What The Coaches Thought

With the World Cup over and the analysis of team and player performance underway by that dour group of men who move and shake their players, its interesting to review what the coaches have had to say in the washup.

Trevor Bayliss (Sri Lanka) - the outgoing outgoing Bayliss, who has handed the reigns to his assistant Stuart Law, believes that cricket is a journey and the Sri Lankan job part of his learning experience. If so, his experiences are going around in circles as he's returning to the NSW coaching position, a job he left to be the Sri Lankan coach. Typically, he points to the improvement during his watch and claims losing in the Final to have been a measure of success. His main concern is that Sri Lankan players are constantly distracted by outside influences which makes concentration on the task at hand difficult and that the administration and management of the side needs to improve. Sri Lanka had an excellent tournament and did most things right in the final, only to be chased down by two outstanding innings. Despite this, things aren't happy in their camp. Bayliss isn't the only departure. Captain Kumar Sangakkara, vice captain Mahela Jaywardene and the entire selection committee led by Chairman Aravinda de Silva have all stepped down. Perhaps de Silva could loan his sword to Andrew Hilditch.

Ottis Gibson (West Indies) - has said very little but what he has said has underlines his intention to have a new look West Indies squad developed which jettisons most of the aging stars and establishes opportunities for emerging players. Although backing Chris Gayle, he has said that the senior batsmen let the side down and didn't bat with responsibility. His intentions have been backed by the selectors in picking the squad for the Twenty20 international against Pakistan on April 21.

Phil Simmons (Ireland) - the former West Indian opener lost his "cool" as the news of the ICC's axing of the Associates broke over the cricket world. Simmons described the decision as "despicable", and "a dark day for cricket but a great day for greed and fear". His criticism of the ICC included the claim that Ireland had answered all the cricketing questions posed to their administration and players, had gained great TV ratings during the World Cup and had moved up to No 10 in the ICC rankings for ODI. The question the Irish and their officials want answered is what more does the ICC want? Simmons has congratulated India on winning the last "real" World Cup and claims future events will be like the American baseball world series and the winner will be the named champion of the world despite the rest of the world not being invited.

Javed Miandad (Pakistan - assistant) has accepted a role as the batting coach, still under the head coach Waqar Younis. The Pakistan Cricket Board have three times involved Miandad in the past but each time he has fallen away from the position. Ijaz Butt, the PCB Chairman has returned to the table to negotiate with his fellow board member after they fell out over how much Miandad was to be paid. Imagine Miandad or any Pakistani being concerned about what money was coming to them!

Gary Kirsten (India) - never short of an opinion, the Indian coach and a former South African opening batsmen, offered the opinion to his ex team mates that it was their fragile middle order which caused their early exit from the World Cup. What a genius! I'm sure no one else would have guessed that after SA went from 2-108 to 8-146. Middle order? Really? On the topic he's paid to discuss, India, he was very happy with the resilience that has found a home in all of his players and named the quarter final against Australia as the point at which the Indians finally believed in themselves. "From that moment I just got a real sense that within our unit that now we can actually believe we can win this (World Cup) because we can confront any situation," Kirsten said of the quarter final.

Corrie van Zyl (South Africa) - the departing coach of the oh so disappointing Sarth Efrikans claims that his side's sudden, massive capitulation to the men from the Land of the Long White Vowel was caused by the media because they keep using the C-word. "It's tough what they are going through. You guys [the media] really spin it big that they are chokers. It is not a nice word to be labelled. I understand opposition media using it to their advantage but the worry is when the South African media put it out there." Funny thing is, everyone else, including former coach Mickey Arthur blamed the players, specifically the middle order.

Waqar Younis (Pakistan) has made it clear that Pakistan did many things wrong in the World Cup. He believes his players allowed India to "overwhelm" them in the semi final, that they mistimed the use of PowerPlays, got their batting order wrong and had the wrong bowlers in combination. I wonder where those comments are heading? The skipper perhaps? Obvious then that Waqar has called for the dropping of wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, which while bizzare in the light of his comments, is not before time. Meanwhile, Afridi had to be talked into touring the West Indies, which must be the Gomer Pyle moment of the last week ... surprise, surprise, surprise!

Jamie Siddons (Bangladesh) - "Cut of the head and the rest will fall - take the captain out." Brave words even if playing at home but the task may not be so easy. Armed with his plethora of spinners, Siddons hopes to use his inside knowledge of the Australian fear of left arm spinners against them. Bangaldesh are an ever improving outfit but Siddons might need to do more than revisit time-weary theories about how to beat touring sides. One gets the impression a position at the Australian Centre of Excellence might be his main objective following the end of his contract in June.

Mickey Arthur (free agent) - Sarth Efrika have a soft middle order and Ponting should stay at No 3 are just two of the opinions offered but not sought from the man without a country.

John Wright (New Zealand) backed his players and their aggressive approach in the field, including the on field incident between Vettori and Fran du Plessis which boiled over to include Kyle Mills, who wasn't in the playing 11. "I like the aggression of the team, particularly in the fieldThat's important. We've got to play with passion and they're showing that. The odd thing happens. But that's international sport." Although pleased with his players attitude and efforts in the field, his concern through out the World Cup had been scoring enough runs.

Andy Flower (England) - Andrew Strauss and his future in ODI cricket is Flower's main concern. Despite the good form Strauss showed in the World Cup, there are doubts over whether it is in the best interest of Strauss or England for him to continue. A review of England's last six months of international cricket will begin immediately but Flower isn't talking up his own views. His main stated concern was that England played tentative cricket at the World Cup, playing like a team in fear of losing. Maybe they spent too much of the summer with Australia?

John Buchanan (former Australian coach) believes that Ricky Ponting has been let down by people in leadership roles around him, creating inordinate pressure on him which has shown in his batting slump and his behaviour. "I think there is a range of other people who relied on him to do more of the other work - building a team, building a culture, looking at selection - which are things that he has felt very personally involved with. But those things have been much bigger than he anticipated I think and he should not have been allowed to burden himself with it." Excuse me John, but aren't they the roles and responsibility of a captain?

Tim Neilsen (Australia) Tim said very little during the World Cup that made sense, which is at least consistent. A facts and figures man, he specialises in ignoring the patently obvious and supporting a implausible argument with feasible facts. So before the quarter final loss to India he claimed that it was India who were under pressure and not his side and it would be easier for the Australians to play on an Indian home ground than the home side. A nice swerve Tim which tries to avoid thousands of years of sporting experience. He should have been the Christians coach before a bout with the lions. He also threw up lots of facts and figures to prove history was riding on his side's back. Australia had beaten India more than the reverse in India. Australia had a massive advantage in the head to head with India in World Cup games. Yawn. A batting line up with three blokes out of form and a bowling attack where only one bloke had been effective under the conditions as we arrived in India with one bowler in form, one spinner with low confidence and the rest who were big on talk and tattoos but ordinary on the field. Give up the day job Tim.

Alan Butcher (Zimbabwe) has been more concerned with Zimbabwe's return to Test cricket, against Bangladesh, hopefully in August, than performance at the World Cup. It has been his long term goal to bring his side back to the big end of town. His attitude is refreshingly honest. "No doubt you might be wondering if we are going to be up for the challenge and the answer to that, honestly, is probably no. The only place to learn to play Test cricket is by actually doing that. There is no other place that can prepare you." Although Zimbabwe have played more than a hundred ODI's since they stepped down from Tests in Sept 2005, the goal has always been to come back to Tests. Although he has some established players with talent like Brendon Taylor and Tatenda Taibu, it is the development of new talent that he has his attention fixed on. Its hard not to admire his focus.