Chris Morris, back in the frame for South Africa, talks about rediscovering his love for the game, moving domestic franchises, and life in the IPL
Interview by Jonhenry Wilson24-Jun-2015You conceded, six months ago, you had fallen down the pecking order among South Africa’s seamers. Have you gained any ground since?
I’d like to think I’ve climbed back up the ladder a bit. I had a really good first-class season recently, while my T20 statistics could have been better. I still believe I’m behind a couple of the other seamers, who are deservedly being picked ahead of me. It’s great to be back in the mix, playing cricket consistently and well. I’m definitely enjoying my game again. There was a stage, about two years ago, when it was really difficult to wake up and enjoy my cricket.I’ve found my love for the game again, properly. I’m embracing the big moments in the games and just having fun again. A lot of things happened in the past, where in the big scheme of life, you had to remember that cricket is still only a game. Yes, it pays the bills and you are representing big names and your country, but what originally got you to play the game was the fun and the love of it. That has been a big motivation for me.While Marchant de Lange, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and a couple of other seamers are still paying their dues in the South Africa A squad, you’ve evidently graduated to greater favour among the national selectors.
I jokingly asked [South Africa A coach] Vincent Barnes if he had forgotten about me. South African A cricket is a vital part of a career, especially in the first-class format. I don’t know whether it is a feather in my cap or an advancement in my career that I am not playing for South Africa A this time around. I firmly believe that if you are not playing for the Proteas then you must be playing for SA A. I don’t know what was behind the decision to not pick me for the A tour, but I’m a simple person: tell me what to do, who to play for, where to play, and I will do it.
“I’ve always lived in Centurion, so the drive through to Johannesburg almost every day took its toll. Five years of driving in Johannesburg traffic will make you lose a bit of hair”
Your problematic ankle sidelined you for a long period in 2014. Does that affect both the mental and physical aspect of your approach?
I had to have the operation, I had to have it fixed. It was uncomfortable. It was waking me up at night. There are only a certain amount of injections you can have, and when they start losing their effect, an operation is the way forward. I’m happy with my ankle now. As a fast bowler, you learn to wake up with some problem in your body every day. It’s as simple as that. The sooner you accept that, the better. You can never play in a way to protect an injury. You have to play flat out. My ankle is 95% sorted. The remaining five percent just comes down to stiffness, which is going to be there for the rest of my life.Unorthodox, inventive hitting by international cricket’s batsmen is growing at a rapid pace. How do you look to combat this?
It’s a simple tactic from my point of view: if Brendon McCullum or AB de Villiers are batting, pull a hamstring.In all seriousness, though, yorkers are still reasonably king. My game got clouted around a little bit, as I was trying to bowl too many different balls in one over – or a short spell. But I’ve worked hard on my yorker. I know it’s key from here on in, as it always has been. I’m getting the yorker right more consistently than I have in the past.Yorkers are still important, but we are only human. When you are running in to those big-hitters, Chris Gayle and the like, your hand grips the ball a bit harder, your heart pounds harder, and you drag the odd delivery down. Guys bowl a lot of yorkers these days, because the margin for error with the slower ball is a lot higher.”I will always be indebted to them [Lions] as they plucked me out of club cricket to come play for them”•AFPYou said you’ve learned from watching James Anderson’s wrist positioning, and you got advice from Tim Southee about playing cricket in Bangladesh.
I have been watching a lot of Anderson bowling. If the ball is swinging, you are a lot more dangerous than if it is just coming fast and straight. I’ve always had a bit of a floppy wrist, so the ball drifts down the leg side every now and then. I’ve worked really hard on countering this, though, with the bowling action I have. Anderson doesn’t change his action at all, he just changes the angle of the seam and the angle of his wrist.I’ve never been to Bangladesh before. I remember, as a youngster, before I started playing first-class cricket, I said to a few key guys that I just want to play professional cricket, even if I have to play in Bangladesh. That’s coming true now, funnily enough. From the cricket I’ve seen in Bangladesh, it looks very hot. The crowds seem hostile – not in a dangerous way. They’re just all for their team, 150% and nothing else. I spoke to Southee recently. He says it is a very, very difficult place to play cricket – and that Bangladesh are really good in their own conditions. We are going there without Dale Steyn, which is going to be a massive challenge. I don’t know if I will get to open the bowling in his absence, but I enjoy playing under that kind of pressure, which tests my character.Lions team-mate Eddie Leie has joined you in the T20 international squad as a relatively new face.
