New coaches worldwide

Seven of the current test playing nations have either got new coaches or will be getting one very shortly. Only New Zealand and South Africa continue without a change. The new men in charge with England, West Indies and Australia have already commenced work. In the waiting list are the four sub-continent nations, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Within a month or so they will be equipped as well.

John Buchanan of Australia was the first to make his intentions clear that he would quit after the World Cup. Australian style, like with most players the end was announced with the mission accomplished. A new coach Tim Nielson was appointed even before the World Cup. This ensured the smooth transition from one to another.

With Australia winning the trophy, Buchanan finished as the most successful international cricket coach ever. In fact his record would match with that of the best coaches in team sport. It is the attention to every detail, leaving no stone un-turned that has ensured success for the giant Australian coach.

An example of that is a bowling machine was carried around the Caribbean islands by the Australians. Buchanan explains in a recent interview “one of the things I understand about the West Indies is that when they say they are going to do something, they have every intention of doing it, but it may not necessarily happen at the time you want it to, or there will be something that works against happening. Coming into this tournament everybody said, right, every venue’s got a bowling machine, don’t worry about it. Well, one of things I was adamant about was that we needed to take our own bowling machine to the West Indies because it very much is a part of our training needs, and it is one of things we can then control”.

As it happened, it turned out that some venues had a machine, some didn’t have the required power, some didn’t have power leads. But Australia was never inconvenienced, their routine was not broken. It was more than that. Buchanan had even modified the machine so that it could be packed easily into the correct weights so that carrying it was not an issue. That is attending to detail.

Before the campaign Buchanan had analyzed the three departments of the game. Batting wise he had looked at the scoring shot percentage, which is the number of ball scored from an innings which roughly averaged 150 to 180 balls an innings, so that meant not scoring from 120 to 150 balls. The goal was to improve that by 5 to 10 percent which was realistic. On the bowling side, the dot balls per innings were in the vicinity of 50 to 55. As with the batting the goal was to increase the number of dot balls by 5 to ten per cent. In the fielding department Buchanan looked at the opportunities created, the catches, throws at stumps, diving saves and the numbers told him the team was successful about one in four times. So they worked to get up to one in three. More evidence of attending to detail.

Here is an example of building team spirit mental awareness, leading to mental strength. When on the island of St. Vincent, Buchanan took the team to a fort which concluded with a barbecue. The idea there was to absorb the purpose of the fort. What’s the purpose of a fort? The purpose of a fort is to keep things out that you don’t want in, but also keep things in that you value and treasure. And that was a theme during the World Cup. Keep the unimportant out and focus on what really matters. An area which the Aussies were near perfect.

These are just a few examples of John Buchanan’s efforts to build team excellence and ways that made him the successful coach that he was. Sri Lanka will look to get the best coach they can. The team has jelled into a strong outfit, but there will be heaps to do in the next four years.

A big well done to Tom Moody and an even bigger thank you as he assumes another coaching assignment. He proved to be the ideal for Sri Lanka. Let us look forward to the next coach’s continued good work.