But is that for real, that Indians play spin better than anyone else in the world?
Yeah, well, I've played in Pakistan and those guys didn't do too good did they? Nor the Sri Lankans, mate. The Indians, well, Warney has the experience, he rates them very high, he thinks they are very good players of spin and that is enough for me, I'm quite looking forward to bowling to them.

You've already had a taste of that, haven't you, in Nagpur? How did that first essay go?
Well, I learnt a lot in a hurry, tell you the truth. Back home, the wickets give you a bit more bounce. If some of the Indian batsmen had gone back to me there, like they did here, I'd have done them, made the odd one scoot through quick, caught them in front or sent it through the gate. Here, you get more turn, but the pitch is also slower, the turn is slower, the bounce is less than you get back home so the batsmen have time to go back, adapt their shot, adjust, play late. Meant rethinking my bowling, having to adapt, try different things -- like, I learnt that I had to draw the batsman forward a lot more, make him play forward at me, not push him back like I might have done on a pitch with a bit more pace and bounce.

You've been a bit of a late bloomer, how did that happen?
Yeah, right, I have, if you mean international cricket. But you got to remember I've been playing first class cricket 15 years now, and did quite okay actually, so in that sense, no, I am no late bloomer. Actually, sometimes I feel like I've been around forever (*laughing*). I used to bowl medium pace before, but then Tasmania didn't have a spinner, so I figured I would try my hand at it, I always could bowl spin so making the change wasn't so hard.

Shane Warne had Terry Jenner, who did you have as your coach?
I've never really been coached, you know that? I kind of taught myself -- of course, now we have the team coach and he talks about things, tells me things, fine tunes my thinking. But generally, I am a self-made spinner, kind of -- I guess what that means is, my action is a touch faster, I tend to bowl a bit faster than most others. That's another thing about bowling here, I need to vary my pace a bit more than I would back home, keeping changing things around on the batters.

There's two aspects to this tour -- one is how well you and Shane bowl to us, the other is how well your guys bat against our spinners on our pitches. You've bowled to them a lot in the nets, so who do you rate as the best players of spin in your own team?
Actually, all of them play spin pretty well now don't they, our guys? That is one of the things Shane Warne has done for our cricket -- he is such a charismatic bloke, ever since he got into the side, you got kids barely out of the nursery and they all want to bowl spin like Shane Warne. So wherever you go now in Australia you've got a lot of spinners around, you get plenty of practise playing them, so you tend to be pretty good, it is not like before when the only time you played spin was when you came to the sub-continent and that was not too often either. Actually it is a cyclical thing, now you've got Brett Lee getting the crowds going, so I reckon next thing you know you're going to have the kids all wanting to be Brett Lee. But for now, spin rules, there's lots of spinners coming through.

Is the fact that you were once a medium pacer a handy option for the team?
Yeah, sure, if there is nothing in the wicket for me as a spinner, I can always go back a few yards and run in and bowl medium pace, always helps to have an extra option, mate. Also, as a medium pacer, I was more about seam and swing and that is what works best in the conditions here so if that is the way my captain wants me to go then sure, I'll bowl a bit of medium pace too.

Other than your bowling, what gets you noticed is the blue-dyed hair, the funky lifestyle. What's with that?
Hey, I wear whites on the field but off it, I am a human being, you know? I love my fun, I am me and all this is part of who 'me' is. And as long as it doesn't impact on how I play the game, it doesn't harm my performance, I guess it is okay for me to be me, right, mate?

Australian player profiles

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