Ryan Campbell: still here

0:03Welcome to the Bear Essential podcast, where I will chat to the people who have contributed to the rich history of the Bayswater Morley Cricket Club, formerly known as the Bassendean Bayswater Cricket Club, established in 1946. My name is David Baird and my association with the club began in 1983, and over the years I've been a player, lower grade captain, president, secretary and club coach. Today I will be chatting with Ryan Campbell. Ryan played two one-day internationals for Australia in 2002, three international T20s for Hong Kong and represented Australia A. He played 98 first-class games for Western Australia. He played 75 first-grade games for Bayswater Morley, then had two seasons at Scarborough, followed by five at Joondalup. He is fifth in the all-time run scorers at Bayswater Morley.

0:49He has won two first-grade premierships and two one-day premierships with Bayswater Morley and one first-grade premiership with Scarborough. He has also won the Lawrence Medal for the fairest and best player in Bayswater Morley's first-grade team. He is winner of two first-grade batting aggregate and average awards, and has played for the Indian Cricket League, a precursor to the Indian Premier League. He's been captain coach of the Kowloon Cricket Club in Hong Kong, and been the Hong Kong national batting coach. He's also coached the Dutch national team, and is a county championship winning coach with Durham. Welcome, Ryan. Thanks for your time. Thanks for having me, David. Yeah, it's been a while, so nice to check in with all the Baysy lads.

1:35Yes, well, I'm talking to you, we might seem a little bit distant, but I'm actually talking to you from Perth, Western Australia, all the way to Durham in the UK. Yeah, the difference is quite a bit at the moment. It's getting dark at about 4 o'clock and it's bloody cold up here. I don't end it. Yeah, no, it's one of the things that I think I'll ever get used to. I miss Perth quite a bit and it comes to the weather, that's for sure. For sure. All right. It's sometimes under the impression Bayswater Morley recruited you and Tim Brookes, that is, out of Kalgoorlie. Whilst it's not completely incorrect, there's more to the story. Can you give us some background as to how he arrived at Hillcrest?

2:17Yeah, so I'm a Perth boy. Don't get me wrong. You know, mum and dad and I grew up in Balcata and, you know, went to school in Perth. But at the end of school, I kind of was a bit lost and didn't know quite what I should do. And, you know, my sister and brother-in-law were living in Kalgoorlie where, you know, Coy was very good at football and cricket. So Kalgoorlie is one of those towns that if you're good at sport, you know, you can fit right in. And obviously it's a massive gold mining community and, you know, the jobs and the employment on offer there can be quite cool.

2:58So me being, you know, played cricket but I also played footy, you know, I got invited to Kalgoorlie and I thought, you know what, this sounds like a great adventure and it's time to see how he goes. So, yeah, I moved up there and played cricket and football, really enjoyed my time in Kalgoorlie. I think it's just one of those amazing places that until you experience something like that, you don't quite have a real, you know, gist of what goes on up there. But like I say, luckily for me, I played both sports, So winter and summer, had a great job at the gold refinery up there in Kalgoorlie.

3:38And, you know, in the end of the day, I played all my junior cricket for North Perth, actually. So, you know, if I was to come back down, I would have thought that, you know, North Perth was going to be my location. But that all changed on a fateful day at the WACA. So, and that day being? The Country League Grand Final. You know, we were playing against Bunbury. We'd had a pretty good, you know, tournament so far. And I think we were a bit of the outsiders because Bunbury was always known as a really good hub of cricket in the country. And I had guys like Murray Goodwin and Glenn Deering and these sort of players.

4:20But, you know, we had myself and Tim Brookes, another guy called Paul Taylor, who was overseas from England, who had a pretty distinguished counting career. And I was lucky enough to open a batting and actually I've batted number four, I think. You know, made 50-odd and then we kept and we managed to pull off a great win. Little did I know there was a couple of old Basie lads lurking in the grass and having a look. Yes, and those gentlemen would have been? Well, it was John Moore and, of course, Ray Robbie. Yes. And then, you know, they were pretty quick to come and say hello after the game.

