Interview with Mark Davies

[Andy Mellon]

Mark Davies is a selected member of the WAT England A 2005 team. He also won our vote for 2005's best bowler in County Cricket. The first to help us out were the people at Durham CCC, especially Yvette Thompson who put me in touch with their swing bowling sensation, Mark Davies. Please note that the interview was held by telephone, and Mark was kind enough to talk to us despite being in the middle of his Christmas shopping! Also, due to the nature of the interview, the answers to the questions as shown are not direct quotes. I hope you enjoy reading what he has to say, and I would like to hear your comments on his opinions so that we can send something back to him from the membership:

Q1. How were you first introduced to cricket, and what about the game got you hooked?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

I was introduced to cricket at a very young age. Firstly through my Uncle who was on the playing staff at Yorkshire. Although he didn't play first class cricket, he played a lot of 2nd XI cricket. Also through my granddad and uncle's love for the game helped me to develop my own love for the game. Since then, my brothers have also played a lot of cricket and my other Uncle has also played. Really, cricket has a strong background in my family

Q2. What hobbies/sports do you get up to when not playing or training for cricket?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

Honestly, its quite difficult to do anything outside of cricket during the summer. When its the off season, I like to spend most of my time with the family. A lot of this time I spend watching my younger brother play football and I like to play a bit of golf. My brother Andrew is contracted with Middlesbrough, and has played 15 Premiership games for them, he's currently on loan at Derby and has been on loan at QPR in the past.

Q3. Who are your favourite cricketers of all time, and which cricketer do you think influenced your own style the most?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

Glenn McGrath. I've always looked up to and idolised him. I like his playing style, his style of bowling and I like to follow his playing methods

Q4. What advice would you give to youngsters to encourage them to take up cricket?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

I get asked this question a lot at functions. Its quite hard to answer, but the main thing is that the youngsters have to enjoy it. Enjoyment should come first

Q5. What has been your own personal highlight from your career so far?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

My real personal highlight was the season before the one just gone, the 2004 season. This is because it was the first season that I took 50 wickets. That’s a goal that every bowler sets themselves when they first set out and making that target was fantastic for me.

Q6. Do you rely on seam movement to get the majority of your wickets? What other ways does you look to take wickets? Do you think that England place too much emphasis on requiring pace from their bowlers?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

I mainly rely on away-swing bowling to take wickets. After this, movement off the seam comes second. To be honest, the main way I take wickets is by grinding the batsman down. I give the batsman no room to play their own shots through a reliance on accuracy which forces them to make mistakes.

I don't really think that England are obsessed with pace, but that extra yard of pace is vital at the top level. I've been working hard on gaining that extra yard of pace which will hopefully get me more into contention in the international frame. Its important to remember that pace is not the be all and end all.

Q7. What County grounds favour your bowling?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

Obviously Durham with the record I've had there in recent times. Apart from that, I always seem to enjoy bowling at Trent Bridge. Trent Bridge is usually a quite a flat pitch and its difficult to take wickets there, but I've been successful by exploiting the swing rather than seam movement

Q8. Are you aiming to be an all-rounder or just a bowler who can bat a bit?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

Gone are the days of allowing number 11s to be poor batsmen. Look at Liam Plunkett who’s just scored a 50 for England! Our coach at Durham, Martyn Moxon is getting on the bowlers' case to get us to work as hard on the batting as the bowling! To us, getting the ability at batting can be as important as the bowling. This reminds me that scoring my 1st first class 50 last year was very enjoyable!

Q9. You played for England Under 19s against Sri Lanka Under 19s in 2000. Was that an important series in terms of your cricket development?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

It was excellent for me to get the recognition of gaining a call-up to the England Under 19s. It was very important to me at the time as I’d already set myself the target of playing for them as a step to securing a professional contract with Durham. The Sri Lankan style is very different and thus playing against players with a completely different style to those you'd face in county cricket was a real benefit. And it was also very enjoyable when we won the series 3-0!

Q10. Who are the best players you have played with and against?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

The best player I've played with has to be Mike Hussey who was one of the overseas players last year at Durham. Mike has a very different view on cricket; and all the lads learnt a lot from him in just one season. In particular, he has a professional outlook! As for who the best player I've played against is, that's a lot tougher as there are so many great players in county cricket these days. Andrew Flintoff is very tough to play against as he’s very dominating and takes the attack to you.

