HIKING through state forest in Queensland with the bustle of city life a million miles away. Put like that, it sounds quite nice. Well, “nice” isn’t a word I would use to describe our recent Boot Camp experience in the Bush. As an exercise in taking 25 cricketers out of our comfort zones, it succeeded big time.
I was very apprehensive beforehand and with good reason. The SAS guys in charge pushed us to the limits. For those four days we had little food or sleep and no contact with the outside world. They referred to us as numbers, not names. There were no luxuries, such as deodorant, showers or shaving equipment.
The first day paints the picture. After being dropped off on the outskirts of Beaudesert, 50 miles or so from Brisbane, we split into groups and began with a few push-ups and loosening exercises. The soldiers wanted to stamp their authority straight away and started to bark out orders.
We were made to carry 20kg jerrycans full of water in each hand for about five miles, some of it up hills with gravelly tread, making it difficult to grip. We also had to lift the cans on to stretchers on our shoulders. The only way was to work as a team, which was the point of the whole exercise.
After a small lunch of tinned food, the next task was to push cars and trucks in gravel. By the time we finally set down in camp about nine or ten hours after the start, we were shattered and the smell of body odour was starting to get overpowering. We pitched up without cover, opened our sleeping bags and started to crash.
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Two hours later, and right out of the blue (or I should say black), two 180-decibel bombs dropped to wake up the whole camp in fright. There were snakes in the area, so we had to move. And we had to do it on foot.
Eventually we settled, only to be told a couple of hours farther on that we needed to find yet another spot to sleep. We had maps and compasses, but in the dead of night it was almost impossible to work out where we were supposed to be going. I reckon we settled down at 2 or 3 in the morning — and we were up again at 6.
Over the next three days we were given all sorts of challenges and tasks. We simulated a hostage situation and at one point had to shoot each other at point-blank range. We were only firing blanks, of course, but the pistols were real and it was still a weird, unsettling experience. On another day we abseiled down a sheer, 80-metre drop.
Then, Stuey MacGill and I had to give a talk on leadership. It sounds simple enough, but there was a twist. If it wasn’t considered professional enough, the rest of the group would be punished while we watched them being put through agony. I don’t know about Stuey, but I really felt under pressure. Fortunately we were OK.
If it had been an episode of Survivor, I would definitely have been voted off first or second. Stuey was as bad; what is it about spinners? But some of the others coped really well and Justin Langer and Mike Hussey were excellent. Glenn McGrath was in his element as a boy from the Bush. He would have stayed, given the chance.
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I must admit I was pretty high up the whingeing stakes. I think it was at the end of day one when I just screamed out. I had come halfway around the world and all I’d learnt was that I’m not cut out to be a soldier. Surprise, surprise. I think we could all have guessed that.
At one point they gave me a little bit of cheese to try to cheer me up and I don’t think I’ve tasted anything nicer in my life. And going through something as tough as that together will definitely hold us in good stead. We shared the pain, and there was a lot of pain to share. Maybe in a few weeks we will even start to laugh about it.
A military-style atmosphere provided a different way of looking at the same things. The one-in, all-in mentality was so important. Although cricket is a team game, it is played by individuals with scope to do our own thing. Here, communication and listening were important. That is the message that was reinforced.