5:01I'll be honest, I thought, you know, Tim Brookes was obviously their number one priority. You know, the big redhead fast bowler who I think had done so well in the country area, but that's the honest, everyone's in search of fast bowlers. You need a good heavy of them, you know, to win competitions. And, you know, he obviously was, to me, was, you know, the standout and the number one priority. but then I think Ray saw something in me that maybe I could become, you know, the backup wicketkeeper. I think, I think Keely was about to leave Faisal Damoli and go somewhere else.

5:42So I think there was a young gardener who was going to take over as number one. And I think, you know, Ray saw me as maybe someone who could play second grade or maybe higher. Yeah, indeed, indeed. Now, you mentioned Tim Brookes, and when I chatted to Tim, a little while ago. He said, if you speak to Cambo, ask him this question. Did you sleep with your bat before the Country Week Grand Final of 1991? And Brooksy actually named the bat. So is he on point? Yeah, he's bang on it. Look, I was a youngster and I felt that my batting was a pretty big cog in the Camuli machine, so to speak.

6:26And I had failed the day before and I was a bit nervous and I was always about giving some love to my bats. I just think if you give a bit of love to your bats, maybe they'll come good for you. I slept the night with my grey nickels elite beside me and thankfully it came good for me the next day. Yeah, well, Brooksy got that right. He did say the grey nickels elite, so no, good stuff. Look, in 1993-94, you were selected in the Australian Institute of Sports side and by 1995-96, you played your first game for WA as a specialist bat. There was a certain gentleman keeping you out of that wicket-keeping position for WA. Maybe he'd give us an insight into the battles you had to get into that Shield side.

7:09Yeah, well, the facts were I got sent to the Cricket Academy as, at the time, the second keeper behind Tim Zura. And, you know, I guess I just thought that I was going there to work hard and hopefully prepare myself to maybe take over from Tim one day. But at that, I received a knock on the door while I was there and there was a geek with big ears looking at me thinking, hey, who are you, mate? And he introduced himself as Adam Gilchrist and, you know, you can call me Gilly, but I'm coming to Perth. You know, I've been recruited and basically I'm going to keep and be the number one wicking in WA.

7:53And, you know, that obviously, one, took a lot of thumbs up, Adam Gilchrist, because he's just a great person and wanted to have that conversation with me face-to-face. But secondly, it obviously put a spanner in the works of what I was thinking I was going to do because I just felt that I had to be a wiki to play for WA. And we all know that if there's one wiki and you're not here, it can be a lonely road, so to speak. But Rod Marsh, my coach, had always said to me that my batting was going to be good enough. And I had never opened the batting before for anyone. So I was a middle-order batter.

8:33Yes, I was a bit of a dasher. But Rod opened the batting with me in a game against England when we played two games against England, two one-day games. And the second one, I opened the batting and I made 60 off not many balls and got people talking. And, you know, Rod pulled me aside and said, look, I've got it. You're going to be an opening batter. I've just always not been sure where I was going to put you. But now I can tell you, you're an opening batter and you're going to go for it and maybe change the game. I thought, mate, what are you on about? But he saw something.

9:14The funny thing was, the hardest thing I had to convince everyone was the guys at Basel to Morley. Bruce Reid thought I was a middle-order batter and I had to bat four for us, whereas Bret Mulder, when he filled in as captain, thought, no, you can open the batting for me. I don't mind that. So there was a bit of argy-bargy back at the club. until finally Reedy said, look, you're going to just be battling me the whole time so you might as well just be an opener and be where it goes to. And, you know, thankfully, I was lucky enough to play, you know, in my first probably five years for WA, opening the batting with Mike Huffey and, you know, forced my way into the batter and, you know, the keeping, I guess, came later when Gilly got picked for Australia.

10:00So that takes us to 95-96. you made 900 runs at 53 for Bayswater Morley. You won the Lawrence Medal, which we know is the fairest and best player at Bayswater in the first grade. The club won the first grade premiership and you contributed with a very handy 97 in the semi-final and 89 and 18 in the final. You also managed to take one for none off one over in the grand final. Often guys talk up their other skills. You want to tell us who that one for none was and how it came that you snuck an over in? I'll be honest, I can't. It could have been Slattery or someone like that, but I'm not 100% sure who I got out. But the thing was, I had always hammered on to Snads to give me a bowl.