[Andy Mellon]

Q11. How important do you think training and participating in matches overseas is? What overseas teams have you played for and what have you learnt from the experience?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

Most of the cricket I've played overseas has been in Australia. Mainly in Perth at Applecross CC. A real help here has been Paul Terry’s {ex-Hampshire cricketer} cricket school which is based in Australia called Auscricket. All the young lads in county cricket meet up there. The benefits of this were playing in a foreign country, the different culture of playing cricket and it was great to see how they go about playing the game.

Q12.Our members recently voted you the best bowler in county cricket during 2005. What do these sort of accolades mean to you?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

They mean masses. Anyone who’s honest would recognise that winning votes and accolades is a massive achievement.

Q13. How important is the relationship between keeper and bowler in the taking of wickets? For example, do you bowl better if you have more confidence in the keeper, and what are your feelings of a keeper standing up to a medium pace bowler, such as yourself?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

Its vital to have a good communication with the guy behind the stumps as he can help give you pointers. Most keepers are quite eccentric though, our keeper at Durham, Phil Mustard is a law unto himself. Quite eccentric. Anyone who meets him would say so! I think its good when you can rely on the keeper to stand up the the stumps when your bowling. It can really help in the one dayers when the batsmen are trying to come out of their crease to you.

Q14. Last year, what gave you the most pleasure: your 6/32 in the 1st innings against Worcestershire at Chester-le-Street or your near record partnership of 124 for the ninth wicket batting with Liam Plunkett against Somerset?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

The honest answer is the runs as they were more important in the context of the game at the time. The satisfaction of that and winning the game was massive and it also kept us in the hunt for promotion

Q15. Do you think you can play a full season without injury in 2006? How have injuries in the past couple of season effected your performance?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

The injuries haven't been that bad and I've been able to get over them ok, so the only set back has been stopping my season’s momentum and preventing me moving on from 50 wickets in a season to 60, 70 or 80 wickets a season and getting me noticed more!

Q16. Are you looking forward to playing in the 1st Division next year and which teams do you think will be your biggest rivals?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

I can’t wait to play in CC1. Its exciting times for Durham at the moment and even more to be playing against the best teams in the country. The teams to look out for are Sussex as they’ve been a good competitive team and seemed a really strong unit when we played them in the one dayers this year. I'm also looking forward to playing Yorkshire in the derby games as it’s always nice to get one over against the local rivals! Lancashire will also be strong.

Q17. What are your views on Twenty20 and do you think too much county cricket is being played.

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

20:20 is excellent for bringing awareness to the game and fantastic from the spectators point of view. Its tough to say if too much cricket is being played though. The fixture list is quite hectic. If you look at the Aussies, they do things differently to allow players to practise and train and not have to take on as many matches. If the Aussies have something wrong in their game, they can practise for one or two weeks between games. In the UK we have very little time between matches to solve any problems we may be having and we end up having to solve our problems during matches.

Q18. What is your opinion of the overseas and Kolpak signings that Durham have made in your time at the club and what are your opinions on foreign players competing in County Cricket?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

For example, Dale Benkenstein's a fantastic player, he's obviously South African and I'm sure he wouldn’t mind me saying that he's an experienced player and that he’s a fanatical devotee to cricket and brought a needed level of experience to a youthful team.

Q19. When you retire as a player what career path are you likely to take - coaching, administration, media or something outside of cricket?

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

I’d love to stay in the game in some capacity. I love cricket and I’d like to be doing it as long as I can in some capacity. Coaching is something that I’d really like to do.

Thanks again to Mark for agreeing to take part in this interview at what is obviously a very busy time of the year. He seemed genuinely thrilled to have gained the recognition from our members of being voted Best County Bowler of 2005 and being included in our England A team. I'd like to thank Yvette Thompson and all the rest of the team at Durham CCC who helped set up this interview, and I'd like to wish Mark good luck for the year ahead that he can stay free of injuries and remain amongst the wickets in County Cricket!

[Mike]

Another wonderful interview and a real motivator to get involved in cricket. Thanks to Andy and Mark for making this available to WAT. Best Wishes to Mark for the future.

[Collyisamackem]

I really hope he does find that extra pace. If he does and maintains his accuracy, then I think it will convince the doubters that he could be good enough for international cricket. If not, then I'll still like having him taking many a wicket at Durham!

Thanks Andy.

[smickel]

Thanks Andy and Mark for the interview. It made for great reading. Mark sounds like a great young cricketer and I hope all goes well for him in the future, hopefully no more injuries too.

[Beny]

Agree totaly... Well done Andy.

[greg]

Excellent interview.Top stuff.

[honestbharani]

Very good interview. All the best to him.

[Captain]

Excellent interview, good to have from time to time. Best wishes for his career and I hopw there are many more to come Andy!