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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUPMarch 2, 2015William PorterfieldCANBERRA, AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY Q. I hate to take you back to this, but Sabina Park, the very first game that you played against Zimbabwe, I think you lost at six balls. In these eight years you've gone from a team that people even in Ireland didn't really know about to starting a tournament with two wins, being one of the most talked about teams. Would you say you've exceeded even your expectations in that period? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: I wouldn't say we exceeded them, no. We were playing cricket before 2007, as well, but like you said, this is the first time a lot of people got to see us. But over the last eight years since then there has been a lot of growth in the country, and not just on the pitch but off the pitch, behind the scenes, within the organisation. There's been a complete restructure. There's been everything, now it's grown leaps and bounds, but it's where we want to be and it's ever improving and it's a great organisation to be involved in. Q. Obviously you're beaten West Indies and UAE. Is South Africa a step up again for the team? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Yeah, they're obviously playing great cricket. They're a great side. We're going to have to be on the money again. We're taking each game as it comes, and we did that before the West Indies game and started fresh for the UAE game, and it's no different to today's game. We've got to start again. It's going through the same processes and being in the same mindset and getting yourself prepared for the start of ball one tomorrow. Q. This grounds saw Chris Gayle hit a double hundred. AB de Villiers is obviously allegedly in even better form. Any plans to stop him? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Yeah, it's no fluke what he's done. He's done it a couple of times now over the last, what, six to eight weeks. As you said, he's been in great nick, but I think you've just got to have your own simple plans and look after your own game, and the thing is once the bowler lets that ball go, that's as much as he's in control of, and if he can execute whatever plans we've got in place as best he can, if something out of the ordinary happens at the other end, then so be it, but we've got to control what we can control and our plans and where we look to land the ball, different things like that, is in our control. That's what we'll be looking to do. Q. Are you confident your bowlers can, I guess, cope with not just AB but the entire South African batting lineup? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Yeah, look, we've played against great lineups before, and the lads have done very well. I'm confident with how we've prepared and how we've been going over the last few weeks that we will cope. I have no doubt the lads are ready and ready to go for tomorrow, and it doesn't really matter who comes up in front of us, AB, Hashim, whatever, they've got a great lineup. That's how it is. That's the way it is in this World Cup, and we're looking forward to it. Q. Just on that theme, when you see AB de Villiers bat the way he did and you get to see that, do you then formulate special plans? Do you come up with something between games to think, right, this is the way we've got to bowl, realise what a challenge it will be bowling against him? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: It obviously will be a challenge. You can sit all day and talk about him and different theories and plans and whatever, but as I said, you've got to stick it on with your best ball and how you go about things. You don't have to reinvent the wheel or change how you play really against one player. He obviously has a special talent, but you've been doing something yourself. Each bowler has got their own skills. They've done it over a number of years. They've got to back themselves and back the field that's been set and how well they want to get hit, and if he hits that over their heads or down their throats, then so be it. You've got to be in control of what you are in control of and that is letting the ball go. Look, if he plays the way he plays, then so be it. But yeah, we'll have everyone individual plans for each of them, and hopefully we'll see the back of them early. Q. Can I just get the associate nation kind of line? I know you answer it pretty much every press conference, but given the way you're playing, there seems to be a real groundswell of support for you. Is that something that you're sensing as the tournament has progressed, it's become a real talking point behind the scenes? Do you sense that a lot of people are behind you and that might well change in the future? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: I think it was always going to be a talking point coming into this tournament when the teams got cut from well, they were trying to cut them down from 14 down to 10. They tried it before this World Cup, as well. This was supposed to be a 10 team World Cup, but now it's back up to 14, which is only right. You've got to grow the game, and it's an event every four years, and I don't see why it has to be cut down. It's beating the same drum, but it's something we really believe in, not just ourselves but all our nations around the world. There have been a lot of influential people that have come out and spoken from the world of cricket. You've got Sachin, you've got MS Dhoni speaking the other day, Mahela Jayawardene mentioned in his press conference, as well, and a lot of people have been coming out there and talking about it and saying good things. We are improving, every nation out there is improving. Again, I hate the term associates. I don't see why it has to be labeled different structures throughout. I think it should be ranked 1 to whatever. That's my personal opinion. But yeah, we've got to go out there and plan the performances on the pitch and keep making statements out there because ultimately that's what it boils down to. Q. If there's anything that the team has lacked on the bowling side of things, particularly after you lost Boyd, I suppose that extra gear of pace and bounce, without having that in your team, what do you do as a group to compensate, I suppose? What do you do well given that you don't have that? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Look, it's not something you can just find or just have if you don't have that. You've just got to be really smart with what you do have. Obviously you've got to find your length pretty early. It's the same say for any bowlers; if you bowl 90 miles an hour or 75, you're going to go through similar processes in terms of how you're going to bowl on different pitches, and we're no different, and we've just got to be smart with how we set fields and how we go about things from there, really. I think before the tournament we said we've got to be really smart about how we go about our cricket, and I think we can utilise the fact that some of our bowlers don't have the pace that some batters generally like to face, so that can be an advantage as much as a hindrance. Q. I was going to say as a follow on from that, taking the pace off the ball and I suppose making the batsmen make the play and maybe go for a shot that's not there, that's what you aim to do? