we’d completed in April. Losing that extra weight was bloody hard work, but enjoyable, too, once I got started.

The vice-captaincy was an added spur. At that point I saw myself as something of a successor to Geoff Marsh, and knew that Swampy, always conscious of his responsibilities and a firm believer in the adage ‘do as I do’, would never have turned up to a pre-tour camp way out of nick. When the appointments were announced, Id been asked, naturally, if I saw the vice-captaincy as a stepping stone to the top position when Tubby’s reign was over. No, I said, and I meant it. I was more concerned with being a good deputy, which to me meant making sure all the blokes are happy, that the atmosphere within the team is fine, and that any complaints are dealt with through the right channels. On the field, I’ve always thought the wicketkeeper was in the perfect position to be vice-captain, as he is in the thick of it, can see how the batsmen are going about their tasks and how the wicket is playing. And he can tell better than even the bowlers how the bowlers are going.

The fact that I was vice-captain made little difference to the way I approached the tour of Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The biggest change Tubby brought was to make each of us more accountable for our roles within the team. Nothing was left to chance. I probably felt a tinge of extra responsibility, especially with AB absent, but I doubt that was reflected in any major change in the way I prepared or interacted with my teammates. Without doubt, I reacted positively to the way Tubby wanted everyone and everything to be organised. My personal ambition was to regain what I called my Ashes ‘93 intensity’.

By the time we arrived in Karachi for the first Test of the tour, we’d already failed to make the final of a limited-overs tournament in Sri Lanka after beating Pakistan but losing to India and our hosts. I felt

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