Touring South Africa: hostile crowds and hard cricket
Q: What are your memories of touring South Africa?
Damien Martyn: For us, South Africa was always the opponent that played most like ourselves. They were aggressive, in your face, and it was always hard cricket over there. Johannesburg was always like the WACA to us, quick and bouncy, and we loved playing there, as well as Durban. We always knew it was going to be a ferocious contest.
Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis. They had a phenomenal side, even after Allan Donald's era. Going there was always a huge scrap.
Their crowds were hostile, just as Australian crowds are hostile, and there was plenty of verbal chat in those days. Nowadays teams are a bit nicer to each other, but back then they gave it to us just like we gave it to them. We loved touring South Africa. They were always great tours.
Q: Who was their worst sledger?
DM: Herschelle Gibbs would get going, and Mark Boucher behind the stumps was constantly in your ear! Great blokes off the field. I met them after retiring and they're fantastic, but I was always terrified of Mark Boucher behind the stumps because he'd give it to you all day.
But it was the same with us; we had Matthew Hayden and others giving it back. Their whole approach was aggressive, which mirrored ours, so it made for great contests. The weather and pitches over there suited us, unlike England, so playing in South Africa felt a bit like playing at home.
Q: Who were the trickiest South African bowlers you faced?
DM: I only caught Allan Donald right at the end of his career, and he got injured during a match, so I luckily missed the worst of him! But they had Makhaya Ntini, Jacques Kallis, and Mfuneko Ngam or Nantie Hayward. Hayward was particularly ugly to face. They always produced quality fast bowlers. I remember watching Allan Donald for years. White Lightning, what a nickname!
I played against Dale Steyn right at the start of his career, yes. I was lucky there too! He could swing it both ways at high speed. Any time you face bowlers operating above 145 km/h, like Brett Lee, it makes batters jump and gets the opposition nervous in the dressing room, especially the tail. At that speed, you don't even need to swing it. It completely changes the atmosphere in the change room.
Sydney 1994, six years out and the road back
Q: South Africa provided both highs and lows in your career. Let's start with the low point in the 1994 Sydney Test, where you needed six runs to win, holed out off Allan Donald, and were subsequently dropped from the Test team for six years. What was that period like?
DM: Everyone talks about that second innings, but people forget I made fifty in the first innings! I had come in because Steve Waugh was injured, so I was replacing him. In that final innings, wickets were falling around me, and as a young player, I was trying to hang in there. But we kept losing wickets, and I felt I had to take the initiative because I was batting with the tail.
Glenn McGrath came in after me, and Glenn got out straight away, so there was no chance of him holding up an end! I tried to hit out, and the fielder took a blinder.
When I got back to the dressing room, Ian Healy said to me, "Mate, you were half a foot away from being a hero. If that had cleared him or been dropped, you win the game." But the media reaction back then was brutal and very personal.
I got dropped and it took me a long time to recover mentally because people in the street would come up and criticise me. It was a completely different environment. I had to return to Sheffield Shield cricket and rebuild my passion and energy to play at that level again.
Q: Six years in domestic exile is a long sentence...
DM: It is a long time. To be fair, I didn't play well for a couple of years after that, so I didn't deserve immediate re-selection. Australian domestic cricket back then was incredibly strong. You had blokes like Jamie Siddons averaging 50 in Shield cricket and unable to get a look-in.
Greg Blewett, Matthew Elliott, and Darren Lehmann were all scoring heavily. I had to wait for my moment, rebuild my game, and work my way back through the ODI side in 1998, playing the 1999 World Cup, before finally earning my Test recall.
Q: You achieved redemption at the Adelaide Oval in 2001 with a magnificent 133 against South Africa. Where does that rank among your Test innings?
DM: I also scored a hundred against South Africa at the SCG that same season. Every time we played South Africa, the media brought up 1994, so scoring hundreds against them at the SCG and Adelaide felt great. In sport, you play a bad shot, get dropped, and move on. It took me six years to get back, but I made it count. It could have been much worse.
Q: Looking back at your career, what do you consider your finest Test knock?
DM: It's hard to pick just one. My first Test hundred after my recall, at Edgbaston in the 2001 Ashes, was incredibly special. Justin Langer was dropped. Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, and I all made hundreds in that match.
