The Man with a Thousand Jobs - Jane Cable interviews Nic Pothas

“I have a policy in my life I like to write new chapters all the way through and that’s the reason I left South Africa. I’d pretty much done my lot there and the South African set up was a closed shop, politically or through favouritism, or whatever the case may be, so this was an opportunity to play in England for a long period of time. Yes, it was writing another chapter.”

As that chapter took Hampshire’s wicket keeper batsman Nic Pothas close to 9,000 first-class runs and 500 first-class catches, I took the opportunity to find out what it’s really like to stand behind the stumps.

“If you look at the best keepers around, England has a very broad mix of techniques. The English keeper standing up to the stumps is generally a very good keeper, because they’ve always done that through league cricket. The wickets are so slow that you’ve got to. Whereas in South Africa the wickets are hard and you’ve got great big quicks bowling, so you’re always standing a long way back and you end up with a completely different style of keeper.

“Guys like Adshead at Gloucester, Scott at Middlesex, Nixon – these guys are the quintessential English keepers and they’re fantastic standing up to the stumps. What they’ve lost out on is their batting so they’ve had to become quirky type batters; Paul Nixon is just a gutsy, gritty batter, but he’s had to make that over a period of time. But he has such a simple and very effective way of keeping. Chris Read has opted for an Australian type approach with long give and a lot of foot movement. He’s a fantastic wicket keeper as well, the best around in my opinion. Whereas guys like Geraint Jones and Matt Prior are more batters who had have to formulate their keeping and try and make that fit, and sometimes it just doesn’t.

“Guys like Ambrose, and I’d like to say like myself, maybe Steve Davies at Worcester, we’ve always been half and half – all rounders. We’re keepers as well as batters and our stats show that. You end up with a lot of different styles within the country, but the bottom line is that, in England, you need to be effective against the wobbling ball. It wobbles around past the stumps here more than it does anywhere else in the world. Whether it’s the conditions or the Duke ball… we can’t put our fingers on why it does that, but the Kookaburra certainly doesn’t. We’ve seen a lot of keepers come from the southern hemisphere who struggle because of the wobbling ball. They’re used to having their head further away from their hands, because you’ve been trying to have more give against a ball that’s coming a lot quicker.

“As soon as that ball wobbles and you’re not in line with it, then you’re in a lot of trouble.  Your technique has to change. I used to have a very southern hemisphere technique but that’s changed – thanks to Bobby Parks – and necessity really. Any good keeper in England is always going to be very, very still and his head’s going to be in a very good position around the time that he’s catching the ball.”

By this time I was a little confused as to exactly what the best way to grab that elusive wobbling ball is. “I’ve always liked to catch it low down.” Nic tells me. “There will always be detractors from that way of keeping, but it’s the where I catch the ball, around knee height. Jones and Prior like to catch it a lot higher up but I just think that you lose a lot of control over what you’re doing. It can get awkward once you start getting the ball in that area, and obviously you’re a lot closer which means the ball’s coming at you a lot quicker. Everyone’s different though. It’s what makes you comfortable.

“The standing up to the stumps thing, nowadays it’s all based on what’s actually going on in the game of cricket. You find a lot of keepers might stand up for no reason whatsoever; it’s just for showmanship. Sometimes though it’s pure necessity. If a bowler is really effective in just one area then a batter can just line it up, and if the bowler isn’t quick enough to bounce you, then you can just walk at him, so the keeper stands up through necessity and it’s a very good ploy. On the other hand, if it looks more like someone’s going to nick one, it’s unfathomable why the keeper should be up.

“Sometimes you do it to stop batters standing far out, which is what I’ll do for Dimi. If he gets the ball to jag back, lbw is a big dismissal for Dimi, and if the batter’s standing further back then there’s a better chance of that happening. If it’s jagging around you don’t want anyone coming down the wicket, so the bowler can then land the ball in the right places. Sometimes it can be a double bluff; I may come up to the stumps for someone to bowl a bumper. But there will certainly be a plan. Someone like Dimi, who I know like the back of my hand, will be able to execute a plan as soon as I’ve come up. He’ll know why.

