Feature

'I hit Mark Taylor on the head'

Dean Headley spoke to Cricinfo about his Ashes memories from 1997

14-Jul-2005
Dean Headley played in 15 Tests - including six matches against Australia -before injury cut short his career in 2001. He is now a director of a newspaper in Kent. Cricinfo spoke to him about his role in the 1997 Ashes series.


Dean Headley © Getty Images
Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain have always taken the mickey out of me for being a blocker, but in that match I hit 22 and I actually played some shots. I played a couple of drives off McGrath through extra cover, I hit a few fours, but then eventually got caught out at gully - then we had a collapse. But I enjoyed batting that day.
I was out lbw for 3 in the second innings, which was probably a fair call! I leave it up to the umpires and, of course, at the end of the day I've also got to bowl. If you protest, they might not give you some wickets later.
In the fifth Test at Trent Bridge, I've never played cricket like that. If I'm having a bad day, I'm having a bad day, but against Australia I played six Tests and seemed to bowl well in them. It didn't all go our way - at Headingley, I went for over 100 runs for two wickets and I got hit all over the place, but my whole philosophy has been to try and to keep going. I'm not the best technical bowler but I bowl in my own style and it seemed to work.

Dean Headley was speaking to Jenny Thompson