Cricket's resident man of letters

20 May 2003
By CAMPBELL BURNES (Western Leader newspaper, Auckland)

International cricketer, raconteur, author, radio and TV commentator, teacher, student, man of letters. At 50, Jeremy Coney has crammed more into his life than most would in a lifetime. Here he takes time out to chat with reporter and Beige Brigade fan Campbell Burnes about the past, the future, broadcasting and Sir Richard Hadlee. The moustache has gone but the story teller remains.

The story of the "Playing Mantis' has taken many twists and turns since his debut for New Zealand in 1973.

Now happily settled in Titirangi, his home since the late 1980s, Jeremy Coney has plans aplenty to keep him occupied.

A PhD at the University of Auckland on Shakespeare and the process by which the playwright's work is transformed from the written page to the screen or theatre is three years from completion.

Coney admits to pursuing his second round of studies more earnestly than his first stint.

"I'd trained initially as a primary school teacher and I'd completed a very nebulous and self-indulgent BA at Victoria University...Dad wanted me to do economics."

A stint as Head of Music at Onslow College followed before the itinerant lifestyle of an international cricketer took hold.

Now he is also ensconced in putting together the book of the popular Sky TV series The Mantis and the Cricket, which looks back on some of the pioneering New Zealand cricket tours through the eyes of many of the protagonists.

"It's been a helluva good learning process for me on how to make TV and how to tell stories again. But it's been such a privilege to go and visit these people. They were welcoming and they've never once declined an interview. And they were such diverse characters too," Coney says.

One of his favourite interviewees was fast bowler Gary Bartlett of the 1960s era, an eccentric character from the Nelson bush, whose career was stymied by doubts over the legality of his action.

"He was fantastic. There was a naive innocence about the things he said but he was so honest and true," says Coney.

As yet he has no title for the book, due to hit the stands next year. He would like this latest offering to be short stories rather than 'an account of'. His own view of sports books is somewhat ironic: "They are banal. There are plenty of other ones to read."

"But Men in White is the bible. No one will want to go through that labour of love again, but the basis of The Mantis and the Cricket is from there," he say of the large 1985 tome edited by Don Neely.

It would be Coney's third book.

The first was his acclaimed 1986 autobiography The Playing Mantis, a humourous account of his life in cricket with a liberal sprinkling of his own tales from the tours.

The Wonderful Days of Summer in 1993 was another amusing collection of anecdotes from his successful partnership in the radio commentary box with Bryan Waddle and John Parker.

It seems incongruous for such an articulate story teller to announce he rarely does speeches now.

The burgeoning speaking circuit of the 1980s was one of the reasons he was originally drawn to Auckland from his native Wellington (along with television work and second wife Julie).

But now he feels he is running short of material, particularly as there is a new era in New Zealand cricket.

"After 10 years of it, you do tire of being the court jester. I don't do the `1000 corporate business lunches before June' thing."

As an independent contractor, Coney is still in demand as a radio and TV cricket commentator, not just from Sky Sport these days either. He is inSri Lanka to cover the Black Caps on tour for Ten Dubai Sports.

His pitch reports in New Zealand have won praise for their humour and accuracy, but he feels more at home on radio than on television.

"There are great advantages to TV, with replays, et cetera, but how do you tell a story on telly? I think being someone else's eyes you can be very descriptive."

The bare statistics of Coney's international cricket career do not tell the full story of one who was rated one of the world's premier No 6 batsmen and was surely one of the best second slip fieldsmen this country has seen.

Fifty-two tests with an average (37.57) not dissimilar to that of John Wright. Both were comfortable off the back foot, unlike many New Zealanders of that era.

Coney's courage was never in question and he paid the penalty when Joel Garner broke his arm at Sabina Park, Kingston on the tough 1985 West Indies tour.

"For some reason Hadlee bowled six bouncers in a row to Joel Garner. After some rain we then lost four quick wickets and it was pretty difficult," Coney recalls.

"Garner was awkward, and because he was so tall his hand came out of the stand beyond the white washed wall acting as the sightscreen.

"He was awkward with his bounce. Bounce worries you as an international cricketer. Speed doesn't really. But Garner was awkward and Malcolm Marshall was coming around the wicket. Wrighty and I spent most of the time on the ground."

Wisden Cricketer of the Year for his feats on the 1983 tour of England and World Cup, Coney's richest vein of form came in the 1986 home series against an Australian side admittedly in the doldrums.

His successive scores were 101 not out, 98 and 93. The latter innings was responsible, along with John Bracewell's 6-32, for a Kiwi victory at Eden Park.

Perhaps his most memorable, if not aesthetically pleasing, innings was his 111 not out against Pakistan at Carisbrook in 1985 which, along with the immovable Ewen Chatfield, saw New Zealand to a famous victory.

"It was unlikely and it was close. We had suffered indignities against us in Pakistan prior to that tour. There was something delicious about that innings."

Some of the great days of New Zealand test cricket came under Coney's captaincy between 1985-87 when Richard Hadlee and Martin Crowe were at their peaks.

Ironically, the one-day unit, which had made such an impact under Geoff Howarth, never reached great heights under Coney's leadership. Coney himself says he was never a natural intuitive leader like Howarth before him. He had only captained Wellington twice and had to learn the job from scratch.

The end of his test career against the West Indies at Christchurch was a bitter sweet moment for Coney. New Zealand beat the might of the Caribbean to tie the test series 1-all, but a falling out between he and Hadlee soured the victory champagne.

Coney says Hadlee attacked the team for its slackness in a New Zealand Truth column after the loss to the West Indies in Auckland.

"He may well have been right but there was a feeling that we accommodated him because he was able to provide us all with an opportunity to do well. I had a go at Richard away from the team. It was more an off field problem that manifested itself on the field."

Coney and his strike bowler communicated through vice-captain John Wright but amazingly the Kiwis still won the match despite the internal turmoil. Nowadays, they are civil but not matey.

"He's not the sort of person you'd invite round for dinner and you'd not get an invite yourself. But that's fair enough, he's pretty busy."

He remains a keen Black Caps observer even when not involved as commentator. Like most, he was disappointed the side did not go further, nor play to its potential, at the World Cup in South Africa.

"India's batsmen and bowlers seemed able to adjust better and more quickly than we did after coming out of similar conditions here.

"It's like writing a novel without a first chapter and then you try and introduce a character...we didn't have an opening partnership in the games that mattered. But the fact is, we weren't quite good enough at the time."

Coney enjoys netball, a sport in which wife Julie (nee Townsend), a former Silver Fern captain, is actively involved at administrative and board level. She is also a comments woman for televised netball.

"Netball's a good game for using and creating space. The shame is that our domestic competition is more interesting than some of the international games," he says.