England spinner Ashley Giles admitted on Monday that he had come close to ending his international career because of press and public criticism.
Giles was one of the stars of England’s third Test and 3-0 series’ clinching victory over New Zealand inside four days at Trent Bridge here on Sunday.
He played a valuable supporting role with the bat, making 36 not out in a match-winning stand with centurion Graham Thorpe, to follow his unbeaten 45 in the first innings.
And in between both knocks the 31-year-old Warwickshire left-armer took four for 46, his best Test haul in England.
But, in recent months in particular, Giles has been slammed for defensive bowling.
His ”negativity” has been contrasted with the attacking threat of ”mystery spinners” such as Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan.
Giles has also been branded a ”wheelie-bin” for his lack of speed in the field and held up as an example of all that is wrong with English spin bowling.
”I take great pride in playing for my country but there comes a time when, if you feel no-one wants you, you wonder why you do it,” Giles said.
”There are only so many times you can get knocked before it hurts.”
Giles, who has played 36 Tests, added what hurt most was being barracked by English crowds and fans.
”You expect it abroad. But even before you start bowling you hear people [in England] shouting ‘Giles you’re rubbish’. Sky TV even received an e-mail saying ‘what is the point of Ashley Giles’.”
”I’m not Muralitharan. I can only do what Ashley Giles does. At Trent Bridge I played two innings that were expected of me and I took wickets when conditions suited,” added Giles, whose 94 Test wickets have cost just over 40 runs apiece.
England’s four-wicket victory on Sunday was their sixth in seven Tests this year, following a 3-0 series triumph in the Caribbean.
But Giles said his failure to contribute greatly against the West Indies had also played on his mind.
”I think sometimes I can be too over-critical of myself. But I didn’t get too much opportunity in the West Indies. I only bowled 30 overs in the series.
”It was the seamers who did the job.” However, Giles said it was being a member of a winning side, captained by his friend Michael Vaughan, and the support of those around him that had kept him going.
”You don’t just want to give it away. This is a very special side,” Giles told reporters at the England team hotel.
”The guys were all genuinely happy for me because I had some success.”
England’s win at Trent Bridge had an amusing postscript for Giles. After the match New Zealand opener Mark Richardson, as has become traditional at the end of a Kiwi Test tour, challenged the slowest member of the opposition to a race across the outfield.
Richardson, himself no sprinter, duly appeared in a speed suit and Giles was put up to face him in what turned out to be a close contest.
”The five slowest guys all turned him down so it was left to the sixth slowest. I won by a head. But then again I have got a big head,” Giles said.
At Trent Bridge, Giles’s confidence received a further boost when he was included ahead of Gareth Batty as the sole specialist spinner in England’s one-day squad for the forthcoming series with New Zealand and the West Indies which starts later this month.
”I’m happy to be there and now I feel confident I can hopefully carry that into the one-dayers. It is always good to be involved in this squad.”
Giles rejected a sympathetic suggestion that spinners should be allowed to bend their arms.
”I’m not sure I could bowl like that. I’be be really fed up if a couple of guys came past me [into the England team] who were chucking it.”