10:44For some reason, I don't know why. And that year, Jo Angel had been talking about his super slow ball and he called it the secret squirrel, where he basically put his fingers very wide and ran in and it came out slower and all that sort of stuff. And, you know, we were going the last over of the day and for some weird reason Nance said you know what you can bowl it take your pads off go and I yeah ran in and tried to bowl fast which I was like I was better off spinning I was a medium pacer but I did that and then I thought to myself you know what I'm going to bowl this and I did and it floated out and I think he edged it to gully or something you know to take the wicket obviously I went nuts I wanted to keep bowling the next day but I had to finish my over but Snads was pretty quick to put me back behind the stump.

11:37But, yeah, it was a good win because I think it showed again that Bayswater, our team, always came first and everyone contributed and the fact that we could win premierships consistently was a pretty cool part to be a part of. Yeah. Talking in that premiership mode, in 1997-98, you won another first-grade batting award, led into the 1998-99 season, which was a wonderful season for the club. which saw it win another first-grade premiership and a one-day premiership, which people sometimes forget a little bit about. You made 65 in the four-day final and 52 not out in the one-day final.

12:18Can you remember, firstly, the one-day final? Because that was quite a spectacular game in the sense it didn't last very long and you played against your opening partner, Mike Hussey. You wiped off the runs very quickly. I can. I remember very clearly that I should never have won the man of the match award because I think Bret Mulder had bowled unbelievably well to put us in such a position that we didn't need a lot and, you know, that was our strength. Our bowling attack was unbelievable and, you know, I was lucky enough, when you're chasing a small score, I was never going to do anything but try and put the game out of reach of Wanneroo within the first 10 overs and, you know, some days, you know, you get them and I definitely got them fast that day But like I say, when I look back on my career, I always look back at did I contribute in finals?

13:17Did I help get us there? And then did I stand up on the big occasion? Because I think that's the test of players and to make contributions in all the finals because that year also, WA won the Sheffield Shield as well. So I was very drunk for quite a few occasions that year. It was a celebration. I got very good at it. Well, not a bad thing to be good at. Look, you moved to Scarborough the following season and won a flag with them. What precipitated the move to the coast? Yeah. Okay, so I'm going to be very honest here because this is something that I look back on with regret pretty much my whole career.

13:58The facts were, Betty, that after winning everything for Bayswater and for WA, I was looking for a new challenge. I really wanted to be captain, and I think Bayswater at the time didn't think I was quite ready for that, mainly because I was away so much and coming back and forth, they wanted a more consistent sort of captain. I'll also be really honest that I didn't really get on that well with the coach, Noel Knight, and that's no disrespect to Noel, but the way that he went about training and stuff, Mate, I was a full-time, obviously, WA professional cricketer who worked so hard during the week.

14:46You know, I remember days of coming on a Thursday after having a massive week and running until like 7.30, 8 o'clock and just thinking to myself, and I spoke to these guys, you know, the leadership group saying, mate, I can't just keep coming to training and just be running all hours after the workload that I'm going through. And I think we started to have a few differences of opinions And, you know, in that semi-final, for instance, I batted first. And then I think we had the opposition six foot 50 chasing the loss. And we were home. But also on that second day, the WA team were being welcomed.

15:28I think it was the West Coast Eagles game. And, you know, we were going to go around with the shield and this, that and the other. And basically the hierarchy refused for me to go because they felt that me fielding at six foot 60 was more important than me going for a celebration. And at the time, I just got angry and I didn't really, I guess, think about it too much. I was probably a little bit hot-headed at the time. And like I say, I always wanted to go to club cricket. You've got to remember now, we never missed a game. Like, Daddy, I don't reckon I can ever remember missing a game after coming back from WA, saying I'm too tired or anything like that.

16:10So I wanted to always contribute. And if I wasn't 100% happy, then I just felt I was just going to be a liability and maybe the time was right for a change. And, mate, it broke my heart, I'll be honest. And the funny thing is, and this is, again, in hindsight and now I'm a coach and all this sort of stuff, I have always tried to replicate what Bayswater had and what I had at Bayswater with everything, with every environment I've been in ever since. So, you know, I guess I'm leaving if I had my time again. I wish I could have worked it out and stayed there. I can say at the time, when I was a bit emotional at times, you know, I couldn't see the other end of that.

