Buchanan ready for train-the-trainer stint with Lankan coaches
The former Australia coach is still one of the top think tanks in International Cricket - Pic by Sameera Weerasekara
World renowned cricket coach John Buchanan who became a beacon in International cricket after he shared his know-how with the champion Australian side of 2003-2007, says he does not mind getting involved with Sri Lanka’s cricket on a short-term basis.
He said that since he retired as coach of Australia, he has not been looking at a long term assignment but, would not mind getting involved in a “train the trainer” programme in Sri Lanka.
Buchanan explained, “I finished my stint with the Australian side in 2007 for a reason, and I do not think I have the energy and the passion to coach another national side for a length of time. It’s too time consuming and, as a result, I will not be able to do the job properly. But, what I would be interested is being involved in coaching the coaches. Hypothetically, if Sri Lanka gives me a bunch of coaches whom it really likes to develop – may be women’s coaches, the ‘A’ team or in a similar capacity – involved in mental coaching, getting to understand how they coach and improving those skills. In fact, that is the area that I am involved with. I can certainly help that way.”
Talking about four-day Test cricket and Day-Night Test cricket, Buchanan had his own thoughts. He said, “I think the game needs evolving and it needs to change. But there is tradition and how the game has sustained itself. The anchor problems have to be considered along with the history of cricket. So, Test cricket should not be played for four days. It should never move away from the red ball Test cricket. The traditional five-day Test cricket should remain and has remained that way for the past 130 years.
“Now we have got the pink ball – which is the new format of the game. It’s like the T-20, a new format and the pink-ball cricket is a longer version of the day-night cricket. Pink-ball cricket is played in day-night conditions, which is different to the traditional format. So, it should be played as a different format of the game. Then, we had three formats, and now we have four formats of the game – we have two short versions of the game, One-day cricket and T-20 cricket, and now the traditional Test cricket and the day-night pink-ball version of the game,” Buchanan said.