ICC World Cup: Best Laird out plans work

Perth Therersquos a lot of money in cricket nowadays and the big players make it even larger But four decades ago the gentlemanrsquos game was not as lucrative More so for players who were not consistently in the team for a long period of time Ask Bruce Laird the former Australian opener who probably has one of the highest aggregates in a Test without scoring a century ndash 92 and 75 on debut against West Indies at Brisbane in December 1979Former Australia opening batsman Bruce Laird at a park in Ardross Street Applecross in suburban Perth PicAshwin Ferro inset Bruce Laird in his playing days pic courtesy Australian Cricket Yearbook 1977The gutsy former opener revealed that he was forced to retire just three years after his Test debut because players like him who were in and out of the national team werenrsquot paid enough by the Australian cricket authorities The fit 64yearold however has no regrets about his short and sweet career of 21 Tests and 23 oneday internationals He is one of rare cricketers who joined Kerry Packerrsquos World Series Cricket before playing a Test matchExcerptsAre you involved in cricket nowNot at all I was a Western Australia selector four years ago when Tom Moody was coach but now Irsquom semiretired It means Irsquom still working parttime and looking forward to earning enough money to retire I work for Elders an agriculture company here in Applecross You mean money was a problem despite you being an international cricketerWell back in 198283 after I returned with the Test team from Pakistan I lost my place in the side to Wayne Phillips who was picked ahead of me and went on to score a century on debut against Pakistan at PerthBut I fought back had a good shield season and was to go to tour the West Indies in 1984 but decided to retire because in those days we werenrsquot professionalI was just 33 then and would have played longer but we didnrsquot even have contracts You only got paid for the games you played You didnrsquot even get a call from the selectors to tell you that you werenrsquot playing You found that out from the radioIn the Sheffield Shield we got AUD 100 a day so AUD 400 a game which was okay but in the national team you were paid AUD 50000 for the season but only if you played all the gamesIf you missed a game they wouldnrsquot pay you I had three kids and a family to support and I was in and out of the team so I had to get on with my lifeYou made your Test debut only in 1979 because you joined World Series Cricket WSC Why did you take that decision I had some reasonably good domestic seasons in 1976 and 1977 but wasnrsquot in the Test team I was 26 and had a family so the Packer decision came down to being a financial one And as it turned out it was the right one because anyway there are no guarantees that you would get into the Australian Test side back thenYou got 92 and 75 on Test debut against a West Indies attack that comprised Andy Roberts Michael Holding Joel Garner and Colin Croft What was the experience likeIt was very exciting because I was playing my first Test I had played a lot against the West Indies in WSC the previous two years so that became a bit of an advantage for me They were great bowlers mdash all tough to play against Roberts was the one who got me out more often He bowled fast outswingers just like Dennis Lillee and Dale Steyn while Garner was the toughest to score against Holding was the fastest of the lot and Croft was difficult because he used to bowl from wide of the crease and angled it in with bounce It was an intense series and both teams were charged up but no player said a word against each other That was the level of discipline maintained by the captains Clive Lloyd and Greg ChappellYou were considered a tough opening batsmanComing from Perth we grew up on fast wickets Itrsquos a dry climate and our wickets are very hard and bouncy so as a kid I grew up playing on fast bouncy tracks That made me tough Just like Indian players grow up on turning tracks back home I was not very good on turning strips thoughAfter you made an againsttheodds century at Trinidad against the Windies in the WSC in 1979 WIrsquos Roy Fredericks told Rodney Marsh after the dayrsquos play lsquoTell Stumpy Laird I wish Irsquod played that inningsrsquo Was that one of the best compliments you receivedIn those days we would get together for a couple of beers after the dayrsquos play Roy came into our dressing room and he was normally a very quiet But he came over to me and lsquowell playedrsquo That was nice to come from a guy like him who doesnrsquot talk much and who was a tough opening batsman I saw him get hit a couple of times on the head without a helmet and he didnrsquot flinchDoes it still rankle you that you couldnrsquot get a Test tonOh yes it does And more so because when I got the 92 on debut I didnrsquot nick it I played inside it off the back foot and it clipped my thigh Joel Garner was the bowler and he didnrsquot go up after Deryck Murray wicketkeeper caught it But the rest appealed I looked up and I was given out I thought to myself lsquonever mind 92 is just fine Irsquoll get a 100 the next timersquo But I never didYou were part of the Australian team that lost 03 to Pak in 198283 Was the spin of Qadir too hard to handleI think Greg Chappell didnrsquot go on that tour and so did Dennis Lillee but Qadir was too good He bowled brilliantly and the home conditions suited him perfectly Pakistan had some great players in Javed Miandad Imran Khan We had a couple of spinners too in Peter Sleep and Bruce Yardley but just couldnrsquot get them out twice We played badlyYou didnrsquot play Test cricket after thatOh yes as I said they picked Wayne Phillips and he got a century and then I decided to retire I couldnrsquot afford to be in and out of the Test teamAre you watching the World Cup so far who do you think will win itAustralia and India are playing really well When India played at the MCG Melbourne Cricket Ground against South Africa last there was a crowd of almost 90000 So the best thing that can happen for the game will be an IndiaAustralia in MelbourneBruce Laird square drives against England during the Birmingham ODI in 1980 PicGetty ImagesYou were picked for the 1975 Ashes tour to England under Ian Chappell but didnrsquot play any of the Tests Was that disappointingI had played only 10 firstclass games when I was picked and to be honest I wasnrsquot even aware that there was an Ashes tour coming up We won the Sheffield Shield that year and I had only played that one season Then the late Norman OrsquoNeil former Australia batsman who used to coach at the WACA one day told me that Irsquom probably going to the Ashes tour and he knew because he was a friend of Neil Harvey who was a selector I was taken aback because it had never entered my mind that this could happen So just to just get on the trip was huge for meTherersquos an image of you in Fire in Babylon film on West Indies cricket wincing in pain Do you remember that injuryThat was in my debut match I was hit in the chest or the rib cage area I think In fact I got hit a lot in the match but I ended up okay Every batsman got hit there at some stage by the Windies You only hoped they didnt break you ribsHow did the nickname Stumpy come aboutWhen I got first picked for Western Australia in 1974 I was opening the batting with Ric Charlesworth Now Ricrsquos nickname was Grumpy because the guys reckoned he as always grumpy by nature Both of us were not very tall So the guys called us the two dwarfs and decided to give us rhyming names and I became Stumpy Till date a lot of the guys refer to me as Stumps or Stump