Ashes villain Stuart Broad opens up on role with South Africa
Stuart Broad played the role of Australia’s nemesis perfectly across 40 Ashes matches and is back for more as part of South Africa’s WTC final preparation. He reveals why he jumped at the opportunity.
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It took England fast-bowling great Stuart Broad less than a second to jump at the opportunity for another Australian scalp.
Broad, dressed head to toe in South African colours at Lord’s on Monday, was last to leave training after helping the Proteas’ trio of quicks plot an Aussie downfall.
The recently retired quick played the role of Australia’s nemesis perfectly across 40 Ashes matches and is back for more as part of the Proteas’ World Test Championship final preparation.
Broad said he received a call soon after South Africa booked its place in the final earlier this year and was quick to honour the request.
“I do some work with SA20 and with Ashwell Prince throughout that in the commentary team,” Broad said in an exclusive interview with this masthead.
“(Prince) called me a couple of months ago and said, ‘look, would you mind giving us a few hours of your time to speak to the guys?’
“Of course when you don’t play cricket anymore, any chance to come to Lord’s and help any other bowlers – apart from Aussies maybe – is a chance I’d love to take.
“I said yes within about a second I think.”
Broad far exceeded the “few hours” he was asked to spend with the Proteas two days out from the final.
He was the feature of a dinner among coaches on Sunday night before speaking to the entire squad in the warm-up and guiding Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi in the middle of the ground.
Broad, who took 153 Test wickets against the Aussies including his career-best haul of 8-15, said he had two key focuses when steering the Proteas’ fast-bowling cartel.
“It was just talking about the difference of bowling at Lord’s, to be honest, that slope is quite unusual,” he said.
“Just the mindset of getting used to the slope, South Africa haven’t played as much here as the Aussies have in recent times.
“It’s important in a big final that you don’t take two spells to settle, really … I was quite conscious not to get too technical with guys two days out from a world final.
“It was about alignment and making sure your action stays strong, (at the) pavilion end it can drag you to bowl too tight to the stumps because of the slope leaning you in.
“At the nursery end, the slope you can bowl too wide if you don’t get your alignment right, so it’s just about making sure the bowlers’ techniques are in a place where they think they can deliver properly.”
Broad poured fuel on the already enraged crowd in Australia’s last visit to Lord’s after Aussie Alex Carey divisively stumped Jonny Bairstow.
He was the next batter in after the Bairstow dismissal and was playing to the crowd at the end of each over.
Broad doesn’t expect a similar reception from the crowd come Wednesday, saying the now famous stumping “has been forgotten”.
“That was here, wasn’t it? Blimey,” he said.
“I think the crowd will be fine, I think there will be a lot of South Africans in the crowd, actually, but it’s great for both teams to not have England playing.
“A neutral venue, I think the 2023 instance has been forgotten probably by the Lord’s crowd, I can’t see there being any aftermath.
“Anyone who has bought a ticket to come and see this final is just wanting a great game, two brilliant bowling attacks, I think that’s where the game is won and lost.
“Obviously the batters have got brilliant quality but it’s hard to look past them being the best two bowling attacks in the world at the minute.
“Each bowler on show has got a chance to win the game on their own, which is quite good to watch, we grow up watching fast bowlers, we want to see fast bowlers.
“We’ve got (Josh) Hazlewood, (Pat) Cummins, (Mitchell) Starc, Rabada, Jansen and Ngidi ... brilliant.”
Originally published as Ashes villain Stuart Broad opens up on role with South Africa
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