Scoring centuries against South Africa was special for obvious reasons, and my performance during the 2004 series win in India stands out. Coming from Perth, where pitches are fast and bouncy, to adapt and score centuries on turning Indian tracks to win a series was something I was immensely proud of.
Sandpaper Gate and Australia's tour of South Africa
Q: Looking ahead to Australia's upcoming tour of South Africa, following the fallout of the 2018 Cape Town incident known as 'Sandpaper Gate', do you think this tour is about setting the record straight?
DM: It's going to be a tough tour, and the crowd will certainly give them a hard time. Eight years have passed quickly since 2018, but it remains a massive talking point in Australian cricket with many differing opinions. We'll probably never know the absolute full story of what happened. Maybe it'll come out in a book or a documentary series one day!
It was a massive shock. In our era, that simply did not happen; it wasn't part of our environment. You have to maintain your core values and how you approach the game. You can't justify actions by claiming other teams do it. Around the bowling group I played with, ball-tampering was never an option.
Watching it unfold on television was surreal because you knew they were instantly going to get caught. Whether the sanctions imposed on Smith, Warner, and Bancroft were too harsh or not enough remains debated, but it was hugely disappointing at the time. I'm confident it won't happen again.
Pat Cummins and the team will want to demonstrate how we play our cricket and uphold our values. There will be hostile media and crowds, but Steve Smith and the senior players are experienced enough to handle that. South Africa beat Australia in the World Test Championship cycle, so Australia will be fired up for redemption purely on cricket terms, too.
Q: Where does the Australia-South Africa rivalry rank compared to the Ashes?
DM: The Ashes against England will always be number one for Australian cricket. But when South Africa was readmitted to international cricket, they came back with immense passion and aggression. Because their weather and pitches were similar to ours, it created an intense, hard-fought rivalry.
During Steve Waugh's captaincy, India also elevated to that top tier. Winning in India became the ultimate frontier because conditions are so alien compared to Australia. Going from bouncy Perth tracks to turning, spitting pitches in India was a culture shock.
What Australian cricket did well back then was send players on developmental tours to learn how to play in those conditions, which laid the foundation for our 2004 series win.
Renshaw, Labuschagne and Australia's best XI
Q: Matthew Renshaw has returned to the squad as an opener. Do you think he can establish himself permanently this time?
DM: Yes. As Usman Khawaja noted recently, playing domestic cricket and spending time out of the national side allows a player to mature. I got picked very young at 20, but spending time in Shield cricket, like Mike Hussey did, helps you understand your game inside out.
Renshaw is more mature now, understands his game better, and carries less self-imposed pressure. He brings a calm presence at the top of the order to complement Travis Head's aggressive style at the other end.
I'm keen to see how Renshaw handles opening in tough conditions, and how Green and Webster perform. Players like Renshaw and Labuschagne provide the structural stability that allows aggressive batters like Head and Smith to play their natural game. In the bowling department, Scott Boland is always ready to step in and perform whenever called upon.
Q: Marnus Labuschagne has struggled for runs recently, but the management has maintained faith in him. What is your assessment of his situation?
DM: Look, he'll definitely be stressed. My immediate reaction to it was, on pure stats, he should probably be dropped. You look at the numbers over the last while and they just aren't there.
But then you look around at state cricket and ask: who's actually beating the door down with massive runs? There isn't anyone banging on the door with huge double-hundreds week in, week out.
George Bailey has pointed out recently that domestic pitches in Australia are quite different now, so Shield averages across the board have dropped. People are saying an average of 35 in Shield cricket is considered good now, which I'm not so sure about!
The other factor is how technique has evolved. Kids coming through the system now are playing so much T20 cricket that it bleeds into their red-ball game. I was down at a park in Sydney the other day, looking across at the local nets, and every kid in there was just trying to launch balls over the fence! So the fundamental approach to building an innings has shifted across the whole country.
If Pat Cummins and George Bailey back him and think Marnus has done it at the highest level, he adds huge value to the team environment, and nobody is blatantly outscoring him, then you take him on tour.
It's going to be a hard series, and you'd rather rely on a guy with proven world-class quality in the hope that he finds a score, finds his rhythm, and gets back into form ahead of a massive series against England next year.
