Former England pacer Stuart Broad said that though he could have played for a couple of years more, he wanted to finish at the top and has no regrets in his career. Broad retired from international cricket after the fifth and final Ashes Test at The Oval earlier this year, with 604 Test wickets in 167 matches and overall 847 international wickets in 344 matches.
“I do feel within myself that I could have played for another couple of years but I wanted to finish at the top, finish in an England shirt and to be able to control that myself. I had to try and go at the right time,” Broad told Sky Sports in an exclusive interview.
“I have had no regrets yet which I think tells me in my gut that it was the right decision. Because my teammates have not walked onto the field in their whites with the England cap on, I have not had a moment of realisation like, ‘wow, I won’t ever do that again’.”
“Every player I have spoken to, from different eras, has had that one moment of ‘I am not a professional cricketer any more’.”
“Whether that comes when England go to India or when Nottinghamshire take the field in April at Trent Bridge, I’m not sure, [but] I couldn’t have finished in a better way,” concluded Broad.
The pacer said that he loved walking off the field at The Oval, beating Australia and getting the two final wickets. He also said that he saw his family after winning the Test.
“If I played for another 10 years, I would never have been able to repeat that finish. I have no regrets about finishing,” said Broad.
“To have that emotion of running on for my final spell with people knowing it was my last-ever session of cricket gave me emotions that will live with me forever.”
“Winning the Test was the biggest thing for me – the emotion of the crowd and winning the game. It would have been devastating for me to walk off for the final time having lost a Test to the Aussies.”
“Walking off with the boxes behind us, seeing my mum, my dad, [partner] Mollie, [daughter] Annabella and friends, it just felt perfect. I wanted to go out loving the game and I succeeded in that,” he concluded.
England was down 2-0, but a run-out of Jonny Bairstow by Alex Carey in the second Test when he moved away from the crease following a leave lit a fire in the team enough to make them dominate Australia for the rest of the series and draw it 2-2.
At one point in the final Test during a 384 run-chase, Australia threatened to win the series 3-1, their first in England since 2001, but Broad stepped up, taking the final two wickets of Todd Murphy and Alex Carey to level the series.
Before taking the wickets, he swapped the bails of stumps at his end. Broad said that before his last-ever ball, his emotions got better of him and his legs went like jelly and started shaking.
“Stokesy (captain Ben Stokes) said it was my last over and he was going to bring Mark Wood’s extra pace on to try and get the game done. I knew it would be my last over in professional cricket,” said Broad.
“I think I got two plays and misses from the first five balls. I had not thought about changing the bails but I felt a bit unlucky, saw the stumps and thought, ‘I am going to change them again’.
“I did it, heard a bit of a cheer and started my walk back to my run-up. I had the realisation that this was my last-ever ball. I have to admit that my emotions got the better of me, my legs went like jelly. I started shaking them, thinking, ‘gosh, I have to get some feeling back’.
“I wanted my last-ever ball to be a good one, not a full toss that gets whacked for four. I changed my mindset and started chanting in my head, ‘hit the pitch, hit the pitch.”
“Then my body relaxed as I ran in. I stopped thinking about the emotions of the occasion and started thinking about delivering the skill I have time and time again. When I released it and Murphy nicked it, the emotion of that edge going through to Jonny (Bairstow) was [amazing].”
“Because everyone was on the boundary as we did not want to concede a four, when I turned I had no one within 50 metres of me. That is why I was running around jumping on my own,” he concluded.
Talking about his relationship with the home fans, Broad said that whenever the team needed a lift, he felt sure that the fans would get them moving. He also said that massive crowd support helped his bowling and energy as he is not consistent.
“I needed the crowd. If I felt the team needed a lift I would go to the supporters and they would get us moving. That almost became a bit of mickey-taking in our dressing room but ultimately when we were out Ollie Pope, Mark Wood, Zak Crawley would come to me saying, ‘I think it is time to get the crowd going’. Stokesy would bring me on and for say, ‘for three overs, think about the crowd,” said Broad.
“That helped me. The crowd noise helped my stride pattern, my energy, my drive [as] I am not one of these players that has been consistent. I watch Jimmy (Anderson) bowl and he is like a Rolls Royce, cruising around so smooth. I am more effort and need to be on top of my game all the time, super-competitive.”
“That’s why the crowd were so vital for me. I would lean on them a lot for energy. Seeing a lot of headbands on the final day [at The Oval] brought a lot of pride to me and smiles,” he concluded.
On that Bairstow run out in the second Test, Broad admitted that it frustrated him.
“That particular moment, in all honesty, I saw red mist for 10 minutes. I class myself, particularly in my 30s, as being really mentally strong. I had a lot of routines and techniques that looked after me,” said Broad.
“But I was frustrated with that dismissal. One of our great players out in that way when it felt… he was not trying to gain an advantage so it felt a really strange dismissal. I saw red mist and could not control myself for 10 minutes. I completely forgot there were TV cameras, and microphones. Anything with a green cap on, I was just targeting, having a go at.”
“After about 10 minutes, Stokesy came to me in the middle and said, ‘are you alright?’ I said, ‘yeah, I just got a bit emotional, the crowd were revving me up’. I said, ‘what do you want me to do?’ He said, ‘Keep going verbally at the Aussies, they are looking at the ground, they have lost their body language, lost their plan, they are bowling rubbish to me’.”
“So, after 10 minutes of red mist and petulantly going ‘in’ with my bat, it then became a targeted thing and me deliberately trying to get under their skin and take their mind away from the plan. We lost by 43 runs. Could Jonny have got 40-odd runs? It galvanised us, it galvanised our fans. It is what Ashes cricket is about. It had an edge to it,” he concluded.
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