It was the Northamptonshire coach, David Ripley, who came up with the idea that Monty Panesar should spend this winter in Australia. If it seemed a risky move to send a man with well-documented mental health problems, kept in check by a robust support network, way out of his comfort zone then, listening to him talk, it is seeming an inspired idea.
The primary reason for his southern summer was to get revolutions in his troublesome left shoulder (in another bid to rouse his dormant elite-level career) playing grade cricket and coaching youngsters at Campbelltown-Camden just outside Sydney. But he has also trained with the Big Bash team Sydney Thunder, and is speaking from Brisbane, where Cricket Australia are tapping into his knowledge of taking wickets – and winning matches – in India to help the batsman Matt Renshaw and spinner Steve O’Keefe before their tour next month. He is pleased with the state of his shoulder, and his bowling; professionally, it is proving a fruitful jaunt. He has taken to coaching with glee and describing his method, he is calm and lucid.
“I’ve really enjoyed it,” says Panesar, who took his Level 3 coaching course last year. “I’ve done the age-groups at Campbelltown, with the responsibility to run net sessions with a group and one-on-one stuff. And then the chance to work with elite cricketers came up. It’s the same really: whoever you’re coaching it has to be fun, and you need to be creative and you have to know the right times to be hands on, hands off, just observe for a bit, don’t say anything, and then other times step in. You have to be natural and fluid and just adapt to different scenarios.”
More importantly, Panesar – introspective and thoughtful, both about his craft and life – sounds happy. He has visited Australia many times, but this has been a step into the unknown. He is living with a couple (he has offered to don the high-vis and volunteer with their traffic control business, but to no avail). It is no surprise to hear he has brought those he is close with, such as his mentor Neil Burns, the former Leicestershire wicketkeeper, the hypnotherapist Peter Gilmour, and Kieron Vorster, who helps with his fitness, closer. “I never realised how hard organising Skype meetings could be with a time difference like this,” he jokes. The group has grown, too. Steve Waugh introduced him to Errol Alcott, the former Australia physio, and Panesar beams when saying “he gives my body another 30 Tests.”
A plan was hatched to prevent Panesar becoming dependent on the pills – which he had taken erratically – prescribed to help with his mental health issues. Like Graeme Fowler before him, he has developed a method of his own, it appears to be working, and his disarming honesty on the topic, at times leaving pauses so pregnant they would make Pinter proud, is testament to quite how effective – again, like Fowler – he could be in his role as a PCA mental health ambassador.
“We’ve all worked together to create activities which will substitute the medication,” he says. “Stuff like yoga, mindfulness, fitness, a bit of hypnotherapy. And now I feel really great in that regard. Sometimes it’s just as simple as going away and doing a physical activity, or going and having a conversation with a person you trust. The medication is good for a while but I don’t think long term it’s a good thing – it makes you a bit more down, like you’re in a box. You don’t feel yourself.”
It is for exactly these reasons that, for much of the three years since he last played for England, it has felt downright irresponsible to call for Panesar’s reinstatement. He has been fighting bigger battles. While that remains the case, he refuses to give up. The aim of his Australian sojourn is to get him back in a state – physically and mentally – to play county cricket this summer. In 2016, he played three games without great success for his original county, Northants, after ill-fated spells at Sussex and Essex. He has been in contact with Ripley, who has invited him to Northants for a trial upon his return, but is making no guarantees.
“He said don’t limit your options to just us, look at other counties, see if others are interested,” says Panesar. “When you come back, we would need to see a drastic improvement in your bowling, sustained good levels of match fitness. Obviously youngsters did well for them last year, so the opportunity may not be there. But they still said: ‘Come over during the pre‑season, have a go, and see where it takes you.’”
His agent has sent letters to other counties but, as yet, no offers have been made. He is 35 in April and while signing Panesar would undoubtedly be a risk, his case may be strengthened by the minor revival enjoyed by county spinners in 2016 and the lingering memory of just how good he once was; indeed, even three-quarters of peak Panesar would still be one of the finest spinners in the land. Gareth Batty playing Tests at 39 cannot have hurt, either. What did hurt was watching England in India.
“I watched bits,” he says, “but there were times when I couldn’t even watch. Part of me wanted to be there. And then I’d think: ‘Man, I’ve missed out on such a valuable opportunity because I couldn’t get myself fit.’ Another tour missed. That makes you a bit sad, and then you think: ‘I’m switching it off, not watching’. It’s out of my hands. If I had been fit I would have had a chance. I want to make sure I get my shoulder right, get fit, all that stuff. It’s frustrating, but you have to move away from that.
“I don’t know what it is,” he says, of his desire to play international cricket again. “It’s like I’m taking a drug for it. Some days my body aches and hurts, and I still get up and go to the gym in the hope of getting back. It’s just in me. I’ve got to do it, I just want to play for England again. I will keep going until … I don’t know … Until I can’t do any more. I will keep fighting to get there.”
Such yearning and determination is as admirable as it is optimistic because, as Ripley told him, he simply must bowl better. “I feel like I have that fizz and energy back, and the coaching is helping,” he says.
Australia has been central in Panesar’s career. Three months before his Test debut in India in 2006, he was playing in Adelaide. In the unforgiving 2006-07 Ashes series, Adam Gilchrist hit him for 24 in an over in Perth (“People won’t stop talking about that!” ), while the 2013-14 tour, another 5-0 whitewash, was “a very tough period for me”. Now here he is, helping the national team. “I think they have a chance in India,” he says, all optimism again. Australia might just be helping Monty, too.