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Andrew Knight - my best captain
I played under some very astute captains however, undoubtedly the best captain that I played under was Former NSW and Queensland batsman Peter Clifford.
Peter was always thinking 2-3 overs ahead of most players on game days, however he was also thinking about his team winning matches 2-3 games ahead. In Peter’s side you knew your role and what was expected of you. If you got it right, he told you – if you got it wrong, he told you! There were no grey areas, however you had the opportunity to grow and develop as a player. He always wanted players to improve, and he backed those players who wanted to improve.
He was also prepared to try something different, sometimes to the surprise of his players, however he had built up credits with his players and they had confidence in him that he had seen something different, or an opportunity was available. It was no surprise when it came off and more often than not it did.
An example of this came during a semifinal in Premier 1st grade. South Brisbane had our Toombul side in all sorts of trouble. I hadn’t been having a great year with the bat and was playing more as bowler than a batsman and was slated to come in at no 9. At 4 for less than 40 he told me to pad up and go in next. Why, who knew? Cliffo had a thought. Soon we were 7-70 and as minor premiers not looking great. He came up to me at the lunch break and said, “just bat”. Hardly inspirational stuff! I knew that he had confidence in me. Time to repay the faith. Well, some 7 hours later I was the last player out. We had recovered a bit. All out 303 – I finished up with 157. We ended up making the Grand Final and winning the premiership 2 two weeks later.
Sometime later, I asked him the question as to why he put we in at 7 that day, his reply – “You were hitting them well during the week, I knew it would be your day”. As I said earlier, he had seen something and seized the opportunity!
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Responses
Early in the 1981/82 season I was playing for Central Cumberland District Cricket Club 2nd Grade against Balmain at Drummoyne Oval. We scored just over 300 on the first day and had Balmain in deep trouble at 8 for 90 on a dampish wicket at lunch on the second day. During the lunch break, the Balmain captain, Mark van Epen approached our captain, Johnny Aitken, and said he would declare if we forfeited our second innings and we could play for outright points. J. A. put this offer to a team vote. I was the only person who argued against it, saying the wicket had dried out, they had a strong batting side and we were giving them two sessions to score just over 200 runs. So we forfeited our second innings and Balmain ended up getting the runs with only a couple of wickets down. I was the only recognised bowler who did not bowl in the second innings. This upset me greatly because even though I argued against the declaration, I would not consider doing anything but my very best for the team.
We ended up Minor Premiers and played Balmain, who had scraped into the semis because of that outright victory against us, in the final at Old Kings Oval. Cumberland won the toss and sent Balmain in on a damp wicket. I was brought to bowl my left arm orthodox deliveries fairly early and took a couple of quick wickets. When playing for Balmain a couple of seasons later, Mark van Epen told me that he regarded me as our team's most dangerous bowler and instructed his batsmen to attack me. He reasoned that if they hit a few boundaries off me that I would be taken off. That is exactly what happened. I was not brought back on to bowl until more than 70 runs had been added. I took 7 for 44 and we ended up losing by 65 runs.
Mark van Epen had outfoxed our captain twice in the season to win his team a premiership.
Cliffo was a fine player.