Exclusive: Delhi's Daredevils in conversation

Aussie speedster Glenn McGrath, legend Dennis Lillee and India's Gautam Gambhir are now an integral part of the IPL's Delhi Daredevils team. And in a special show they shared their experience with CNN-IBN's Gaurav Karla.

Gaurav Kalra: Are your teammates addressing you as 'Uncle Glenn' as the team is full of youngsters?

Glenn McGrath: Yes they are calling me uncle. I think I am at least 10 years older than the next eldest in the team and we have got a young team. It is good to be out here to seeing the young talents of Delhi and they should be more respectful. But no 'uncle'!

Gaurav Kalra: But has Gautam been nice to you? Has he taken you out for a Delhi meal yet or invited you as he is a Delhi boy?

Glenn McGrath: Everyone has been very nice. We have gone out a few times for lunch as well as dinner. We have got a good team bonding and I have got to know a lot of these young guys really well, so it has been a perfect start.

Gaurav Kalra: You must have had little bit of cricket against McGrath or must have seen Australia play but suddenly he is there in your dressing room. What has that been like?

Gautam Gambhir: I think it is a fantastic feeling having a legend like him in the dressing room. He can share his experiences that can help us grow as cricketers. It is fantastic to have him in our very own dressing room.

Gaurav Kalra: You have been coming to India and working with fast bowlers for so many years but now being with the Daredevils – is this a different role? What do you bring to the table and what have you being given as a brief with the Delhi team?

Dennis Lillee: I have been asked to become the cricket advisor and it is very different from the role that I play at the MRF Pace Foundation and that still goes. But this role is very much different – it is about observing and if anyone wants any advice, he can come to me. It is been interesting and I have been here right from the formation of the team. And I have been really impressed with the guys, particularly the young guys who have been working over a few days.

Gaurav Kalra: But how is it to work with someone like McGrath? Not many people expected him to play in form of cricket after he finished up and said that 'I'm done with cricket.' But all of a sudden he comes in. Now how do ensure that the knowledge that Glenn McGrath has gets through the system or is he too busy just having fun?

Dennis Lillee: Glenn's got a lot of knowledge and the young boys would be very, very silly not to make use of it. I was fortunate enough to do coaching in Australia when Glenn was a part of the system and see him evolve into a great bowler that he ended up, was probably the greatest in the world of all time. It was very nice of me to see that happen. But I can't in any way can say that I have much to do with it, except that in the founding years we had a lot to do with each other.

Gaurav Kalra: You always spoke when you were an Australian cricket about the intensity that the Australian cricketers bring to their cricket, the passion with which they play the game with. Do you feel in this league as well that there is intensity or is there an element of a being a little cosmetics?

Glenn McGrath: I think the team that will go through and win the competition, is the one who gels the best. And I think the young boys who will be in the team will make a difference to whether you win or lose. So, the senior players – the guys who have played a lot of international cricket can help.

Delhi is great that way as we got to know the young guys and they got to know us and they are not really scared of us, which is good and they feel that we are all part of the team together. I think we have gelled together well and that is a great sign. A lot of young guys have potential and it looks like they can quality cricketers in the future. There is experience too. So, I am expecting big things from the Delhi team.

Gaurav Kalra: There has been a lot of talks about which teams got it right and which ones got it wrong but the Delhi team wasn't being talked about so much because of the low profile cricketers that they bought. Do you think your team can go all the way?

Gautam Gambhir: It is not about the hype - it is not about low-profile or high-profile. Ultimately, it is about going out there and delivering at the ground. And the team that gels well will be the team that will plays well as a unit and you have to go out there and prove. I think, Delhi has all the capability and the ability to go out there and be one of the best sides in this tournament.

Gaurav Kalra: Are you with the batting? A lot of people talk about the fact that after Gambhir and Sehwag at the top, there is probably not that many impact players at the bottom?

Gautam Gambhir: We have got a decent batting line-up and we have got lots and lots of experience as well. And important thing is if we play to our ability and to our potential, we are one of the sides who can do well in this tournament.

Gaurav Kalra: Bowling combination has got an interesting mix. There is Mohammad Asif, who has said in quite a few interviews that he has modeled himself like McGrath and here he would be opening the bowling with McGrath. Moreover, there will be Shoaib Malik, Daniel Vettori, Ferveez Maharoof – it is a very good bowling attack but is it an attack that needs right combination as it goes on to the field of play?

Glenn McGrath: You have mentioned two guys – Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Malik are not there with the team at the moment. So, don't know how they work as yet but will get to know them and how they work. Hopefully, will get to know pretty quickly but I think in the team matches, the bowling is been pretty good.

With Maharoof there and also with Vettori, who has got one of the best off-breaks and runs per over in the World Cup just recently, so, he is an exceptional Twenty20 bowler, which a lot of people had said, would be a death of spin bowlers.

But I think, it has proved to be the opposite. So, I am very happy with the bowling lien-up we have got and there are a couple of young guys, who have got lot of potential and will be good to work with and will see how they come on to.

