King named as WI coach

[Beny]

Bennet King has been named coach of the West Indies. There is an article on cric info but i'm having trouble accsesing it. I'll get a link later.

What I do know is that King is the (former) head of the commonwealth bank cricket acadamy (our national youth acadamy) and was approched a few months ago but turned the offer down.

This now means that Australia is the only test playing nation not to have been coached by an international.

So what now? Can King turn the West Indies around? I hope so as it's never good for the game to have one of the power houses in such a mess as they are in now.

What should King's first move be. Personaly I would remove Lara from the captaincy. That's nothing against Brian but look at how india profomed without Tendulker as captain. Lara is too important a player to be weighed down by the problems facing the team at the momment.

[Mike Small]

I do think you are right [Lara's tried what ever he can and some one else must be given a chance now with the leadership responsibility] but I don't think it will happen.

Speaking of Aussies never ever having to need the services of a foreign coach, when is John Buchanan's contract expiring, he seems to have been around for ages.

[Beny]

Cricket Australia

October 18, 2003





Cricket Australian today announced that Australian men's coach John Buchanan has signed a new two-year contract that will take him through until October 2005.

The new agreement ensures that Buchanan, who took over the post in late October 1999 in succession to Geoff Marsh, will be at the helm when Australia seeks its ninth consecutive Ashes victory in the winter of 2005.

It also means he will supervise the forthcoming tours to India, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, the International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy in England, and Australia's home Test and one-day international series for the next two seasons.

Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland said: "We are very pleased to have been able to extend John's contract.

"Since his appointment John has played a major role in Australia's international success.

"The Australian Test and one-day international sides are now regarded as the best in the world and one of the reasons for that is because we have a world-class support team.

"In aiming to maintain this success, Cricket Australia has identified the importance of continuity in the team management structure."

After taking charge for the first Test of the home season of 1999-2000, Buchanan has helped Australia set world records in Test and one-day international cricket.

In Test cricket, he supervised 15 of the 16 successive victories achieved by the side, a new world mark beating the 11 straight wins of Clive Lloyd's great West Indies team of 1984.

And in the one-day game, Australia registered 21 victories without loss during 2002-03, another world record, that included a clean-sweep at the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa.

John Buchanan said: "The last four years have been a wonderful experience for me and I'm extremely grateful to have the opportunity to be associated with the Australian team for another two years.

"We have had a great deal of success so far but now the challenge is to raise the bar again and we will be trying to do just that.

"As well as looking to maintain the high levels of performance we have achieved at times over the past four years, we have also got tangible targets to aim for.

"The task of remaining the number-one side in the ICC's Test and one-day rankings is an ongoing challenge, and there's also the goal of conquering the away Test series against India next September.

"And on top of those short- to medium-term goals there is also the task of maintaining our success over a longer period of time by continuing to develop our processes and relationships with the states.

"I guess my role is to try and play a leading role in coaching across Australia, helping to devise new methods for developing players both on and off the field.

"That includes Cricket Australia's strong focus on protecting and enhancing the spirit of cricket.

"These are real challenges for us all but hopefully they will be enjoyable challenges too, and it will be great to be a part of it all."

Before taking up the role of Australia's coach, Buchanan enjoyed five successful years with the Queensland Bulls helping to pilot it to two domestic first-class titles, the first in the state's history, and two domestic one-day championships.

Cricket Australia also announced that Australian Team Manager Steve Bernard and Physical Performance Manager Jock Campbell will sign new two-year agreements.



© 2003 Cricket Australia

[Mike Small]

Any chance he will be replaced after October 2005 (or before... if Aus lose the Ashes!!!!) or will he just get another extension in his contract?

[Beny]

If it aint broke don't fix it...

(or before... if Aus lose the Ashes!!!!)

That's a good one Mike... LOL

[Mike Small]

Life must be good being an Aussie cricket fan – at times I suspect it might be good to the extent of being boring. I mean we constantly have to ponder of what players we should drop and whom to select, what to do with the county games, what to do with this, what to do with that... But you guys, you seem to be living a perfect world – No problems to worry about!

[Beny]

Things may change in 5 or 6 years. That's enough to worry me.