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Yeah, most definitely, I think, and that's all part of being smart. Obviously if you don't have that 90 mile an hour pace that's not on our side, and we know we don't necessarily have it, so we've got to be smart with what we've got. As I said again, the bowlers have been drilling over a number of years, so they've got to use what they have. It's the same with the bat. You're not going to obviously come in and try to beat Chris Gayle from the off unless you can't hit the ball 95 metres, but you're going to have to clearly hit most of these boundaries. No, you've got to be smart and use what you have and the tools that you have wisely throughout the tournament. Q. William, how much of a benefit do you think it is having Adrian Birrell within the South African framework now since he knew the younger you and the younger Bryant brothers so well? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Sorry? Q. How much of an advantage do you think South Africa has having him within their camp? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: I don't think it's going to be a major advantage. I think with everything that's available now, you've got videos available for everything and everyone watches every game. I think that there's a lot of information out there. He'll obviously have stuff on us, but 2007 was a long time ago. We were quite young then. We've moved on a bit since then. But I'm really looking forward to catching up with him, as well. He had a big influence in my career, and he's a great bloke. It's going to be a great to see him again. Q. And you now have a stint of three games in eight days. How difficult is it to take one game at a time? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: I don't think it's difficult. We've done it so far. Obviously there's been quite a break between games, and we always knew that this was the way that the group stage was going to work for ourselves, so we've been building up towards that. We've put in a lot of yards in the time we've had off between games and building up, and that's not only in preparation for each individual game, but that's going to stand you in good stead later on in the tournament when the games come thicker and faster because it's more about recovery and getting the mind fresh for each game. You've got to take each game as it comes. There's only two points up for grabs in these games, and there's two points up for grabs tomorrow, and that's what we're looking forward to now. Q. I guess a lot has been made of obviously AB and his feats this World Cup, but I guess you guys have still got the holder of the fastest World Cup hundred, as well. WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Yeah, obviously he holds it by two balls. Yeah, look, if Kev can go out and repeat what he's done in the past, as well, then we've got that bit of X factor ourselves. Yeah, it's obviously great to see in the world game. That's what people want to see. They want to see people going out there and performing the way that they can do, and hopefully the lads that can do that for ourselves will come off tomorrow, as well. Q. And I guess Manuka Oval has obviously proved to be a batsman's paradise. Does that sort of help or hinder you guys? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: No, we were fortunate enough to play a couple of games here in October, so that was quite nice to get down here and play and get a couple of games under the lights. It's obviously a long Australian summer, as well, and I'm guessing there's been quite a bit of cricket here, and obviously there's been a few big games here already in the tournament, the Big Bash final here. There's quite a lot of information there, and Matthew Mott, as well, obviously was involved in that final. I think we can get lots from things like that in how we go about preparing ourselves. Q. Quite obviously the larger teams don't treat you as minnows anymore. Has it changed the mindset within the team that you're no longer the surprise pack, that people come to expect you to play competitive cricket and do well in the World Cup? Has the mindset within the group, within the Irish group, changed a bit? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: I don't think the mindset has changed. I think if you get any Irish born team, they've got that belief and they've got it on the pitch and they're going to scrap right to the last minute. I don't think we're any different, and I think the skill factor has improved a lot in the last eight years, as well. But I think the mindset has always been that if we're going out there 11 on 11 and we're going out there to win, otherwise I don't think you should be going out there to take part really if you're not going out there to win. I think our skill factor has improved a lot, and we're playing obviously we've played a lot more cricket over the last few years than we have done before 2011. We'll draw on those things, but in terms of our mindset, each game we go out there, we go out there to prepare and we go out there to win, and tomorrow is no different. Q. There's been a bit of talk in the last 24 hours about a shake up in the domestic game back home, particularly over Twenty20. Obviously you're part of a team that got to the finals last year. Who knows, it might have even involved Ireland if there was some sort of franchise. Do you think that's sort of needed? Do you think that would be a good thing? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: I haven't been following so close in terms of what's actually been happening the last few days, but I think a franchise system would be quite a good thing. I think it's worked with all the big major countries around the world. It's in the IPL, it's in the Big Bash, it's in places around the world, and I think the franchise thing is a very good thing. How you do that in England, I don't know how that's going to work, but yeah, if it came in, then we wouldn't be against it. Q. And to put you on the spot a bit, but there's been a bit of talk about Kevin Pietersen making a possible return for England but he'll need to play county cricket first. Do you envisage maybe Kevin lining up in county cricket again? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: I haven't got a clue. You're asking the wrong person. If you had KP up here you can ask him. I don't know if he's still contracted to Surrey or not, I don't know. But yeah, that's something that's not really going to concern me over the next few weeks, so it's not really something I've thought about. Q. Three World Cups in a row now you've made headlines, you've had so called upset wins. But between World Cups you hardly ever played the so called bigger teams. Realistically how many games would you be looking at going forward maybe on a per year basis against the likes of India, Australia, England? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Well, to start off with, we obviously need more games. We've played nine games against top eight teams in the last four years, so that's two a year, so it's not a lot of fixtures. I don't think to start off with it has to be a seven game away or seven game home series against India or whatever. It's got to build up, and we've got to be playing teams around us, as well, and obviously playing against I think if teams come to England, we're a 45 minute flight away and we can go to England. I think there's a lot of opportunity there to play games of cricket. We've seen it with Afghanistan get a few, you get the Asia Cup and things like that and country around them, and we played a Bilateral series against England where it's one game every two years. I think there's opportunities there to play games, and obviously you've got some byes with Bangladesh and whatever. We want to be playing more often as well because they're the teams that are closest to us, but obviously we do want to be playing Australia, we want to be playing England, India, whoever, but any fixtures are going to be more than welcome by ourselves. But how it works, I don't know, but I think it has to happen. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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