Collingwood: Hansie Cronje has been inspiration

Jul 11 2010 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

NOT many cricketers still cite Hansie Cronje as an inspiration, but Paul Collingwood has reason to remember the late, largely unlamented South African.

Just nine months or so ago, Collingwood’s international future was up for debate as a new breed of England hopefuls reached maturity.

And Durham’s most successful cricketing son knew it.

As bit and pieces players go, Colly was the world’s best. But, with competition for places and a tour of South Africa closing in, he set his sights on becoming a complete performer.

And former Proteas skipper Cronje, seven years after his death and almost a decade on from his match-fixing disgrace, became an unlikely inspiration.

“Ever since I started playing international cricket, my technique has always been questioned,” said Collingwood.

“The mental side of my game has never been doubted, but I’ve always been regarded as the player on the fringe facing calls of ‘Colly has to go’.

“I’ve long since learned to deal and get on with that – I’ve got no problems with it.

“But the good thing is that in the past year I’ve got to the stage where I’ve thought: ‘I want to start being better than that. I want to stop being the guy on the fringe.

“I want to be one of the main men and start taking the attack to the opposition’.

“I remember after the Ashes last summer, there was talk of whether I was going to go to South Africa or whatever.

“I thought: ‘If I’m going to go out, let it be on my terms’.

“So I took more of an aggressive role, and it really has worked, thanks partly to some clever work by (England coach) Andy Flower.

“We’re using stats and stuff a lot more in cricket now, and we analysed a couple of other players and what they had done by the same time in my career; what they were averaging and what have you.

“The two players I was compared with were Hansie Cronje and Mike Hussey.

“We looked at their performances and what they had each averaged after about 170 one-day internationals.

“And what I really noticed was that, while our batting averages were pretty similar, Hansie had hit 30-odd more sixes than me by the same stage in his career.

“I thought that was very interesting. I’ve always nudged and nurdled the ball around, but obviously he was a bit more of a boundary hitter.

“There was no reason why he should have been, so I decided I should become a bit more powerful and back myself to clear the ropes more often.

“I went down that route and it’s worked for me pretty well, although I think one of the other big differences has been that I got moved from No 5 in one-day cricket to No 4.

“It doesn’t sound like much, but when you know you’ve got four great players behind you batting at No 4, you know you can go for your shots a bit more.”