Do captains tend to put too much pressure on themselves by thinking they need to lead by example?
That’s right. As I said earlier, you can do that. You can set a bit of a tone with your batting, but you don’t need to lead by example all the time. You are just picked as one of the 11 players in the team, one of six batsmen, maybe, in the team. You just go out and do your job to the best of your ability. And as a captain you then go out there and set the fields and change the bowlers. I didn’t go out there and bat as a captain, I went out there and batted as an opening batsman. For me to lead by example would’ve been difficult. Captaincy by committee doesn’t work, and you drove the point home early in your career … My first game as a captain was a one-day game in Sydney. Allan Border had torn his hamstring and I became the captain. Bob Simpson called the players in after we’d done our warm-ups and he said, “All right, boys, this is what we’re gonna do…” And after that the players were about to break off and I said, “No, hang on a minute, I want to say something. Look, boys, I’m c
