How Craig McDermott went from being world champion to ‘a fat prick’
Craig McDermott, while in conversation with Shane Watson on Lessons Learnt with the Greats podcast, recalled the time he went from being a “world champion to 12th man for Queensland” in two years.
A 22-year-old McDermott finished as the leading wicket-taker in Australia’s triumphant 1987 World Cup campaign, but was axed from the Test side the next year after a dip in his fitness levels.
“Probably after the 1987 World Cup, where I was very fit for those first few years, when I got the world record, I thought I’ll rest on my laurels and became a fat prick,” he said. “By the end of the 88/89 summer in Australia, I was 12th man for Queensland. So I went from being a world champion to being 12th man for Queensland, which was a hell of a wake-up call for me.
Visiting England as a 20-year-old quick in 1985, he quickly established his reputation with 30 wickets in six Tests.
He went on to be named @WisdenAlmanack Cricketer of the Year the following spring.
Happy Birthday, Craig McDermott!https://t.co/SvRGdJ1nTY
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) April 14, 2020
“I saw a psychologist and had a few thoughts around the way I was approaching things. It was in ’89, it was about April, just after I had been 12th man, I went for dinner at the Broncos, and that’s where I met Trevor Hendy and I went and trained with him for a couple of weeks and he not only changed my plan – how I went physically about it – but also how I thought about preparing mentally.
“Setting myself some pretty huge goals, the next winter I wasn’t picked on the Ashes – the tour of England of ’89 – and by the time the boys got back from England, I was in a different shape, I was a different athlete, I was a different person mentally and my whole career changed from there.”
It took McDermott a little over two years to be reinstated into the Test side as he was picked for the fourth and fifth Tests of the 1990/91 Ashes series. And he celebrated his return in style, returning figures of 8-91 in the last match.
“I had 35-40 wickets before Christmas in 89/90, leading into … a series where England were in Australia and I was picked for the last two Tests,” McDermott recalled. “All those types of things, really just dropped under me being fit. I always set myself a goal that AB would have to come and tell me that he is going to rest me, rather than me saying that I’m a bit tired.
“I really set myself a goal that the first spell of mine – I wanted it to be 7, 8, 9 overs if it could be and then have a spell 20 minutes before lunch or half an hour before lunch and be ready to go again after one. So that was the way I approached my bowling from thereon.”