Gaurav Kalra: Can you please jog your memory back to late 70s when the Packer era began and there has been a lot of talk about how that was the turning point in cricket because it changed the way the administrators looked at the game. Do you see comparisons in the way that happened and the way it has happened now?

Dennis Lillee: Absolutely. Except that this is one that is being endorsed by the cricket community, whereas we were outcasts – we couldn't walk down the streets without people looking sideways and it was like we had committed a murder. In the end, it was the best thing to have happened to cricket. Cricket wouldn't be where it is today without that having happened because it was a total revolution of cricket.

There were certain similarities. I think, one thing that I can reflect back to then and now to the present in the context of what is happening here is the best of players and not stars from different teams and countries, who are all pulling together. And we found that during the world series cricket as well. We remember we didn't know what to do and that pulled us all together - players from different parts of Australia. Similar sort of a things here also whatever I have seen so far with the Daredevils team. The youngsters have a feel for each other. And in a team situation, to feel for each others success rather than your own that is half way to being successful.

Gaurav Kalra: Shane Warne thinks that it is better to give up on One-Day cricket completely and play just the Test matches and the twenty20 cricket. Are you on the same opinion as him?

Glenn McGrath: I am very much the traditional sort. And it is up to us to ensure that the Test cricket continues on forever and it is not affected too much by the T20. Obviously, One-Day cricket will be. As Shane has said to get do away with the One-Day cricket, but I think I will be disappointed if that happens. I hope there is still spot for that. But In think T20 has the potential to be too big and affect all forms of the game.

Hopefully, the ICC can find a schedule for the IPL once in a year and there are no international commitments in this period of this month and a half or two months. So that everyone can be involved in it and then go back and play international cricket. I hate to say that it will affect international cricket. But I think it is great for the players, for the spectators. It to be happening here in India, it can't help but be successful. So, I think, it is the future of cricket and to me as long as it doesn't affect Test cricket, it is fine.

Gaurav Kalra: Gautam, let me ask you about the approach of a batsman in twenty20 cricket. You are sitting with two legendary bowlers who would have adjusted to the T20 cricket or any form of cricket but you had such a successful T20 World Cup. Are you just thinking differently when you are playing T20 cricket? You think you have the license to attack someone like McGrath in T20 cricket but not perhaps so much in a One-day game or Test cricket?

Gautam Gambhir: Honestly speaking, in any form of the game, whether it is Twenty20, One-Dayers or Test cricket, if you are a opening batsman you look to give your team a good start, maybe you can have a look for 1 or 2 overs and then maybe you have that little bit of a freedom to really go after the bowling. You can really improvise a lot. That is basically one advantage that a batsman has in a T20 game. Otherwise, your job is to go out there and give your team a good start and that is what is very important in any form of the game.

Gaurav Kalra: But would you go after the bowling a lot more in twenty20?

Gautam Gambhir: See you might improvise much more in a T20 match than in a 50-over a side or in test cricket. You might develop certain sorts or target certain areas. That is one thing that changes in T20.

Gaurav Kalra: That is an interesting point from a batsman's point of view. But is it right to say that it will be a death of bowling or at least it is going to affect the way the youngsters think about cricket? A youngster might think 'Why should I become a bowler as they are all going after me and there is no reason to be a bowler. The sexy bit of the cricket is the batting.

Dennis Lillee: Doesn't history repeats itself? I heard this people talking about this 30 years ago when One-Day cricket came – they said that it will the death of the bowlers. But the good bowlers will adapt to any sort of cricket, even a 10-10 overs. Though, it is certainly more in favour of a batsman and there is no doubt about that, but a good bowler will find a way. And that is why I am so keen to see this tournament (IPL). I am looking forward to see how the bowlers adapt to these kind of situations where it is bit of an advantage for a batsman to go out there and hit. We will see who the very good bowlers are.

Gaurav Kalra: Do the administrators need to think more about the bowlers because it is not like once you get the fifty, you have to leave the ground. But you can actually go and get the 100. But if you are bowling well then also you have got to stop at four overs.

Glenn McGrath: It is a batsman's game, no doubt about that. I think we have got batsmen who are running the game as well. But then again, you have plan for Test cricket, you have plan for One-Day cricket. The guys now will have to think of a plan for T20 as well. In Test cricket, you go for 2 runs per over. For me, in ODI cricket, I try to keep it 4 ort less runs an over. Obviously, here you have to convince yourself to give away 7-8 runs an over. So, it is about different mind-set.

And I think, this is where the execution is going to be very important. The guys who can execute different types of deliveries better, can have more success. I think, you have to have more deliveries in your armory – more slower balls, more variations. So, if anything, bowlers can become better bowlers because they can't afford to bowl a bad ball. So, who know? It can be a positive for the bowlers.

Gaurav Kalra: Like if you bowl a no ball, it will be a free hit the next ball.

Glenn McGrath: A little bit easier for the batsmen.