Walker looking to improve his performance by being himself

Lynn McConnell

April 1, 2002

Recalled New Zealand leg-spinner Brooke Walker was put through the grinder at Sharjah last year and will be heading back into the cauldron after his selection in teams for Sharjah and both one-dayers and Tests in Pakistan today.

Walker, 25, has taken the place of Daniel Vettori, who has been ruled out of the tour on medical advice as part of a managed programme to assist his rehabilitation from a stress fracture to his back.

Walker said today that his immediate goal was to improve on his last tour to Sharjah where he felt he was guilty of trying to mix his pace up in a bid to match the way Muttiah Muralitharan was able to turn the ball square on the flat pitches.

"I will try to bowl the way I normally do," he said.

"I have to bowl more consistently, line and length, and more at the pace I regularly bowl at," he said.

Walker said he felt he had sorted out his bowling around the time the State Shield series finished in early February and that he had gone back a little since then.

However, he will spend some time with his old club coach Rowan Armour who has helped him a lot in his career so far, before the team leaves for Sharjah on Saturday.

It will be a tight time frame but Walker is confident that the adjustment he needs to make is a small one.

International selection wasn't on Walker's mind in what had been a busy personal season, and something of a triumph.

In his first year as Auckland captain, he led the side to victory in the first State Championship and took 28 wickets at an average of 24.75. His career figures now show him having 120 wickets at 30.70 in his 55 first-class matches.

On the one-day scene the figures are not so impressive with only three wickets at 83 in his seven matches to date and at an economy rate of 5.79. His best One-Day International bowling was two for 43 off nine overs against South Africa at Cape Town.

"It has been a rewarding experience as captain. It was quite hard and I was learning all the way through the series.

"But as a captain I wanted to be positive and I had 11 other guys looking to me for leadership."

He said his team-mates had been supportive and with some talented young players coming into the side he had been conscious of helping them develop belief and confidence and to relax in the first-class environment.

It was a struggle to bowl himself at times, but he said Matt Horne, who returned to the side from Otago this year and who had captaincy experience of his own, had been invaluable in letting him know that it was time he came on to bowl.

Walker went into the season looking to work on some aspects of his bowling and he felt it had worked out well but he said he had "gone off the boil" after the one-day programme which had been disappointing.

Selection has also meant he has had to put his career away from the cricket field on hold. He was looking to get involved in real estate marketing and was due to have some interviews but they would now have to wait until at least the end of the tour to Sharjah and the Test tour of Pakistan, and all going well, possibly the tour to the West Indies.

Walker said it had been good to go away after his first taste of international play last summer and to learn about his art a little more and he thought that overall his leg-spin had advanced nicely.

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Players/Umpires

Brooke Walker

Series/Tournaments

New Zealand tour of Pakistan

Sharjah Cup

Teams

New Zealand

Pakistan