As I was leaving the ground at Canterbury after another one-day defeat, I was approached by a journalist for an interview.

He asked me a wellmeaning but fairly ludicrous question: "Did I think there might be something fundamentally wrong with Sussex's one day cricket?"

The cynic in me was desperate to reply with something like: "I don't know why you should ask that considering our rather brilliant results recently."

Instead, I instructed the sensible side of my head to give a fairly standard, sportsman's answer full of phrases such as "you can be sure that whatever the problem is, the boys are committed 110 per cent to trying to sort it out," and "it's not for lack of effort," etc.

Is it just me, or do post-match radio and TV interviews make everyone else who watches them want to cower on the sofa and cringe?

If I had my way, I'd ban them. Having experienced various aspects of the media in both my home and working life, I know how important producers deem these interviews to be.

I once worked for a radio station covering a football match between two giants of English football: Aylesbury v Aldershot.

I was instructed to make sure I recorded the post-match reactions from some of the players and management.

After a fairly dire game, none of the players wanted to talk, fine by me, but the losing manager was able to offer me his priceless thoughts.

His team were "gutted" by their loss (you don't say) and they had one or two things to work on at the training ground.

When I asked what they were, he said he could tell me but then he would have to shoot me. Despite this rather droll answer, I deleted and did not file the interview as I didn't think it added anything to the story of the day.

I don't blame the journalist. He is trained to ask about the feelings of the player, even though the viewer or listener knows full well that he will be feeling "delighted" if he has won and "disappointed" if not.

I don't blame the player or manager who answers the questions which are often banal and can be answered best with a "no" or "yes".

I was once interviewed on Sky TV having just come off the field when Sussex had bowled Surrey out very cheaply (those were the days!). It went something like this:

Interviewer: "Well, you must be absolutely delighted that you've bowled Surrey out for 120 on such a flat wicket. You all bowled jolly well didn't you?"

Me: "Yes we did rather"

Interviewer: "And I see you're opening the batting?"

Me: "Yes I am."

Interviewer: "Well you'd better go and put your pads on then."

End of interview! My favourite moment, however, came last year when Mushtaq was giving one of countless interviews during his amazing season.

We had won the game after one of the senior players had been dropped and Mushie was asked by a journalist: "Do you feel that the selectors and you have been vindicated by the result of this game?"

Mushie replied: "I don't think the Press are vindictive. They can write what they want."

They certainly can, if only they didn't have to interview us at the end of games.