Q & A with Jamie Siddons
Friday 03-September-2010 09:48
Siddons - has brought in a fielding coach.
Coach Jamie Siddons took time out of Bangladesh's training camp to talk to Julia Harris about the World Cup, captaincy and more.
The players have regrouped for a training camp, how are things going?
The training camp is going really well. We've finally got our fielding coach [Julien Fountain] and so he's added a new dimension to the team, helping out some of the fast bowlers with their slower balls and doing a great job with the fielding. So it's another coach in the system and things are going quite well.
Fielding is traditionally an area where sub-continent teams have struggled, does the addition of a fielding coach further signal that you're taking every aspect of the game seriously in taking Bangladesh cricket forward?
I think so, in the past teams from the sub-continent haven't employed fielding coaches or not seriously, India got Mike Young over for a few days but this is a full time appointment. The focus will certainly be on fielding and hopefully by the World Cup we will have a very systematic and talented fielding group, or at least a far-improved one from what we have now.
Mohammad Ashraful has been included in the training squad and he was really successful when he first came onto the international scene, and obviously had a stint as captain, but has struggled of late. What do you think are the reasons behind this and is he still part of your plans for the future?
He does have to start to show he can score big scores and be consistent; he's found his way out of the team for that reason. I'm not the first person who has had trouble with Ash, I guess every coach has struggled with getting consistency out of him.
No one doubts his talent, it's definitely there, I guess from my point of view there are some technical issues, maybe even a lack of determination to play a big innings, a lack of trust in himself to get through hard periods. So he's working on that. We're working on some technical things and just making him more aware of what the game situation is and that he does have to keep it going, keep the scoreboard ticking over and be aggressive, but that he also has to make sure he doesn't just throw his wicket away all the time. He's definitely a big part of our plans if he can get those things right.
Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Mortaza have both had stints as captain of late, who is the full time captain going forward?
Mash has taken the job and did a really good job in England so I guess he has it until the World Cup - without a doubt, injury-free he will be the one to lead us in the World Cup. Shakib did a great job but he didn't want it to continue, he wanted to focus on his cricket more and Mashrafe was quite happy to take over the reins.
With the World Cup being on the sub-continent do you think Bangladesh have an advantage and the opportunity to put in a really good showing?
All the other teams in their preparations will be looking at conditions over here and the wickets and how to cope with the low bounce and the spin and these types of things, so we definitely have an advantage as far as that goes because our preparation doesn't have to be based around those things because we live here, we work here and we train here.
The boys understand the conditions and are familiar with them. So we're expecting to have that advantage and with that and the extra training that we are doing and the development that we have shown I think we should go well and be able to push the bigger teams
What are your goals for the team for the more immediate future?
Immediate goals are just continual improvement, that's always been my philosophy as a coach is to improve day by day. Obviously with Julian here the fielding will be taken care of and improve but we've also got a lot of other areas to get right before the World Cup.
We just want to keep improving; we want great performances against New Zealand and then Zimbabwe in December and then look forward to the World Cup. But first things first, New Zealand in October, put up a good showing, I really believe we can win that series and should win the Zimbabwe series and that will be a really good confidence boost towards the World Cup.
Julia Harris
http://www.cricket365.com/news/story...-Jamie-Siddons