3 years ago
Andrew Knight - my best captain
Andrew Knight
Business Advisor
Brisbane, Australia
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Andrew Knight - my best captain
I played under some very astute captains however, undoubtedly the best captain that I played under was Former NSW and Queensland batsman Peter Clifford.
Peter was always thinking 2-3 overs ahead of most players on game days, however he was also thinking about his team winning matches 2-3 games ahead. In Peter’s side you knew your role and what was expected of you. If you got it right, he told you – if you got it wrong, he told you! There were no grey areas, however you had the opportunity to grow and develop as a player. He always wanted players to improve, and he backed those players who wanted to improve.
He was also prepared to try something different, sometimes to the surprise of his players, however he had built up credits with his players and they had confidence in him that he had seen something different, or an opportunity was available. It was no surprise when it came off and more often than not it did.
An example of this came during a semifinal in Premier 1st grade. South Brisbane had our Toombul side in all sorts of trouble. I hadn’t been having a great year with the bat and was playing more as bowler than a batsman and was slated to come in at no 9. At 4 for less than 40 he told me to pad up and go in next. Why, who knew? Cliffo had a thought. Soon we were 7-70 and as minor premiers not looking great. He came up to me at the lunch break and said, “just bat”. Hardly inspirational stuff! I knew that he had confidence in me. Time to repay the faith. Well, some 7 hours later I was the last player out. We had recovered a bit. All out 303 – I finished up with 157. We ended up making the Grand Final and winning the premiership 2 two weeks later.
Sometime later, I asked him the question as to why he put we in at 7 that day, his reply – “You were hitting them well during the week, I knew it would be your day”. As I said earlier, he had seen something and seized the opportunity!
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