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Back in the day he was known as a master-sledger — an ultra competitive wicketkeeper who could psyche batsmen out with his sharp remarks from behind the stumps.

These days Ian Healy is taking it easy.

The 41-year-old Australian, who holds the world record for the number of dismissals, says he can’t even remember what it was like to be in the thick of a full-on battle in the middle.

Healy relinquished his place in one of the most successful Test teams of all time in 1999 after a career spanning 119 Test matches.

Now he says he only plays a couple of times a year, and it's mostly just a social thing.

Coming from one of the lynchpins of an Australia side that took competitiveness to a new level this must be tongue in cheek.

But Healy, speaking at the National Centre before his sides 83-run defeat against South Africa on Monday, insisted it's a different ballgame altogether these days.

“There's no rivalries. It’s just outstanding to catch up with everyone. I can’t even remember what it was like to be seriously competitive. I don't think you'll see any sledging or anything.

“You never know it might come out when we get out on the pitch and the competitive spirit takes over but I would bet against it.”

Even watching the current crop of Aussie players let the Ashes slip between their fingers for the first time in nearly 20 years, didn't cause him too much consternation.

“I was in the States so I did’'t watch that much of it apart from online. I didn't have a problem with it, though, that's part of life.

“We won a lot of matches against England but we were always capable of losing them. There were no illusions in my mind that we would never get beaten by them again.”

Healy’s Australia dominated England throughout his ten-year career and he still chalks that first Ashes victory in 1989, when the Aussies regained the urn after six years, as one of his greatest achievements in cricket.

“That and beating the West Indies in ‘95 when they hadn’t lost for 15 years. In the early days our toughest matches were against West Indies, later on it was probably South Africa.”

Looking at the West Indies now - practically bottom of the pile and barely capable of scraping a win against anybody — it's hard to envisage that it was only just over ten years ago that they dominated world cricket so comprehensively.

“There's lessons to be learned everywhere. Things change very quickly. I think once the personnel changes, if you haven't built depth and you haven't built experience, then you have problems.

“It's going to happen to Australia when they lose Warne (Shane) and McGrath (Glenn), when they'll probably lose Hayden (Matthew) Langer (Justin) and Gilchrist (Adam) at the same time.”

Healy doesn't see Australian cricket as suffering the same dramatic downturn as the West Indies, but he does admit that they may have to settle for a spell of being 'just normal'.

One guy that he is certain is irreplaceable is the master leg-spinner Shane Warne.

Keeping to Warne, says Healy, was one of the joys of his career.

“It was a delight, it was my favourite pastime to see him work things over from day one. As a leg spinner doing such a valuable job on the first day and then slowly destroying teams as the Test wore on.

“His impeccable accuracy was something to behold. I could always pick him - whether I could stay in line and watch it off the pitch was the challenge.

“I was confident enough in my own abilities, but I must admit I had a couple of sleepless nights going into day five of a Test.

“If it’s Brian Lara or Sachin Tendulkar and you miss a stumping it can cost you the match. You need to take those early opportunities.”

Despite those nervous moments in the spotlight when the master spinner was working his magic, Healy is happy to have had a front-row seat for his emergence on the world cricket scene — his mystery ball which bamboozled Mike Gatting in the Ashes 1993 — Warne’s first appearance on English soil.

“I'd seen him bowl bigger turning deliveries and balls with more drift, but that was just a perfect balance.

“It was just a beautiful combination of all the skills of leg-spin bowling - and it changed his life.”

Though somewhat overshadowed by the flamboyant leg-spinner, as inevitably the careers of all Warne's contemporaries have been, Healy's decade at the top was studded with momentous individual achievements.

The most momentous of those came in Rawalpindi on October 4, 1998, when Healy caught Pakistan all-rounder Wasim Akram from the bowling of Colin Miller to claim his 356th Test scalp - a new world record.

“I didn’t really appreciate the significance of it at the time. It felt kind of like an Australian record because I had beaten Rod Marsh (another legendary Aussie keeper).

“It was a very reachable milestone and I think the record I set (395 dismissals) is going to be reachable.

“I don't expect it to stand forever — Boucher (South Africa keeper Mark) and Gilchrist (Healy’s replacement in the Aussie side Adam) are close.

“But it was outstanding to go out on the top of that list.”

Not bad for someone who never expected to play for his country and was shocked to even be considered for selection.

“I didn’t even have a clue that I was ever going to play for Australia.

“If you’d asked me a minute before I was selected I wouldn't have even thought I was ever going to play.

“When they called, I thought it was a joke.”

From that surprise selection for the 1988-89 tour of Pakistan to his final Test against Zimbabwe in '99, Healy missed just one Test for Australia.

After a career like that, maybe he's earned the right to take it easy at the Classic this week.

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