Players' mouths bigger than ability: Jeff Thomson

Broken marriages, conflicts of loyalty, the problems of everyday life fall away as one faces up to Thomson," former England captain Mike Brearley wrote this in his book `Return of the Ashes'.Nothing captures the essence of Jeff Thomson more than these words. He was the fastest bowler in the world in the 1970s and formed a lethal partnership with Dennis Lillee.

At 66, Thomson has not lost any of the fire. In Kerala to launch a bowling foundation to nurture young bowlers where he plays the mentor role, Thomson talked to TOI about the state of fast bowling, Australian cricket and the ill-effects of T20s.

Excerpts: Can fast bowling be taught?
It's all about the attitude. You need to have goals. You can have all the talent. But if you are in limbo land, that's where you stay. So we try to give the kids purpose and coaching. It just depends on how smart you are to take all the information.

Where can Indian bowlers improve?
It's not just about the bowlers. It's the captains and the teams. You got to come out of the mentality of giving fast bowlers a couple of overs and then taking them off. Captains need to back fast bowlers and give them a couple of slips even if a few boundaries are scored.

What do you think about Australia's performance in Sri Lanka?
We got walloped in Tests because we batted poorly. They don't treasure their wickets enough playing T20 cricket and they were trying to smack the ball. It doesn't work in Test cricket.

Is this the influence of the Big Bash, IPL and other T20 leagues?
The Big Bash and T20s have influenced players all over the world. In T20, bad players can get away.
A lot of times ordinary players look superstars in T20. But when they play Tests they are found out. We seem to have lost the plot back home (Australia) with selections.

Do you think bowlers should use bouncers more?
Yes they should. Even if one gets called no-ball for a bouncer, he would get the batsman thinking with a good short ball.

Do you think Australia value success in the sub-continent?
They should do. It's embarrassing that they have been whitewashed in three series on the trot (Against India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). In Sri Lanka, it was just bad footwork, getting bowled to arm balls.It was dumb stuff. I saw blokes getting out in the nets a dozen time and they didn't care. If you play poorly in the nets, you play poorly in the middle.

So they are no longer the typical talk the talk and walk the walk guys?
Their mouths are bigger than their ability. Except for a couple in our team, the rest are pretty average in overall performance. They might do well in Australia. But you got to do well all over the world.

Starc was one bright spot for Australia. Can he fill Johnson's void?
Starc is the best we have now. Obviously, he's among the top bowlers in the world.He gets a lot of bounce and he's got a good yorker too. But he's a different bowler to Mitchell. He's a swing bowler. Mitchell was more of a hit-the-deck kind of bowler. It's Starc's choice whether to play all formats or not. If he's good enough, he can play everything. But there's the risk of worn-out.

Have you followed the pink ball experiment?
I wasn't there for the Adelaide Test (between Australia and New Zealand). But the ball did a bit in that Test, I know. The minute the bowlers have something going for them, batsmen complain. But I don't have a problem with that.