16:56And, you know, I walked away. And at the end of the day, I also, yes, I won at Scarborough and then I went back to Joondalup, which theoretically was North Perth and kept them there and, you know, led them to their first one-day title and stuff like that, which was pretty cool for me. But, yeah, I still sit back and live with a bit of regret about that decision. Fair enough, fair enough. So your time at Hillcrest, there was lots of great players there. You've mentioned a couple of them in Bruce Reid and so on and a lot of characters. Any favourites amongst the whole crew that you came across at your time at Hillcrest? Well, I love the off-field people, you know, Angry and these sort of guys that just made the club what it was.

17:37There's Richard Scrow who we, you know, obviously our hearts break when he lost his battle with cancer and things like that. But, you know, I loved, obviously Booksy was my closest mate, but, you know, people like Nick Martel who just added to our club and the way they went about it. I loved playing with everyone, really, because everyone brought their own story and were different characters. And it was a wonderful place to be. Like I say, you know, the Flood East and all those volunteers, like I say, yourself and John Moore, they just gave up everything for that club.

18:18It was brilliant to see. And like I say, I was very privileged to be a part of it. Yeah, thank you. You played international cricket for both Australia and Hong Kong. How enjoyable, obviously enjoyable, but frustrating was it in terms of timing, one being behind Adam Gilchrist and the other probably just missing out on the T20 revolution that's hit us because, again, I think you were one of the first guys with the ramp shot, as it's called now. And, yeah, I just wonder what your thoughts are. Look, when I look back, of course, I would have loved to have played more for Australia. But Gilly was probably one of the, well, if not the greatest wicketkeeper batsman of all time.

19:00And, you know, he played 96 test matches in a row. He just never got injured. He was always hardy and, you know, I guess I missed my ride. So, yeah, it would have been nice to have a little run at it just to see if you were good enough. You know, the games that I played, I felt I did really well in. But you just, you always knew that you were not going to be there for a while. So, that was frustrating. But I'll be honest, the biggest, I guess, sadness of my career is watching T20 nowadays. The franchise world, I think, was absolutely perfect for me. You know, opening the batting, being a wicketkeeper, scoring fast. I would have loved Big 20, playing more and more.

19:42And, you know, I played a couple of games, the WA, you know, towards the end. And then I think I went to India once just to play once I'd retired. But, yeah, I sit there and watch. You know, I've got to shake my head with the amount of money that these guys are making now. My wife actually mentions to me quite often that her life could be a lot different if I hadn't been a bit younger and fitter. But, yeah, it is. But, again, you can't leave it to regret. I literally love being a part of the game of cricket. It's given me, I think I'm over 30 years now in the professional game and, you know, I've seen some sights. I've been to World Cups.

20:23I've, you know, lived in England and the Netherlands and Hong Kong and all sorts of places. So, yeah, I really can't learn too much about anything. Yeah, no, no, that's fair. It leads on to my next question. To be honest, when you were 20 or there or thereabouts, if someone had said to me, oh, Ryan Campbell will make a career coach, I'd have been surprised, sceptical. You just seemed like a lad who liked to whack the ball, not worry about too much else. How do you get into coaching? And what pathway sort of resulted in you? I mean, you've been at Kowloon, you've coached the Dutch national team, Durham to a county championship. How did that all come about? I'll be honest. I wasn't going to be a coach.

21:04That was the honest truth. You know, towards the back end of my career, I was very heavily involved in the media. I thought that was my direction. It was going to, you know, basically I did what? I was postcard WA. I ended up hearing, you know, Nova's 23.7 in the morning with Nathan and Nath. I was, you know, I had a business. I had always, I had done my coaching degrees, just honestly, just as a backup. And I thought, you know, I like the game and I'll just keep doing it. But when I retired from cricket, I actually retired quite early and I was still in the best form of my life. I think I made 100 two games before, but I had just got to the point where I'd almost had enough.

21:51And for me, getting away from the game and how I wasn't going to miss it was literally staying away from it. And that's why I was so busy with everything else. As it turned out, people kept asking me, could I have a hit with me or could I do something with their team? And, you know, it just sort of started coming. And I kept saying yes to a few little things. And I got asked to come up to Hong Kong for just a week by a guy called Charlie Burt, who was a national coach. And he loved what I had added to the squad and helped the way I helped. And, you know, he rang me about two months later and said, mate, there's a job up here.

