Episode 6 of the Running On Emotion podcast hosted by Alastair Eykyn focuses on trust with guest Sir Andrew Strauss.
Sir Andrew is one of the most successful England cricket captains of all-time and discusses trusting his method; standing up to the Australians; almost losing his place in the England team; trusting Andy Flower; the breakdown of trust with Kevin Pietersen; and losing his wife.
During the interview, he talks about his emotional sporting journey: “It’s a very, very hard journey to go on and you’ve got to buckle up and be prepared for it because the challenge is not so much what happens on the pitch as dealing with all that emotional baggage that accumulates over the time as well,” he says.
Andrew says that as a youngster he was good at cricket but knew there was a big jump between playing at school and having a professional career. When he went to university, he saw others doing well at cricket and thought if they can do it, he could too. He says he’s a calm person and is good at supressing his emotions, which is good for cricket, “It just happens that cricket suits me better than any other sport.”
Andrew opens up about the death of his wife revealing how he and his family dealt with it. He says: “There were times where, you think about crying – this was crying at a level that’s just sobbing in a way that I’d never experienced before. But you have to do that in order to get it out. For me to be able to play my role as a father and to guide my children through it was very important that I was able to cry in front of them and say how I was feeling and give them permission to do the same if that’s what they wanted to do.”
Talking about trusting his method of playing, Andrew says: When my England chance came along I was old enough to realise that this is my game – it may not be good enough to play international cricket but It’s worked for me up till now. When the pressure is at its greatest, I really need to stick with it. I think I had a pretty well embedded game at that point that I was willing to trust. What I didn’t know, and what no one knows, is how you’re gonna react to that situation.”
When it came to almost losing his place on the England team, Andrew describes how he dealt with it and the attitude he applied to his playing to shift his mindset, which led to him playing brilliantly.
Taking over as the England captain came at a time of difficult circumstances when Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores had both been removed from their positions. The team was quite disjointed and disunited and bosses were looking for someone to bring things together. “I suppose I was the right captain at the right time in that sense,” he says.
Andrew also talks about trusting Andy Flower and about the breakdown of trust with Kevin Pietersen, which he found very hard to overcome internally. “Time is a good healer,” he says, “and certainly when I look at it now, it’s always important to think about the context.”
Running on Emotion is available every Monday wherever you get your podcasts.
