Can't believe it is already ten years: Morne Morkel

Morne Morkel has completed a decade as one of the important components of the South African pace battery. In fact, he has been his country’s best in the past two years. In his 71-Test career, Morne Morkel has only missed one Test match his country has played. From being a tall erratic fast bowler to spearheading the fast bowling attack in the past couple of year, Morkel’s career has come a long way.

He admits he finds it hard to open up in front of the media, but he wants people to know how hard he works at his bowling. In a recent interview with ESPNcricinfo, Morkel, who currently with his IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders, opened about how important downtime has been for him ever since the birth of his first child, eight months ago and discusses other important incidents of his career.

Morkel described his decade-long journey in international cricket, “Can’t believe it is already ten years,” he says.

“It has been a fantastic ride so far. Growing up in a small town, where the odds of me playing even one Test match were very much against me, to grow up and play for ten years, and what is it now, 71 Test matches, 106 ODIs is a massive achievement for me.”

“To eventually make a mark for myself in international cricket and to go on and achieve certain goals is something special. It has gone quickly. I am 32 and getting close to retirement, but certainly the journey has been unbelievable.”

Morkel, who became dad eight months ago, has been babysitting a fair bit during this IPL.

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“I haven’t done a lot of babysitting, but I am getting used to it, and I don’t mind changing nappies.”

“I need to give my wife a big award because she has been raising my little boy for the past eight months now. I have played a small role up to now, but I know my time will come, where I will need to give throwdowns in the backyard and those sort of things.”

There is a story from his early days that Jacques Kallis, after having faced him in the nets for the first time in the nets in Pretoria was highly impressed and had asked the coaches about him.

“I would like to give a lot of thanks to Ray Jennings. I had just finished school. I was alone, had no sort of direction. I was going to go to England and play cricket there, but Ray invited me to go and play in the Easterns’ nets. My brother was playing at Easterns at the time. I went that afternoon, had a bowl in the nets, had quite a good session, went back the following week, got a junior contract by luck or by chance.”

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“Couple of months later, Ray was announced as the head coach of the South African team and they were playing against England in South Africa and they needed net bowlers. So, for a skinny lad it was fantastic to go and spend the afternoon and bowl against and see the greats like Jacques Kallis.”

“Funny enough, my first ball was against Jacques. I remember I was so nervous. To cut a long story short, two or three years later I was playing in the same team as him. It is amazing how quickly a door can open or an opportunity can arrive. You just need to be at the right time in the right place.”

“For me, it is not really about bowling a ball and being a nasty fast bowler. It is more about having a quick little stare at the batsman and having strong body language”

Morkel also spoke about his bowling style. He has been continually criticised for bowling wrong lengths at the batsman. However, the tall fast bowler tells why he usually bowls back of the length balls.

“I get criticised a lot for bowling the wrong lengths, but the thing people don’t understand is, I am not a swing bowler.”

“It is that sort of a fight with the media I have had, where they have wanted me to bowl fuller for ten years, or about me being inconsistent. As I have got more experienced over the years, I have managed to deal with that [criticism] better. From a normal couch critic, who does not understand the game, those sort of things can be tricky.”

Fast bowlers are generally the bad boys of cricket. However, one would certainly admit that Morkel doesn’t really fall into his category. He is tall, fast and can bounce out the best batsman. But, right since the start he is been regarded as the ‘wise guy’ who doesn’t go hard at the opposition. Morkel says that it is not wrong to be a nice fast bowler. According to him, friendship and memories matter more that on-field tussle.

“For me, it is not really about bowling a ball and being a nasty fast bowler. I like to stay focused, in my bubble. For me, it is more about having a quick little stare at the batsman and having strong body language. Body language is the most important thing for me when it comes to bowling. And nowadays you get fined, so you can’t really give [verbals].”

“For me, friendships, memories in the game, are far more important than being the idiot on the field, and in life after cricket, guys avoiding me because I was this guy who I am not off the field.”

The 32-year-old also describes what aggression really means.

“Aggression with the ball is being able to bowl at 90mph for an entire day in a Test match, to have a good body language, and even if you are leaking runs, never show the batsman that he is on top of you. The first 20 balls, any batsman in the world is vulnerable, so I have to be very strong in my areas and in my control and just have a little bit of eye contact. That is the key.” he added.