Ian Healy had seen it all. Inzamam-ul-Haq’s dancing feet, Shane Warne’s release from his hands and his awareness to dip and slide sharply outside the leg stump, and the deliberately unpredictable midwicket shot. “Seeing too much can be a problem sometimes,” smiles Hayley like a bucket of water at the Gabba.
and pressure. “Oh yeah, the pressure. I definitely felt it that day.”
In the 1994 Karachi Test, Pakistan needed 56 when last man Mushtaq Ahmed played Inzamam, but the equation now read just three runs for victory. “Mussie scored 20! Don’t think he’ll ever do that again! A day like that.” Warne, captain Mark Taylor and Healy decided to leave the midwicket open. Inzamam would once tell this reporter why he took the risk to aim for that gap ). It could have been done in singles as well. But that is the whole charm of war. I braced myself to play that shot. “
Hilly was also a little scared. “It’s crazy what goes through the head in such a short window of time. I knew what Warne was doing, read the ball, knew it was going to sink fast, and there was a chance Eng wasn’t going to get there in time. A lot of things were happening, and I missed it. .” And, Pakistan won. Sleepless nights await the man who cares deeply about his job.
There was another sleepless night involving Brian Lara in another famous chase but that can wait for now. Wicketkeeping, they say, is a thankless job but Healy made it a fun activity, especially with his chuckles, chirps, lots of chats with Warney, the occasional batsman just to cover up, and most importantly: he used to jump. A child, legs bent back, clapped before gravity pulled him back.
Ian Healy keeping for Australia in ODIs. (CA)
Like that famous out bowled between the legs by Basit Ali, of which Greg Chappell said on air, “He’ll be hearing that sound (the ball hitting the stumps) all night”. Haley and Warne had a conversation, and the accepted wisdom was that they were talking about where and what to drink and eat, and in the end they decided to put a Pakistani on Ali. Haley laughs at the memory. “Food isn’t even a matter, really. Basit was annoying Warne at that stage by wasting time as he was near the stumps. Warney was a bit angry and he was saying the same thing over and over again. He kept telling me to come up, and I kept ignoring him, but for some reason, Before that last ball of the day, I ran out. We were just fooling around, and as I was walking back, I said, “Tear him a leggie, and he Not even sure if I heard”. And my celebration was due to that Warney magic – only he could do it.
Unbelievable bowler of course. But one that is easy to read. He himself would announce to every local broadcaster where we would visit all his gripes and what he would do. He would also tell the batsman, he would shout like he did with Darryl Cullinan or Robin Smith – two leggies, then comes the cap. And they’re going to, of course he’s going to do that. He certainly will!”
It goes back to the basics of wicketkeeping. Haley had a method. “Ars out, is very important because it gives balance. And allows you to stay low and spring when you need to. And also, the front glove – when you’re looking at the bowler’s arm, you should be able to see the gloves in your peripheral vision.
For the pacers, Healy, like other Australian glovesmen, would rotate to his right and gather the ball to his left. Fast, cool and safe as you can trust the bounce of the Australian wicket. “The English liked to keep the body behind the ball, didn’t want to go all the way out to the right because the ball was going to bounce too slow there. I modeled my keeping on Rod Marsh – the Australian method. I struggled on my first tour to England and to adapt, far away. Didn’t have to walk right, and my body was back enough to handle that wobble.
Healy is a little disappointed that the glovesmen of current cricket are not proper specialists. “That’s the trend now, isn’t it. A batsman who can keep. England have also gone with Ollie Pope for the Test against New Zealand. Ben Foakes was good, but didn’t last long. Alex Carey is good, solid. Rishabh Pant is a work in progress, but I have him in the morning. See and like the practice he’s been doing; he’s still bound to improve.”
Did he raise anything about Pant’s mistake? “Sometimes, like he did when he dropped the catch earlier in this series, he can make an early mis-movement. Some keepers like to move a touch to their left first and then press from there. It’s better to stay still and if you can’t, then you start the trigger movement a touch faster so that when the ball is out there, you can still press to the right. One of the two must be decided.”
Healy himself took many catches from the under-edge and as per the demand he stayed low for the spinners. “That’s the key. Even though I can read Warne, know what the ball is going to do mostly, the degree of spin depending on the angle at which he leaves the ball, I have to resist the urge to get there quickly. I have to wait. Wait for the batsman to make his move. , wait for the force to do its job, and then just move.
The way Healy worked with Warne was also a team-work that involved Warne’s mentor Terry Jenner. The two of them will work together and then Jenner will call me to tell me what I need to pay attention to. Say, he has to spin up – that was the signal I had to tell Warney if he was releasing the ball flatter. They worked on how to throw the ball out of hand. Different cues for different deliveries, and if Warney doesn’t get it right, then I’ll just remind him, ‘spin up’ and so on.
Healy took his two stumpings out with Graeme Thorpe as his best. One in Edgbaston, England and the other in Australia. On both occasions Varney crossed the ball past the advancing Thorpe. “But both times, it bounced too high. Close to my face. I had to make sure I cushioned the ball in my glove, protected it, before I went down. Gotta resist those urges. Otherwise, I would have caught the ball.” Healy has also taken diving catches, once famous for Sanath Jayasuriya as he hoisted himself to the left to take it.
“I’m not often known for the diving stuff because my thing was quick footwork; get close to the ball so you don’t dive too much. Like Mark Waugh, you don’t often see him flying in the slips because he didn’t need to; he had such good technique on his feet first. There There was one diving catch, though, I had to dive really low to my left to take it off Greg Campbell at Hobart in 1989. That was really satisfying There was a catch.
Moving from things that satisfy to things that keep him awake at night – Lara’s dropped catch in the famous chess game in Barbados in 1999. Five runs after Indy’s chase. With just seven runs needed, Lara tried to glide a length ball past Warne at first slip but drained it. Perhaps for one of those rare instances, when Haley’s left leg didn’t take a positive step. “And I hit the lung with my left hand but it didn’t stick.” He would get up off the ground, clean his sunglasses with his inner glove, look at Warney and continue. “There wasn’t much to say at that moment, eh?!” Healy smiles as he recalls a moment from 25 years ago. “Thank you so much for reminding me about it!” A leisurely smile returns. After five Tests and seven months, Healy played his last match for Australia. These days he is a fine presence in the commentary booths, chatting with his former teammates at breaks. “It’s good to see Abby (Alan Border) getting better and doing better, isn’t it?”
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