Q: How do you anticipate Australia structuring their XI in South Africa regarding all-rounders and spinners?
DM: Pace has always been Australia's primary weapon in South Africa. Unless conditions demand a specific change, pace will dominate, especially if wet weather creates bowler-friendly conditions.
In the batting order, there are decisions to be made regarding whether Travis Head opens or bats at five, where Labuschagne and Smith bat, and how to balance Cameron Green and Beau Webster. Having options like Green and Webster gives Australia great flexibility.
Q: What is your series score prediction?
DM: I'll predict a 2-1 series win for Australia! Our experienced bowling attack and world-class batting quality should give us the edge in hard-fought conditions.
England: Root, Fleming, Stokes and KP
Q: Turning to England: Joe Root is back as captain, and Stephen Fleming has been appointed Test coach. What are your thoughts on Fleming taking over?
DM: I played against 'Flemmo' a lot back in the day. He was always a calm, thoughtful, and composed leader. Honestly, probably the perfect personality to coach Test cricket.
It creates a really interesting balance now, doesn't it? You've got Brendon McCullum managing the white-ball setups with all that high-octane energy, and then you bring in Fleming as the calm voice for the Test side. It actually makes a lot of sense, especially given how well those two know each other from their playing days.
With Joe Root returning to the captaincy, Fleming will bring a bit of focus back into the dressing room. The whole "Bazball" media circus got pretty wild there for a while. It wasn't entirely the players' fault, the media just ran with it, and while it was fantastic when they were chasing down crazy totals, there were times in Australia where England misread the situation.
Root would have sat back during Ben Stokes' tenure and taken mental notes. Stokes and McCullum were all-out attack, but Test cricket over five days isn't always played at 100 miles an hour. Sometimes you have to pull it back, calm things down, build pressure, and just play traditional Test cricket. Fleming is the ideal guy to instil that discipline.
Q: What is the perception in Australia regarding Ben Stokes' retirement?
DM: Is he really retired, though? Or is he going to pop back up for the Ashes? That's the rumour floating around, isn't it? You look at what he's doing for Durham, scoring runs, taking wickets, and you know he just thrives on the big stage. If the call comes, it's going to be very hard for a competitor like him to say no to one last hurrah against Australia.
Out in Australia, he's one of those opposition figures people love to hate, but there's enormous respect for him. He's ferocious, he never backs down, and he's devastated us in Test matches before. He plays cricket the way Australians like it to be played.
Him coming over to play for the Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash is massive for the tournament. The BBL has struggled to pull in genuine global superstars lately, so having Stokes around will be fantastic for the fans and the league, especially with all the commercial changes happening behind the scenes.
Q: Kevin Pietersen has joined England's white-ball coaching setup. What can he offer to the squad?
DM: I've caught up with KP a few times since retiring, and I really like him. Back when we played, he used to annoy the absolute hell out of us! Whether he was out in the field or batting, he was right in your face.
But as a cricketer, he was exceptionally clever and had supreme self-belief. He was one of the first guys I saw who could completely dictate terms. He knew when to step on the gas, when to pull it back, and how to target specific bowlers.
Passing that knowledge onto younger players is invaluable. It reminds me a bit of what Dean Jones used to do for Australian one-day cricket. KP knows the T20 and one-day game inside out, and when he talks tactics, players listen. Honestly, if he enjoys the role, why wouldn't you bring him on a tour to Australia as part of the setup? He knows what it takes to win out here.
Q: Former players like Jonathan Trott are also stepping into coaching roles within the English system, and Andrew Flintoff has also been part of it. How important is that internal pathway?
DM: It's great to see those blokes back in the fold. Trott had a tough time with his mental health during his playing career, but as a coach, working with the Lions and other setups, he comes across as very calm, logical, and structured. Getting Flintoff back involved was fantastic for the environment too.
You look at the whole picture. Root captaining, Fleming coaching the Test team, McCullum on white-ball, KP involved, Trott with the Lions. I know Rob Key has had his critics, but he's building an internal coaching pathway for former international players, which is crucial.
