‘I don’t have a problem with Murali’s action’

ON THE BIG ISSUE: TOURING ZIMBABWE

I will support Stuart MacGill for standing up and speaking his mind. I applaud him for what he believes in. As for me, I guess I am lucky I didn’t need to make a decision on it at this stage because of my injury.

ON BOWLING ACTIONS AND THE MURALI ISSUE

I have been through it myself with a lot of people judging me and my action and at the end of it, it was heartening to note that things were fine and things have been fine with me since. As far as Murali is concerned, I personally don’t have a problem with his action. Then there’s Shoaib Akhtar, who is a wonderful person and a wonderful cricketer. The problem, I think, is that the media focuses mainly on the negative things and doesn’t see the beautiful side to the game.

ON SLEDGING AND THE OZ’S BAD REPUTATION

We won’t acknowledge that we sledge. We call it gamesmanship. Friendly banter between batsman and bowler and other fielders. I don’t see a problem with a little chat, but the ICC has set strict guidelines and I think we have done very well to stay within limits for the past couple of seasons. With so many cameras and microphones around these days, it’s not easy. But yes, at the same time, we do have a few more tricks up our sleeves which we won’t tell you about right now.

ON PLAYING IN INDIA IN OCTOBER THIS YEAR

I always love coming back to India. The series later this year is going to be a good hard series. I caught up with Saurav Ganguly and discussed things. We are all really looking forward to the series. I know Saurav is very keen to put us to sleep as soon as he can come October. But I can tell you that we are all very excited and very pumped up.

The thing about India-Australia is that we all love watching Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman. You have the best top six in the world and all of them are brilliant to watch. The audiences love watching them and we love playing them. To do well in October, well, we need a lot of commitment, a lot of patience, proper tactics and a lot of luck. Plus, we need to be able to handle to spinners on these pitches.