The Howie Games

[Zinzan]

Agree with TBP that Clarke's interview was exceptionally boring.. Just listened to half of Hodge's interview and it is soooo good. Interesting to hear about how he doesn't rate Buchanan, the lack of honesty from the selectors, the difficulty that young players find in settling into a team field of old blokes, why he thinks Sehwag is the greatest player he has seen play and how the IPL and other T20 teams aren't what they are made out to be because teams like the Kochi Tuskers still owe him 165k.. Players being afraid to speak out about this.. His wife threatening to walk out in lingerie for breakfast because Hodge used to go to breakfast in his boxers... All good..

Both of those things surprise me, sounds like an interesting one. Will have a listen, cheers.

 

[NUFAN]

Ive only just gotten round to listening to these and love it.

Ive now listened to Siddle MWaugh Watson and Hodge. Howie is terrific and the players are just so candid.

One thing which I liked from Hodge was his suggestion that match payments be the same for all. So thats not contracts being equal but say if you are playing in a Test you get 15000 USD. I dont know how easy this would be, but FICA could work out something perhaps.

 

[SteveNZ]

Dean Jones' interview was interesting for the perspective on the dressing room culture during his playing days.

Just listened to this podcast...I found it interesting for how much of a tosser Dean Jones is (or seems). He was a hero of mine as a kid, certainly raised some eyebrows hearing this.

Absolutely throwing Steve Smith (the older version) under the bus about allegedly pulling out of a test scared in the Windies. Quite obviously lying or fabricating about I reckon a dozen things - 130k supporters at the 87 World Cup final being my favourite.

The Baz and Ponting ones were the best, shame Norman's wasn't in person as someone else said. KP...usual ****head self.

 

[NUFAN]

Yeah I listened to Deanos one and was really unsure what to make of it. Did Ray Bright say he was the worst ever bat to play for Vic or was it an absolute obvious joke and Jones was just being dramatic, IMO yes.

Still havent listened to the Baz one, will give it a try soonish.

 

[SteveNZ]

Yeah I listened to Deanos one and was really unsure what to make of it. Did Ray Bright say he was the worst ever bat to play for Vic or was it an absolute obvious joke and Jones was just being dramatic, IMO yes.

Still havent listened to the Baz one, will give it a try soonish.

I didn't doubt that part so much, that's how old school cricketers were. But yeah I'm like you, I was listening thinking 'what's this guy about, he's half got a chip on his shoulder half just a strange bloke'. There were some other parts I can't remember, but it was so obvious what he was saying was complete horse ****.

 

[quincywagstaff]

I always thought it was fairly well-known that Jones was an abrasive character as evidenced by how his captaincy stints for Victoria & in English county cricket turned out.

Re: the Ray Bright story, I recall Jones saying something similar happened to him on his ODI debut in 83/84 when Rod Marsh said not to come back to the dressing rooms if he didn't make some runs.

The interview itself was pretty good but it does always come across how Jones could rub people up the wrong way.

 

[quincywagstaff]

The Simon O'Donnell one was pretty good; surprised how much of a goofy, jokey personality he is (didn't come across in his TV work). His talking about the 1987 World Cup experience which he played while afflicted with cancer was pretty interesting. Just wish the topic of why he went from being Oz's gun ODI player to missing out on the 1992 WC squad occurred so quickly; always been a mystery to me.

Probably most impressive interviewee was Ricky Ponting; I reckon the struggles he had as captain and player in the latter years of his career were to his long-term benefit as they helped him really mature as a person.

No way I'd listen to the Michael Clarke interview though; having to read his self-serving, disingenuous autobio was bad enough.

 

[Gnske]

The Simon O'Donnell one was pretty good; surprised how much of a goofy, jokey personality he is (didn't come across in his TV work). His talking about the 1987 World Cup experience which he played while afflicted with cancer was pretty interesting. Just wish the topic of why he went from being Oz's gun ODI player to missing out on the 1992 WC squad occurred so quickly; always been a mystery to me.

Probably most impressive interviewee was Ricky Ponting; I reckon the struggles he had as captain and player in the latter years of his career were to his long-term benefit as they helped him really mature as a person.

No way I'd listen to the Michael Clarke interview though; having to read his self-serving, disingenuous autobio was bad enough.

Was it really that bad?