[LBW103]

Originally Posted by firstlane
You are making too much out of Law's comment 'observing'. let's not mention it out of context. he said he would observe the players in the Zimbabwe series thanks to bcb he didnt have enough time to look at the team before taking them out for a tour. he needed to know individuals well before starting to work with them. it doesn't mean he didn't make gameplans with the captain or didn't work with the players. interesting that you never mentioned his long chat with ash after he got out to a cheap shot playing a long innings or the matter that he took the initiative to get that stupid head of delegation out of the dressing room. he hasnt mentioned the word 'observe' since then. I am sure he is doing more than observing now. otherwise bcb wouldn't keep him in the job. do you have any evidence to prove otherwise? how do you know he is not doing anything? do you have any internal sources in the team?

if you talk about results we all know it requires a combination of efforts. even the best of the coaches can make little deference if all the other things are not taken care of from the root level. do you really think 2/3 good coaches in the national team and one in the academy will make us a world beating team? I know you would bring up 4-0 Banglawash against NZ. By now we all know that was a big fluke and as much happy I was with that result I have to admit NZ was in the crappiest form at that time. on a side note I am sure aus/eng/sa teams can beat us even if they play a series without a coach.

As for your comment of 'fundamental flaws' in aussie coaching system, let me remind you aussies have won 4 world cups and has been on the top of the test ranking for a decade (not to mention their dominance over england) with that 'flawed' coaching system. True they have slipped from the top but is it only because of coaching? take out strauss, cook, bell, prior, anderson, broad, swann from the current english team as opposed to hayden, langer, damien, gilchrist, mcgrath, gillespie, warne and see how does the english team look and how many players can english coaching system produce to replace them overnight. The point i am trying to make is a coaching system can't become 'flawed' overnight. As someone else mentioned aussies are still no1 odi side (they beat england 6-1 immediately after last two ashes series) and 4th ranked test side. They haven't become west indies.

England's current bowling coach is an aussie (david saker), the previous one was an aussie too (troy cooley) and its worth a mention that john buchanan was hired as a consultant during england's last ashes tour. I wonder if you would say ECB is in some kind of love affair with aussies too!

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All valid points.

Let's just see where we are after the West Indies series and then discuss again.

The people you mentioned above are all WORLD CLASS coaches. I think this is the difference. Just because a coach comes from Australia doesn't mean they are great sadly, so you have yourself fallen into the same trap of the BCB as well that anyone from Australia must be good. It does seem odd that we consistently appoint Australians. My guess is if they were the worst team in the world we wouldn't appoint any Australian passport holders. So clearly this is only about where they come from and not if they are any good.

The truth is now, Law bhai is under the severest of scrutiny. No excuses about no time to prepare. No excuses that he didn't even know the names of the players before he arrived. No excuses that they haven't played any cricket. No excuses that Tamim ad Shakib are not doing their captaincy and vice captaincy roles correctly. He has brought his friend Swift in and now he has his friend Jurgensen in. All main coaching appointments are now his and his choice. This is a fact and now the scene is set.

The Daily Star summed it up: Law is also faced with a big challenge as many think that this series will provide a concrete impression of his strategies and plans for the Tigers. Compared to his first assignment the Australian got ample time to prepare the team for the series against the Caribbean cricketers. As a coach he has a plan, and now everyone will be scrutinising how his plans are translated into action in the middle by his charges.

Each and every coach has their own mantra and Law is no exception. “It's about playing smart cricket,” were the words from the Australian when he talked at the official press conference.

“I'm trying to bring about some changes. Bangladesh have been at the same level for some time,” added Law.

Now everybody has to wait to see what new changes are brought through Law's “smart cricket” mantra.

Sport is fickle and unwavering. Expectations are high that we are moving forward after SidVision. I don't think it is unreasonable to assume a home series win against a team just above us. We have heard much about this 'observation' role. Let us all hope and pray Law bhai has some answers and can help with the team getting the basics right. Let's all hope and pray he can actually coach and not talk about it or hide behind observing. Results will show us the truth.

This T20 will show us exactly what Law has been working on as they have had specialised T20 batting practice. So let's see how the smart cricket is going to work with the Top 5 batters. I expect a totally different batting performance if Law has done his job correctly, or at least a sign that the batters are learning from him. Let's see after the match.

I am just not sure abject defeat in ODI's and Test matches are acceptable to anyone - worse still if they happen at home.