The 2 minute interview
By Jeremy Horne and David Slater
October 29 2002
After our ‘barmy day out’ at Chelmsford, David and I spoke to Sven Koenig and John Emburey in the last of out interviews. Unfortunately, Emburey only had two minutes, but his responses suggested otherwise.
By Jeremy Horne and David Slater
October 29 2002
After our ‘barmy day out’ at Chelmsford, David and I spoke to Sven Koenig and John Emburey in the last of out interviews. Unfortunately, Emburey only had two minutes, but his responses suggested otherwise.
A FEW QUESTIONS WITH SVEN
David Slater: How does having a fellow South African help with opening the batting?
Sven Koenig: Straussy’s probably more English than he is South African, so it doesn’t really feel any different, same as if I were batting with an English batter. He was only born in South Africa.
DS: You were one of the highest averaging players in South Africa. How big an influence was it for you to come over here?
SK: Because of the exchange rates! Basically, one pound buys you 17 rand back home, so money wise it was very good for me to come here- for the cash! Also, back home our cricket’s just getting a bit stale, there’s too much politics in our cricket.
Jeremy Horne: You and Straussy have formed a good opening partnership this year, what do you think the secrets are for a good opening pair?
SK: Running between the wickets, understanding each others game and obviously, getting through the new ball.
THE JOHN EMBUREY ‘2 MINUTE’ INTERVIEW
Jeremy Horne: Whom, out of the younger players, should we be looking out for over the next few years?
John Emburey: We’ve got a very young side playing 1st team cricket, of the younger ones in the 2nd eleven, obviously Nick Compton is one who’s only 18 and got a lot of talent. He’s got to get some scores under his belt, but he’s hopefully going to be one for the future. We have also got two young 15 year olds that we are hoping good things for in the future. One of them is a guy called Fahim Kareshi (apologies if that has been misspelled!) and the other is a young boy called Owen Morgan, an Irish lad that we are looking to register. Balance that and it’s a nice divide between the young players that we have got in the current side and the ones coming through.
JH: Do you think it’s been hard for Andrew Strauss to take over the captaincy from Angus Fraser at such a young age?
JE: Yes, it’s been difficult. Obviously we appointed him vice captain this year to gain some experience under Angus, so to a certain extent, with Angus going into journalism, Andrew has been thrown in at the deep end. He’s done well, but there are a lot of areas that we have got to discuss at the end of the season- areas where we feel he might be able to improve a little bit on his captaincy. However, he’s only 24, he’s got time on his side and I’m sure he will develop into a very good captain.
JH: It’s looking as if Middlesex are going to go up. How do you think we would cope in the first division?
JE: That’s a tough question. It looks as if we are going to go up because we are top at the moment. The key (sorry R*mps) thing is making sure we don't lose the remaining 2 games that we play and this one in particular, against Essex. We let a good position slip in the afternoon, having been 110-1 at lunch and becoming 240 odd for 7. We’ve managed to turn that around a little bit and get up to 283. It’s important tomorrow that we focus on our 1st target being 300 and then taking it on to 350.* We’ve still got a couple of batsmen in Cook and Nashie at the crease that are capable of doing that and then Keegan and hopefully we can get some runs out of Tufnell aswell.
JH: Again!
JE: Yes…
JH: Nashie has very much improved with the bat this year, would you say that this is down to hard work over the winter?
JE: No, I think Nashie’s always been a good wicket keeper. I think as players gain experience they are going to become better and I think a lot of it comes down to the experience they are gaining by playing each year. Each year they will get better.
David Slater: Out of all the players in the side, who do you think most deserves a place in the Ashes squad?
JE: There are two logical ones really. Ed Joyce can’t because he isn’t qualified and really the only one that could do it at this stage is Owais Shah. Owais has had a reasonable season, he’ll be disappointed with only getting out for 47 today, but he may miss out on that and get in one of the one-day squads instead.
* We never even reached 300!
Next week: We will begin our review of the season.
David Slater: How does having a fellow South African help with opening the batting?
Sven Koenig: Straussy’s probably more English than he is South African, so it doesn’t really feel any different, same as if I were batting with an English batter. He was only born in South Africa.
DS: You were one of the highest averaging players in South Africa. How big an influence was it for you to come over here?
SK: Because of the exchange rates! Basically, one pound buys you 17 rand back home, so money wise it was very good for me to come here- for the cash! Also, back home our cricket’s just getting a bit stale, there’s too much politics in our cricket.
Jeremy Horne: You and Straussy have formed a good opening partnership this year, what do you think the secrets are for a good opening pair?
SK: Running between the wickets, understanding each others game and obviously, getting through the new ball.
THE JOHN EMBUREY ‘2 MINUTE’ INTERVIEW
Jeremy Horne: Whom, out of the younger players, should we be looking out for over the next few years?
John Emburey: We’ve got a very young side playing 1st team cricket, of the younger ones in the 2nd eleven, obviously Nick Compton is one who’s only 18 and got a lot of talent. He’s got to get some scores under his belt, but he’s hopefully going to be one for the future. We have also got two young 15 year olds that we are hoping good things for in the future. One of them is a guy called Fahim Kareshi (apologies if that has been misspelled!) and the other is a young boy called Owen Morgan, an Irish lad that we are looking to register. Balance that and it’s a nice divide between the young players that we have got in the current side and the ones coming through.
JH: Do you think it’s been hard for Andrew Strauss to take over the captaincy from Angus Fraser at such a young age?
JE: Yes, it’s been difficult. Obviously we appointed him vice captain this year to gain some experience under Angus, so to a certain extent, with Angus going into journalism, Andrew has been thrown in at the deep end. He’s done well, but there are a lot of areas that we have got to discuss at the end of the season- areas where we feel he might be able to improve a little bit on his captaincy. However, he’s only 24, he’s got time on his side and I’m sure he will develop into a very good captain.
JH: It’s looking as if Middlesex are going to go up. How do you think we would cope in the first division?
JE: That’s a tough question. It looks as if we are going to go up because we are top at the moment. The key (sorry R*mps) thing is making sure we don't lose the remaining 2 games that we play and this one in particular, against Essex. We let a good position slip in the afternoon, having been 110-1 at lunch and becoming 240 odd for 7. We’ve managed to turn that around a little bit and get up to 283. It’s important tomorrow that we focus on our 1st target being 300 and then taking it on to 350.* We’ve still got a couple of batsmen in Cook and Nashie at the crease that are capable of doing that and then Keegan and hopefully we can get some runs out of Tufnell aswell.
JH: Again!
JE: Yes…
JH: Nashie has very much improved with the bat this year, would you say that this is down to hard work over the winter?
JE: No, I think Nashie’s always been a good wicket keeper. I think as players gain experience they are going to become better and I think a lot of it comes down to the experience they are gaining by playing each year. Each year they will get better.
David Slater: Out of all the players in the side, who do you think most deserves a place in the Ashes squad?
JE: There are two logical ones really. Ed Joyce can’t because he isn’t qualified and really the only one that could do it at this stage is Owais Shah. Owais has had a reasonable season, he’ll be disappointed with only getting out for 47 today, but he may miss out on that and get in one of the one-day squads instead.
* We never even reached 300!
Next week: We will begin our review of the season.
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