Hard work and basics, key to success -Geoff Marsh

Anuradha ABEYSEKERA

Sri Lanka’s newly appointed national cricket coach, former Australian right hand batting maestro Geoff Marsh said that he strongly believes hard work and basics are the key to success. He said he will work individually with each player to bring back Sri Lanka into the winning spree. He revealed this during his first official meeting with the media at the SLC headquarters yesterday.

Marsh, 52, is an experienced coach who guided Australia to clinch the World Cup in 1999. This is his first major international assignment after coaching Zimbabwe in 2004. He is a member of the 1987 World Cup finalists Australian team and represented his country in 50 international test matches and 117 ODI’s. His two sons Shaun and Mitchell are also involved in international cricket and Shaun made his debut ton recently in Pallekele against Sri Lanka.

Geoff said that the current state of Sri Lankan cricket is to what Australia faced three years ago. He said that it will be a challenge to turn this down trend.

Answering a question on T20 World Cup, Marsh said that he will mainly focus on test and ODI cricket, but emphasized the importance of basics regardless of the playing format. He was of the view that the upcoming three tests and ODIs against Pakistan should be given priority at this juncture.

Marsh proposed a larger national pool of 20-30 players where the best 11 can be selected. “After losing a number of senior players, we have to work hard with young players to lift the standard up and I hope with the commitment of SLC support staff we’ll be able to do it within the next two years,” he said.

Replying to a question on his other commitments, Marsh said as he has completed his IPL contract he is ready to commit full time for Sri Lankan cricket. He hinted that one of retired Sri Lankan national player will work with him as the assistant coach in the future.

When asked how he will cope with the language barrier when working with local players, he said that as Sri Lankan players have worked with Whatmore, Moody and Trevor, it will not be an issue for him to work here.

“I have closely associated with Moody and he told me that Sri Lanka is a great place to work,” the new coach said.

Marsh said that coaching against his son Shuan is not a new experience as he did it before during the IPL.