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Originally Posted by Ian Pont
All statements I have made are true. It is not about repeating someone else's mantra, or disagreeing with someone because you don't.
I have my own views on cricket as a first-class player and International coach. These are based on my experiences working with great players, having been a coach at various first-class sides, having been to THREE world cups now (with England in 2003, NL in 2007 and now BD in 2011), written TWO books on cricket, been Head Coach at the NW Cricket Academy in South Africa where Jimmy Cook, Graeme Pollock and Gary Kirsten were batting coaches. I hold the latest Level 3 UKCC Head Coach award and run my own highly successful academy producing cricketers of the future.
I only say all of this because I have opinions, views, thoughts, plans, goals, ideas, creativity and understanding of how to develop players. Batters, bowlers, fielders... when you are Level 3 coach you have to be able to coach all disciplines. i chose pace bowling, but I have elite level private clients who are batsmen. I worked with Andy Flower on his batting when we were both at Essex together for example.
Grant Luden is a Level 3 coach and spent many years coaching in South Africa with up and coming young players. Julien Fountain is also a Level 3 coach and has a baseball background, which is why he focuses on fielding.
So please understand that we have a talented 'back room' staff that TRULY understands cricket. And we also have views not least as I TRULY KNOW what a head coach needs to be successful. You have to have vision, diplomacy, honour, respect for those around you, a great working relationship with players, discipline, humour, good relationships with the cricket board, clubs and media, be proactive at getting players in, be able to ID and develop talent and also be a decent human being. This is what makes a wonderful Head Coach. I have been one and been under some really good ones.
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Coach,
I really appreciate you browsing the forums and interacting with us fans in such an extensive manner. I have been following your posts and what I like most about you is that you follow through your comments with logic and explanation.
We as fans have definitely noticed a change (which I feel is positive) in the team atmosphere and attitude since you and Julian came aboard.
My personal feeling is about our team is as follows:
- from a talent comparison we have a much better team now than we did in 2007. However, the team back then seemed to be functioning more as a team than as individuals. The team members were selected based on a role. This team seems to be 11 players selected and then they were assigned their roles.
- We are clueless in T20 and have a horrible record. There has not been any acknowledgement of this from the captain/coach/management and I believe the lack of respect in T20 has contributed to our inablity to utilize ODI powerplays and pace a large chase properly
- Bowlers (especially pacers) have been dropped after one or two bad games whereas, certain batsman have been given unlimited chances
- Milestone innings though counter productive to the match situation and result has been hailed as the benchmark of progress
- In losses, bowlers have been the first to be thrown in front of the bus and even in losses batsmen have been praised for meaningless innnings
- The drama we witnessed with the captaincy and selection of Mash should have been handled better by the head coach and more behind closed doors
- The goal in test cricket seems to have been strenghtening the batting to move us to the 5th day. Very little has been done to coach/strategize to get 20 wickets or set large totals that can put the pressure on opposition. The XI has been padded with batsment all the way down to #8 or #9 to avoid embarassing totals.
- When batsmen such as Riyad and Naeem and Mushy showed positives they were never pushed up the order to maximize their strengths but kept lower to compensate for the deficiency of top order batsmen.
- We have had the same small group of players in rotation for a few years now. Dead rubber matches in my opinion should have been the stage to allow Nafees, Juhurul, Nazmul more opportunities to show there mettle on the big stage
These are some of the obvious concern that I feel the head coach needs to address. I'm not picking on Jamie Siddons' abilities or experience. Simply that there are two possible answers. Either Jamie does not have the skills/personality to handle the management and players or he is not a good head coach. If its the latter then the conclusion is right in front of our face. If its the first then you either have to change BCB and the trouble making and/or lazy players or you need to find a head coach who can work with the existing system. Although I would like to see some changes in BCB, we realistically know that is less likely to happen. So that really leaves us with the same option as before, find a head coach that suits us at the moment.
I don't know what BCB has planned for you or how open you are to extending your time with Bangladesh and in what capacties but I would love to see your ideas and approach be incorporated into our team for a long term gain.