“In the short form of the game it’s a lot tougher because people are playing a lot more shots and balls are coming off people’s thumb edge, or flicking off pads, or people are walking across the stumps. And standing up is tough when you can’t see the ball! You’ve got to be pretty flexible on where you stand; you can’t say, for example, that off stump is where you’ll stand, because if people are walking across you, you may need to give yourself more space so that you can physically see the ball.”

I was curious to know about the, shall we say, more verbal side of the keeper’s job. “Once again, everyone’s different. I’m more a gee-up type person. I’m obviously vociferous, but it’s more to our own guys. I don’t talk to the batters at all, unless they give us a reason to. I’m certainly not the type of guy who goes at batters; I think we left that on the playground a while ago. Some guys just haven’t realised that yet – that it doesn’t matter what someone calls your mother – we’ve gone beyond that now.

“I just don’t see the point in swearing and shouting at someone. Warney was obviously very big on sledging, but then he was very good at it. I played with Ken Rutherford for a long time in South Africa and he was good too. If people are clever about it, then it does have a very strong effect, especially on the younger guys. I’m also a firm believer you earn the right to sledge; if you’re a genius like Shane Warne then you can do whatever you want. But a lot of teams bait their young guys because the older guys don’t want to say anything – they don’t want to get bombarded by bumpers when they bat – and it’s very cowardly. You notice it against some sides when the youngsters start yapping off.

“I can’t think of any keepers in England at the moment who are sledgers. Nixon and I are pretty similar, we’re pretty gee-up type people, so is Prior, but the rest of the keepers are pretty quiet. All the keepers around are actually bloody nice guys. In the past there were a few who’d have a go, but at the moment we’re all pretty nice. Maybe we should change!” Nic laughs.

“What I would say is that I’ve never understood why the wicketkeeper is the guy who’s got to make the noise all the time. We’ve got enough to do. Bowlers are going to be asking you about their technical stuff, how the ball’s coming out; the captain’s going to be asking you to sort out the different angles in the field, because you’re in the best place because you can see what the batter sees; you’re going to be asked to keep up with the over rate, so you’re the one counting the overs.

“Then the captain comes up to you and says ‘that guy on the boundary…’ and I’m like ‘hold the phone; I’ve got a thousand jobs to do AND I’m meant to gee everyone up as well?’ I want to know what happens to opening batters who keep their mouths shut the whole day long, or any batter who doesn’t bowl, they just stand around and say nothing! The only batter I can think of who was any good like that was Jonty Rhodes – Jonty used to give you a heap more, which was perfect for South African cricket at that time.

“It makes complete sense to me that surely someone else should take the reins for energising everyone. The keeper’s got a thousand other jobs and I’ve never understood why it’s up to us to do it. If I get to captain Hampshire again when Dimi’s on England duty, that’s one thing I will be changing! Us keepers may have to form a union and boycott making any noise whatsoever. There are times when Dimi, or Warney when he was here, will tell me we’re not going to say anything for an over to see what happens. You do it and you get a deathly hush. If we kept quiet for any longer than that people would think there was something wrong with us!

“I fully understand that some people aren’t noisy guys, but then there are some that I know, within the changing room, and when we play football, and when we warm up, that are loud, energetic type people. So why is the keeper the one who always has to make the noise? I’d certainly be a lot fresher at the end of the day if I didn’t have to.”

I actually find it hard to imagine Nic being anything other than fresh, energetic and talkative. When we met, it was five o’clock on a Sunday afternoon and he had been in the nets most of the day getting fit following his injury. After the interview, he was going to do even more training. And during the interview what he told me was completely fascinating, he made me laugh a lot, and he found time to say hi to everyone he knew who walked past us. Quite frankly, I was the one who was exhausted!

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