Being dropped the catalyst for Gibson's outstanding year
IT is not quite beyond dispute that Ottis Gibson will be voted Durham's Player of the Year because in any other season Phil Mustard, Dale Benkenstein and Michael Di Venuto would have done enough to win it.
But as Gibson already has the Professional Cricketers' Association award it is inconceivable that Durham's members will overlook a man who has become their hero. In 15 years of first-class cricket, it is difficult to think of a player who has achieved such cult status, undoubtedly helped by the warm smile he offers in return for the enthusiastic applause.
Until he took all ten wickets in Hampshire's first innings at Riverside in July he was having an average season with 23 wickets in eight championship games. He then amassed 57 in the last seven, while also taking wickets with each of the first two balls in Hampshire's innings in the Friends Provident Trophy final.
So what was the catalyst for this extraordinary transformation? Amazingly for a man of 38 supposedly in the final season of his career, he believes that being dropped had much to do with it.
"I felt I bowled well in the first two games, giving good support to Steve Harmison, who was outstanding," he said. "Then Liam Plunkett became available and I was left out against Kent.
"Coaches will always say you are being rested, but when you're bowling well you want to play and I was disappointed.
"There's a phrase in the CD called Twelfth Man which says 'Don't get bitter, get better' and I used that every day for the rest of the season.
"Every time I went on the field I tried to do everything that was required for the team and I just got better. People appreciate that, and if the other players see your efforts they raise their game. I had some fantastic catches taken."
Gibson's success is also the end product of putting everything into practice which he has learnt as a coach over the last six years.
That includes things like physiology, which he believes has helped his fitness during a season in which he played in every competitive match except the Kent game and the Friends Provident match against Lancashire.
He also believes that coaching the ECB academy for six weeks in Australia last winter helped as he was training every day.
"If you have a lay-off when you start bowling again there are going to be niggles. On our pre-season trip to Cape Town I had a stiff back every day, but you have to be prepared to fight through the niggles for the team.
"There have been times when I've been in at 8am for a massage to get ready to bowl. That's the mindset I have adopted and perhaps it's one reason for my success. When things are going well soreness is less significant."
Far from having a conscience about keeping one of Durham's young bowlers out of the team, Gibson is pleased to have the opportunity to show them what he is talking about.
"I can talk and talk to them about bowling and about game situations, but when I'm playing I can set the standard and impress on them that when the game is on the line you have to run in and be aggressive.
"Sometimes they have a problem with the new ball. You have to try to swing it, but you have to weigh up what the conditions will allow you to do on that day. You have to use what's working for you. Sometimes the in-swinger and out-swinger both work and that's what happened against Hampshire.
"Liam Plunkett has been exposed at a very early age to international cricket, where you're in the public eye and it's a harsh environment. He bowled brilliantly in the one-dayers in Australia then he went to the World Cup and didn't play. It was a massive blow to his confidence, but we have to allow him some leeway. He enjoyed being back with us and there's no doubt he'll get back in the England team."
As for his own bowling, Gibson believes that he has benefited from learning how to control his emotions, while coaching has also taught him how to create more variations, particularly in changing the angle of delivery.
He lost count of the number of times in the second half of the season that he took a wicket in the first over of a spell, saying: "Batsmen would love to have a ball to leave or a free hit, so you have to make sure you don't give them a loosener. The first over has to be a challenge to the batsman.
"I've had a good partnership in one-day cricket with Neil Killeen, who doesn't always get the credit he deserves. Sometimes he would bowl the first over, but in the final I said I wanted it.
"I wanted to lead and set the tone. I knew where I wanted to bowl those first two balls, and I got them in the right spot, slanting across the left-handers and asking them questions."
10:51am Friday 28th September 2007
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