Jeremy Coney tales: From facing Imran Khan and other fast men to playing guitar in team bus

Christchurch, March 4: Jeremy Coney epitomised cricket of the 80s. A tough batsman who stood up against some of the best fast bowlers ever, and played the sport with an unbridled spirit and a smile. And the former New Zealand captain retained all those characteristics in his after-cricket avatar as a pundit.

MyKhel touched base with the former New Zealand captain, who played 52 Tests and made 2668 runs at 37.57 with 3 hundreds and 16 fifties and 1874 runs from 88 ODIs at 30.72 and bagged 81 international wickets, for a chat on various topics.

On his sudden call to the New Zealand Test side to tour Australia: I got a call from the New Zealand Cricket Council after Glenn Turner was injured. At that time I had just joined a school as a teacher and was preparing lads for a school drama - Joseph and the Amazing Dreamcoat. I always like drama, you know that's why I liked cricket and still like cricket.

There is so much drama and it unfolds in front of you every minute. Yeah, then I got this call from NZC and was asked would you go to Australia? It was a bit out of the blue but had no choice but to rush to Australia and I had no proper shoes and used my older brother Chris' pairs. You know he had got it from Sir Garfield Sobers. I did not even had a good bat and used the one I batted for my club and the name was printed behind the back - Onslow Cricket Club.

After a few days into the tour Bob Vance, our manager, did not quite like my gear and he gave me 50 Australian dollars and asked me to buy a new bat and pair of shoes. And I went to the market in Brisbane with Dale, older brother of Richard Hadlee, but ended up buying a 12-string guitar.

Bob was furious and I had to do some hard yards at nets. But the guitar helped me later to make some good mates like John Wright (former NZ captain and India coach), who was serious into guitar and we played in the team bus occasionally. Now, he is into band. Way to go, old mate!

And in the second Test, we nearly won it after bowling out Australia for 160 in their first dig. They were chasing 460 and were 30/2 and needed 430 to win on the final day but it got washed out. Ian Chappell told the media that New Zealand were saved by rain and we were giggling a bit about it. Oh, Ian! Such a tough old man!

On fielding at the notorious Bay 13 at Melbourne: That was my first taste of Australia. It was the first Test. You know the fans will come with that small ice boxes but fill'em up with alcohol and attach to their mouth through the long sleeves of their shirts with a small tube. They will be sipping it the whole day. I was the 12th man and in the dressing room I was sort of itching to go out and my time came when one of our bowlers Brian Andrews wanted to come off.

Aussies were butchering us on that day. And the good old Andy had given 130 for none and on the way to the field I told him: 'Good time to walk off Andy. Quite smart.' And there I was fielding near Bay 13 and soon the crowd got me. They were shouting: "Hey Cornery, is that your name, we heard so in radio. There are only 35 shoplifting days to Christmas you young goose."

And then they threw some meat pies and marbles at me and I was surrounded by rubbish in no time and birds were circling all over because of the pie chunks. It was a relief to get to back to the dressing room. I think it made me choose slip as my fielding position as I did not field near boundary for the rest of my career, certainly not in Australia.

On facing fast bowlers of the 80s - I was more trying to save my life than scoring runs! They were at your throat. Always. You know, there were quite a few of them around then.

Dennis Lillee: Dennis had a lovely action, this flowing and smooth. He was quite quick until that back injury slowed him by a yard but he was quite skillful. You could see the ball in his hand and he would make you nick one to the 'keeper or slip.

Jeff Thomson: No one was quite like Thommo. You could count the studs on his boot as he had that front foot so high up in the air, almost on your face. Then the arm came from behind him - like a javelin thrower. But he had a stuttering kind of run up, ambling in unlike Dennis, who was smooth.

Thommo brought the ball crashed down on the pitch, and he was hard to pick because of that action and he was too quick for me. Batting against him was a lonely experience as 'keeper and slip fielders would be standing miles away from you, you could not even hear some those sledges. Once Greg Chappell told me: 'Hey Coney, don't snick Thommo today at me, my fingers are not good.'

Malcolm Marshall: Malcolm was a momentum bowler and he had a busy run-up, charging at you and had a wicked arm. He twisted his hip back a bit before releasing the ball to give his arm more space, if you ever saw John Snow, he did the same. I would guess he was in the 90 mph category.

Michael Holding: You never heard anything as his feet glided over the ground. He had a long run-up, very athletic. Like Lillee, you could see the ball in his hand and had smooth release. But I think Holding was a yard quicker than Malcolm but Thommo was the quickest. Andy Roberts and Colin Croft too were very quick and Croft always aimed at your body.

Joel Garner: The ball came to you from the top of a sky-scrapper. It was a strange optical. I used practice for him. There was this New Zealand selector Don Neely from Wellington, we mowed the corner of a local ground and put net around it. Neely would go up on the stairs and would bowl at me, some two or three steps above so that I can get used to the optics of Garner. He was not quick like others but was very accurate, gave nothing away.

Imran Khan: Imran was a different bowler. He was so strong, physically and mentally. He would go wide of the crease and thud the ball down. He got good bounce because of his strong action and leap and I used to play volleyball back in New Zealand, and used the leap well to get on top of the ball or the side of it. It was one of those instinctive things, and not any deliberate training.

Richard Hadlee: As teammates we did not play a great deal against each other. But Paddles was quick, not extreme quick but quick enough to keep batsmen alert. He was so accurate that you can count the ball mark on the pitch, his area of pitching the ball could be covered with a handkerchief. Suddenly, catches would begin to come to slips. He, perhaps, won more matches for New Zealand than anybody else, and he was also a wonderful lower-order batsman.