We've been fortunate in Australia with domestic coaches, though we have our own quirks. I spoke to Justin Langer a while back and joked about him taking a coaching role over in England, and he said, "Mate, my wife would leave me and Ricky Ponting would never speak to me again!" So we're a bit tribal about it! But bringing your own iconic players through the system rather than constantly exporting jobs overseas is definitely the right move for English cricket.
India: the ultimate frontier
Q: Looking ahead to Australia's tour of India in January, what makes touring India such a unique challenge for visiting teams?
DM: In the 1990s, going to India was a complete shock to the system. The early tours were brutally tough. The hotels weren't what they are today, the training pitches were tricky, the heat was overwhelming, and our stomach bugs were constant as we adjusted to the food.
Early on, Australian teams fought against the environment. Guys would sit in their rooms complaining about it being 48 degrees or how much the pitch was turning.
Steve Waugh was the one who completely flipped our mindset. He made it a team rule that we had to embrace India, get out of the hotel, experience the culture, interact with the people, and embrace the challenge. Once we stopped fighting the conditions and started respecting the environment, everything changed. You stop dreading a pitch and start viewing it as an exciting tactical puzzle. That mental shift was the foundation of our 2004 series win.
Q: Have India shifted their focus away from purely developing spin bowlers?
DM: Yes, I blame Glenn McGrath! Glenn's been going over to Chennai coaching at the MRF Pace Foundation, founded by Dennis Lillee. Glenn just got back from a stint there, so he's clearly teaching them all his secrets.
Historically, it was all spin because bowling fast on those pitches was so tough, but now they've developed a world-class pace attack. Jasprit Bumrah is phenomenal. Watching him from the commentary box or the couch, I just think, I'm glad I retired, because I have no idea how you're supposed to play him.
You've also got their 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi smashing sixes in the IPL. Indian cricket is in a frighteningly strong position.
Q: Which Indian players did you most admire during your playing career?
DM: Sachin Tendulkar was on an entirely different planet. The best example was the 2004 Test at the SCG. He'd been caught in the slips playing cover drives in the previous Tests, so he decided he simply wasn't going to play a shot outside the off-stump.
Glenn McGrath bowled outside off to him for hours, and Sachin just left ball after ball. He stood there, starved himself of his favourite shot, and made 200. That level of mental discipline was terrifying.
Rahul Dravid was also great. He'd grind your bowlers into the dirt. On the bowling side, Harbhajan Singh used to annoy the life out of me because he was so competitive. Anil Kumble never gave you an easy ball, and Zaheer Khan was dangerous too. Going back further, you look at guys like Sunil Gavaskar opening the batting against the West Indies quartet without a helmet!
The toughest bowlers Damien Martyn faced
Q: Who was the absolute toughest bowler you faced in your career?
DM: Shoaib Akhtar was terrifyingly fast. When Shoaib was on song, you were running on pure instinct. Shane Bond from New Zealand was another nightmare. He had an awkward, whippy action and swung it late.
Dale Steyn toward the tail-end of my career was exceptional, and facing Brett Lee in the nets at full tilt was something nobody in our squad enjoyed! Earlier in my career in the early '90s, facing Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, and Patrick Patterson in the Caribbean was brutal. I was just grateful we were allowed to wear helmets by the time I came through!
Yorkshire and Headingley
Q: Finally, what are your memories of your brief stint playing for Yorkshire at Headingley?
DM: I absolutely loved it, even though it was only a short stint replacing Yuvraj Singh at the end of the season. I'd played league cricket up north in my younger days for Gateshead Fell and North Durham, so I was already familiar with the region. I actually went to Headingley as a kid back in 1989 to watch an Ashes Test from the stands, so playing there later was special.
Darren Gough was there, who's a massive character and someone I'd played against since the Under-17s, alongside Craig White and Anthony McGrath, who's coaching them now. Yorkshire is proper cricket territory. They've produced the likes of Geoffrey Boycott, Michael Vaughan, Joe Root, and Harry Brook. The fans are fiercely passionate. As an overseas pro, they welcome you as one of their own.
That's why it's a total travesty that Headingley misses out on hosting an Ashes Test next year. You think of Botham in '81, Stokes in 2019. Headingley produces legendary moments. It's a proper traditional venue, and you shouldn't strip matches away from grounds with that kind of history.