22:33that is just so perfect for you. You'll be the head coach of Kowloon. You'll be their assistant coach of the national team. It would be unbelievable to have you. And, you know, at the time, I reckon I was ready for an adventure. I was about to be 40. I was single. I just thought, you know what, I'd been in Perth my whole life and, yes, I've still got all these things going on, but the facts were and the truth of the matter was I'd missed the game and it was probably sort of pulling at my heartstrings. And like I say, I thought to myself, you know what, why not? I'm going to go on a six-month adventure and if I like it, I like it. If I don't, I don't.

23:15And that six months has led to me never returning to Perth, basically. It just sort of, you know, I was lucky enough to help Hong Kong reach two World Cups while I was there. And then the Dutch came a-calling and I've taken them to World Cups and then Darwin came a-calling. So it's just been one of those things that I don't know if I'm any good at it, to be honest, But people seem to ask me, and I enjoy helping. So, yeah, so far, so good. Yeah, excellent, excellent. Now, look, 2022, you had a major health scare, and maybe you can give us some detail. And what does that do in relation to how you approach your cricket, your coaching, and life, really? Yeah, so in 2022, I'd just been to New Zealand, and I literally had gone home back to Perth or to see Mum and Dad because I hadn't seen them for ages.

24:05And then came home to the Netherlands, got on a plane pretty much two or three days later and went to a theme park called Bewilderwood, which now what I'm going to say is I have no memory of what I'm talking about. So everything from now on, as soon as I got on that plane to go to the Netherlands, from the Netherlands, I can't remember anything else. So basically I went to Bewilderwood with my family. I was holding my daughter's hand that she wanted to go on a slide and I pretty much laid down and well, without being morbid, I laid down and died. And I had a cardiac arrest, which I was very lucky to put my head on a four-year-old little girl's foot and her mum, who was standing next in line, had literally just finished a CPR call.

25:00And she went to work and brought me back. And then over the space of seven days, From all reports, I probably died a number of times. I kept coming back for some reason. I tell my wife that because I had too many things to do. But she went through hell and back, you know, looking after two kids and trying to go into the hospital every day. She was told that it was probably an end-of-life event. But she didn't give up hope and she was incredibly brave and I'll always, you know, cherish what she did for me. And for some weird reason, on the seventh day, I was awake and I had no recollection of what happened.

25:50In my memory, I had dreamt that I had been kidnapped and taken to Bali and been filled full of heroin and they had stolen everything and I was explaining this to my wife that I needed an age test and look at all the puncture marks in my arm. I don't know what they've done to me. And she had to literally sit there and explain to me, well, well, take a breath. Okay, it's okay. This is what's happened. But, you know, she, over the course of the next few weeks, she sort of filled me in. But I guess the original question, what has that done to me?

26:30I know for a fact that my family will always come first. They're unbelievable, what my wife did, but also my two kids. But it also showed me that I love this game as well and I wanted to be a part of it. And I wanted to make sure that whenever I do something in the game of cricket, I'm going to do it my way and I'm going to just do it. And if I fail, it's my way. But if I do it well and be a part of it, hopefully everyone gets enjoyment out of that and I can improve young players and get them to reach their goals.

27:11So it's, you know, it's probably unrealistic to say, oh, I almost went to heaven, which I'd probably go the other way, let's be honest. But I think if you say I'm going to live every day as if it's my life, I think that's unrealistic. But my wife and I make sure that, you know what, we don't deal with dickheads anymore. We're very short on that. The things that we want to miss, we miss. We try and say yes a lot more. You know, we're all guilty of it as parents that, you know, it's like saying no, but we kind of try and say yes as much as we can.

27:54And, you know, like I say, we're going to – I don't know why, Betty, but I'm still here and I'm going to try and make sure that I really enjoy whatever I have. That's a great message. That's a great message. Ryan, it's been a pleasure to catch up and thank you for your time and all the best with what winter you get and in the next county season. And maybe someday we'll see you back in Perth. - Thanks, Betty. It's been great to catch up on a few old stories, bud.