What you see is what you get with Eddie – there is a lot of excitement, a lot of energy. International cricket fans think Imran Tahir’s celebrations are the most animated, but they haven’t seen what Eddie has to give yet. He does a lot of bowling in the nets and out in the middle, and he has a lot of variations. He brings so-called zooters, sliders, flippers and more. He has a delivery for every day of the week. I wasn’t able to pick them in the past, but I can now.
“As a fast bowler, you learn to wake up with some problem in your body every day. It’s as simple as that. The sooner you accept that, the better”
While you have certain lower-order responsibilities, you can’t class yourself as an allrounder at the moment. Is your old objective of “wanting to be the next Jacques Kallis” on the backburner now?
Jacques was a very quick bowler but he was always more of a batsman than a bowler in the team. That role, for me, was never going to happen – I’m more of a bowler than a batsman. I’m open and honest about not performing well enough with the bat in the last couple of seasons. In my first couple of seasons in first-class cricket with the bat, I did much better. I was still young, stupid and taking on the short ball. I have underperformed since, but there has been a big change of mindset from me about it all.I know what got me into the South African side originally was bowling fast and hitting big sixes, not batting for time. The batting part has taken a backseat, but I’ve had a good few conversations with some key people about where my batting should be. Playing against guys like Albie Morkel and David Wiese in the IPL – and with them at the Titans – will push me hard to be solid allrounders like them.Along with Quinton de Kock, you’ve broken a trend that has seen many South African cricketers switch domestic allegiances to Cobras. Hashim Amla’s move from Dolphins and Wayne Parnell leaving Warriors are the most recent examples.
It was not an overnight decision, leaving Lions for Titans. It was quite a long process. It was a mixture of a lot of things. I’ve never lived in Johannesburg, I’ve always lived in Centurion, so the drive through to Johannesburg almost every day took its toll. Five years of driving in Johannesburg traffic will make you lose a bit of hair.In terms of my cricketing career, the change brings a new coaching staff, new facilities, new environment, new ideas. I had been at the Lions, under Gordon Parsons as my bowling coach, for seven years. I thought now is the right time for a move – an exciting move, a daunting move. Not to say that the Lions don’t have good young players, but the young players at Titans are exciting. I’m a Pretoria boy through and through, so it’s nice to come home.”Rajasthan was a very different set-up to Chennai. Rajasthan was a very warm, welcoming environment. They are not scared to give the odd youngster or two a go”•BCCIWas the change of franchise prompted by a feeling of having achieved all there was to achieve at Lions?
You can always achieve more in any franchise. While I was there, we only won three trophies. Well, two and a half – two won and one shared. I wanted to win more trophies, wanted to win more games. I think I had a good run, I think I was quite successful at Lions. I will always be indebted to them as they plucked me out of club cricket to come play for them. But I’m looking forward to the move home, the move to Titans.You’ve also been with two franchises in the IPL. How would you compare the time with Chennai Super Kings to that with Rajasthan Royals?
I enjoyed the 2015 IPL more than the one in 2013, not necessarily due to the people I spent the tournament with, but just because I knew what to expect the second time around. In my first IPL, there was all the hype to do with the big crowds, all the fans, the grounds, and the ins and outs of cricket in India in general. Rajasthan are nowhere near as big a team as Chennai in terms of support. At Rajasthan, I was not surrounded by a lot of superstars. In the Chennai franchise I was playing in a team that had about seven of the Indian playing XI in it – guys like MS Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Suresh Raina and many more. There was a lot more pressure playing for Chennai, too. Being a big team, you were expected to win all your games and get to the final – and win it – without a hiccup.At Rajasthan, there weren’t any batting coaches, no bowling coaches, no fielding coaches, no fitness trainers. There was a lot of responsibility on the players. If you needed advice, there were guys in the changing rooms who had over 1000 games of T20 cricket between them. What you needed you got from them or the head coach. Rajasthan was a very different set-up to Chennai. Rajasthan was a very warm, welcoming environment. They are not scared to give the odd youngster or two a go, which is really good.You were signed by Chennai for a whopping US$625,000. Did Rajasthan’s $220,000 two years later pale in comparison? Or was the remuneration largely irrelevant?
I think the standard contract in the IPL gives you a certain percentage of your initial fee each time you play, so it’s basically game-based contracts. I don’t know about other franchises, but for me to get the full payout, I had to play as many games as possible – or that’s how I at least understood it. I always say to people that getting paid to play cricket in India is a bonus, because in terms of the cricket experience it’s absolutely priceless.You are mingling with the world’s best players. As a young cricketer, if you get the chance to go to India, go. Even if it’s just for the base price, go. If you can learn one more percent and get one more percent out of new team-mates, you are going to be a better cricketer. It’s nice to be paid a lot of money to do so, obviously, but the actual cricket experience is almost unrivalled.