Hunting for cricket coaches

The past few weeks has been a busy one for Test cricket nations with most of them trying to get the best coach in the business to take charge of their respective national teams.

Any coach who gets the nod now will be guaranteed to stay on till the 2007 World Cup, which is seen as the last frontier in determining their future depending on how the country fares. Many of today's cricketing stars have also indicated that the World Cup would be their swansong.

Sri Lanka is one of the cricketing nations whose coach John Dyson has just finished his 20-month contract with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) at the end of the recently concluded tour to New Zealand. Dyson has flown back home leaving room for negotiations. His future with Sri Lanka cricket hangs in the balance.

But what was quite surprising and amusing was that one of the local Sunday newspapers (not ANCL) stated that Sri Lanka was showing interest in approaching former coach Dav Whatmore for the job when his interest totally lay elsewhere.

With due respect to Whatmore one must say that the reason given at the time by Sri Lanka cricket for not extending his contract was that 'he had run out of ideas' and that Sri Lanka cricket needed a fresh approach. How he came to figure once again in the stakes defies imagination.

Thankfully, an embarassing situation was doused when Whatmore decided to stay with Bangladesh cricket for another two years till the 2007 World Cup.

To quote BBC Sport: "Colombo-born Australian Dav Whatmore has not ruled out taking the India job in the near future and has had a get-out clause installed in his contract. Whatmore has made no secret he is interested in the India coaching job made vacant with the departure of John Wright.

Whatmore told BBC Sport: "The Indian board hasn't made a decision yet. When they do and whoever they have as their preference we will have to deal with that when it happens. I will have opportunities to pursue my career."

During his two stints as Sri Lanka coach Whatmore did a marvellous job in raising the standard of our cricket to international level so that we were able to erase the image of being referred to as underdogs and become worthy opponents to other Test-playing nations.

Even though Whatmore finished off with Sri Lanka cricket at the end of the 2003 World Cup in March, Sri Lanka continued to maintain its status as one of the top cricketing nations in the world through his successor John Dyson.

Not in the same style as Whatmore, Dyson, also a former Australian Test player had his own way of coaching the national side. Some did not like his approach and criticised him for his policies because not many understood what he was trying to do.

On the long run it was quite an effective one because Dyson was trying to get our cricketers to think and act professionally instead of being led by the hand at every turn as they had been done in the past.

Stan Nel, the Sri Lanka 'A' coach is also working on the same lines as Dyson. He stands a better chance of succeeding because the players under him are still on the fringes of getting into the senior side.

Probably the benchmark of any cricket coach is gauged by the ranking of the country in the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Test and One-day International rankings. Dyson left with Sri Lanka perched second in the one-day table and fourth in the Tests despite the 0-1 defeat to New Zealand in the short series.

Asian neighbours India are also on a headhunt for a national cricket coach after former New Zealand cricketer John Wright decided to quit at the end of his contract this month.

Like Dyson who ended up with a series defeat it must have been galling and rather disappointing for Wright to see India being outplayed by Asian rivals Pakistan 2-4 in the six-match one-day series after taking an early 2-0 lead and to share the Test series 1-all, once again after taking the lead.

Wright's five-year contract with India marked the conclusion of a significant period in Indian cricket. He has been described as a players' coach, popular and dependable, but a hard and uncompromising taskmaster who will not tolerate any lack of effort in a match situation or during practice. Former Australian captain Greg Chappell's name has been mentioned as a likely candidate to succeed Wright.

England are also interested in holding onto their Zimbabwe-born coach Duncan Fletcher till the 2007 World Cup. Fletcher has been a key factor in England's recent successes in Test cricket where they are currently ranked second only to the high-riding Australians.

The ECB's chief executive David Collier who has succeeded the affable Tim Lamb in that position said: "We highly respect Duncan. He has become an integral part of English cricket and we believe he is one of the best coaches in the world.

We see his longterm future with the ECB." Former Australian wicket-keeper Rod Marsh's name has been mentioned as the next coach of South Africa to replace Ray Jennings when his contract finishes off at the end of May. Marsh who is currently head of ECB's Cricket Academy completes his four-year contract in September end. A successor to Marsh has already been named Peter Moores.

The coach of Australia, the most successful Test and one-day team in the world John Buchanan's contract also expires by end October and he is understood to have indicated to his employers Cricket Australia that he no longer wants to continue. Who will succeed him is the 64,000 dollar question?