[Beny]

Any chance he will be replaced after October 2005 (or before... if Aus lose the Ashes!!!!) or will he just get another extension in his contract

Buchanan looking for county return

Australia's coach says that, despite grief at Middlesex, he could come back to England

Paul Weaver in Mumbai
Monday November 1, 2004
The Guardian

John Buchanan, the world's outstanding cricket coach, confessed yesterday that he has been impressed by the new-look England side and is interested in another crack at the county game, six years after being forced out of Middlesex by a group of senior players.


The tall, grave and scholarly looking Buchanan was relaxing by the pool at the Taj Mahal Hotel here yesterday, two days after masterminding Australia's first series win in India for 35 years.

He said: "It's a bit like India. When I do a job I like to complete it. There's definitely unfinished business there. But whether I get another opportunity I don't know. I mean, even when I finish with Australia there's family and a lot of other things to consider."

Buchanan is planning to be in England for next summer's Ashes campaign. But he took charge of Australia five years ago last month - making a stronger team stronger still and guiding them to 16 consecutive Test victories - and he admitted yesterday that every coach has a shelf life.

"I've always felt that way. The only way you can stay a coach is by shifting everyone out of the team, so you're talking to a new group of players, or by moving club.

"As soon as I feel I no longer have the ability to make some contribution to this team or bring about some change, it will be time to move on. "I was at Middlesex at the wrong time. A couple of years later it might have been the right time. But I'm a bit of a fatalist and I believe everything happens for a reason."



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When the long-serving Middlesex coach Don Bennett left Lord's in the 1997 season the club set up a working party, under Paul Downton, to seek out a successor. After a rigorous search Downton came up with Buchanan, who had led Queensland to two Sheffield Shield wins - including their first - in three years.

Buchanan did not play Test cricket and appeared in only a handful of games for Queensland. When he played in England it was not for a first-class county but for Cambridgeshire and Oldham.

But "The Professor" turned himself into an outstanding coach, using sophisticated computer analysis and some less conventional ideas, such as group poetry reading sessions. And he wrote notes until his hand ached.

His work ethic did not appeal to senior Middlesex pros, however, especially Mike Gatting and Mark Ramprakash, and the county finished next to bottom of the championship.

When Buchanan left the club Gatting was appointed director of coaching, with a much wider brief than the Australian had ever been given. It was county cricket at its myopic worst and the move failed.

A bitter sounding Buchanan said a little later: "County cricket is the true servant of mediocrity," adding that every county had at least three "impostors" on their books. "In England you've paid players and in Australia we've got unpaid players. But in Australia we've got professionalism and in England there's no professionalism, or very little."

Yesterday, though, the man who has added brain to Australia's brawn sounded more conciliatory when he said: "There is still too much cricket in England. You can't sustain high quality performances over that amount of cricket.

"You need thorough preparation for each game, then a debriefing period afterwards. But losing to England in the ICC tournament this year highlighted for me that things have improved a great deal there.

"By the time these countries meet next year it could be an interesting series." Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff have been England's outstanding players this year but it is others who have caught the coach's eye.

"Andrew Strauss is a good solid kid who knows his game and won't be intimidated. I knew him a bit at Middlesex and then he came to Australia a couple of times. Rob Key is the same. And behind the stumps Geraint Jones brings the same approach.

"What's happening in England under Michael Vaughan reminds me of what happened in India under Sourav Ganguly a little while ago, when Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag came into the side.

"These England players don't carry a lot of baggage. They're self-confident with a real passion for their country. When you stack it together with winning games and tournaments that builds upon itself."

Buchanan's methodical planning to win in India was an example of why he is regarded so highly. "We've shown patience, which we didn't last time. I wanted fall-back positions, different bowling strategies and field placings. We got to know the conditions and the India batsmen inside out.

"And there was great preparation and back-up, with ice vests and neck coolants and we always had bench guys, two or three players to run on and bring the batsmen drinks, towels, chairs and umbrellas." Middlesex's loss, it seems, has been Australia's gain. · India's captain Sourav

[Occasional Fan]

Originally Posted by Beny

What should King's first move be. Personaly I would remove Lara from the captaincy.

Beny - I agree with this. However, it seems that Brian Lara has been saved by the West Indies win in the ICCCT. Incredible to me for a team which generally places so much by Test cricket and which has failed absolutely to deliver under Lara for the last little while.

King has, however, given Lara his support for continuing in the captaincy. BBC report here.