Ian Healy Interview: All that went around before and after you heard the iconic ‘BOW-LINNN’ SHANE’ war-squeak on cricket grounds

Pakistan had needed 56 runs when the last man Mushtaq Ahmed joined Inzamam in that famous Karachi Test of 1994, but the equation now read just three runs to win. “Mushy scored 20! Don’t think he ever did it again! That kind of a day.” Warne, the captain Mark Taylor, and Healy had consulted and decided to leave the midwicket open. Inzamam would once tell this correspondent why he took the risk to aim for that gap. “Ho sakta hai ki main vahan pey panic ho gaya hoon [Perhaps I panicked then]. I could have done it in singles also. But that is the whole charm of the battle. I just backed myself to play that shot.”

Healy was also panicking a bit. “It’s crazy what goes through the head in one short window of time. I knew what Warne was doing, had read the ball, knew it would dip rapidly, and there was the chance that Inzy was not going to get there in time. Too much stuff going on, and I missed it.” And Pakistan won. Sleepless nights awaited for a man who deeply cares about his job.

There was one more sleepless night that involved Brian Lara in another famous chase but that can wait for now. Wicketkeeping, they say, is a thankless job but Healy made it look a joyous activity, especially with his quips, chirps, multiple chats with Warnie, occasionally done just to wind up the batsmen, and above all his celebrations: He would jump up like a kid, legs bent back, clap before gravity sucked him back.

Ian Healy keeping in an ODI match for Australia. (CA)

Like that famous dismissal of Basit Ali being bowled between his legs, that had Greg Chappell on air say, “he is going to hear that sound (of ball hitting the stumps) all night”. There was a chat between Healy and Warne, and the accepted wisdom was that they were talking about where and what to drink and eat, and in the end they decided to have a Pakistani in Ali. Healy laughs at that memory. “Not even food talk, actually. Basit was annoying Warne at that phase by wasting time as stumps were near. Warnie was a bit pissed and he was doing the same thing over and over. He would keep telling me to come over, and I would keep ignoring him, but for some reason, before that last ball of the day, I buckled and ran over. We were just fooling around, and as I turned and walked, I said, “rip him a leggie, and am not even sure if he heard it”. And my celebration was because of that Warnie magic – only he could have done it.

An absolutely incredible bowler, of course. But one that’s easily read. He himself would announce to every local broadcaster where we would visit all his grips and what he would bowl. He would even tell the batsmen, shout out like he would do with Daryll Cullinan or a Robin Smith – two leggies, then a toppie would come. And they would be going, surely he is not going to do that. He would of course do it!”

It’s to the basics of wicketkeeping that one returns. Healy had a method. “Arse out, very important as it gives balance. And allows you to stay low and spring up when needed. And also, gloves in front – even as you are looking at the bowler’s hand, you should be able to see the gloves in your peripheral vision.”

To the pacers, Healy, like most other Australian glovesmen, would shuffle to his right and gather the ball to his left. Brisk, snappy, and safe as one could trust the bounce on Australian wickets. “The English liked to keep the body behind the ball, not move out to the right completely as the ball would wobble there very late just as it’s about to reach you. I had modelled my keeping on Rod Marsh – the Australian method. I did struggle on my first tour of England and had to adapt, not move too far right, and just enough with my body behind to handle that wobbler.”

Healy is a tad disappointed that glovesmen of current-day cricket aren’t proper specialists. “That’s the trend for a while now, isn’t it. Batsmen who can keep. England have even gone with Ollie Pope for the Tests against New Zealand. Ben Foakes was good, but didn’t last too long. Alex Carey is good, solid. Rishabh Pant is a work in progress, but I saw him in the mornings and like the drills he is doing; he is bound to improve more.”

Did he pick anything about Pant’s mistakes? “At times, as he did when he dropped a catch in this series earlier, he can make an initial wrong movement. Some keepers like to move a touch to their left first and then press from there. It’s better to be still and if you can’t, then you start that trigger movement a touch early so that by the time the ball is out there, you can still press to the right side. One of those two decisions have to be made.”

Healy himself took a lot of catches off under-edges and as such demanded he stayed low to the spinners. “That’s the key. Even though I could read Warne, knew what the ball was going to do for most part, even the degrees of spin depending on at what angle he would release the ball, I had to resist the urge to get there quickly. I have to wait. Wait for the batsmen to make his move, wait for the ball to do its thing, and only then move. Else, you drop or clang.”

The way Healy worked with Warne was also team-work that involved Warne’s mentor Terry Jenner. Those two would work together and then Jenner would call to tell me what to watch out for. Say, he has to spin up – that was the cue that I had to tell Warnie if he was releasing the ball flatter. They had worked on how the ball had to be tossed up out of the hand. So different cues for different deliveries, and in case Warnie wasn’t getting it right, only then I would remind him, ‘spin up’ and such.

Healy rates his two stumpings to dismiss Graeme Thorpe as his best. One in England at Edgbaston, and one in Australia. On both occasions Warnie had slid the ball past the advancing Thorpe. “But both times, it bounced very high. Near my face. I had to first ensure that I cushioned the ball into my gloves, secure it, before I swooped down. Those urges have to be resisted. Else, I would have been grabbing at the ball.” Healy has also taken diving catches, famously once of Sanath Jayasuriya as he flung himself high to the left to pluck it.

“I am usually not known for diving stuff as my thing was sharp fast leg movement; get close to the ball so that you don’t have to dive too much. Bit like Mark Waugh, you won’t see him often flying in the slips because he didn’t have to; he had such good technique with his legs first. There was a diving catch, though, I rate, as I had to dive really low to my left to take that one from Ravi Ratnayake off Greg Campbell in Hobart in 1989. That was a really satisfying catch.”

To move from satisfying stuff to things that keep him awake at nights – the dropped catch of Lara in the famous chase in Barbados in 1999. Five runs after that Indy chase. With just seven runs needed, Lara tried to glide a length ball past Warne at first slip but nicked it. Perhaps for one of those rare instances, when Healy’s left leg didn’t quite make a positive step. “And I lunged with my left hand but it didn’t stick.” He would get up from the ground, clean his sun-glasses with his inner glove, have a look at Warnie and continue. “There wasn’t much to be said in that moment, eh?!” Healy grimaces as he recalls a moment from 25 years ago. “Thank you very much for reminding me about it!” an avuncular smile returns. Five Tests and seven months later, Healy played his last game for Australia. These days he is a genial presence in the commentary booths, chatting away with his former team-mates in breaks. “Good to see AB (Allan Border) getting better and doing well, eh?”