I WAS desperate to get back in the game as soon as I could but the trouble with county cricket is there are only a limited number of jobs. Late in 2013 I was invited to interview for the post of elite performance director at my first county, Derbyshire.
Initially the role held a lot of appeal, not least because of my links with the club. I thought I interviewed well but when I came out of the room I bumped into Graeme Welch, who was also in the frame. I thought we’d have made a good pairing but Derbyshire were left with an interesting dilemma. If they wanted a fresh start they would go for Graeme, if they wanted someone with experience then I’d have got the nod. In the end Graeme got it and he’s done a good job at a club not as well resourced as so many of the other counties. In hindsight it was probably a blessing in disguise for me. It was too soon after Surrey for me to get back in the saddle.
Preparing for the interview got me thinking deeply about my own coaching ethos and how it had evolved over the years. The basis of my presentation to Derbyshire was that the fewer people involved in decision-making the better because there are less conversations to be had, fewer opinions to canvass and therefore more time to do what I love most which is working with players, whether that’s as a head coach, assistant or in a specialist role.
When I left Surrey I lost some identity because people didn’t know where my strengths lay. Was I a team director, manager or coach? That was my own fault because after 2011, when I switched roles at Surrey, I allowed myself to be drawn further away from the team. They wanted me to take on a more directorial role, but I have always preferred to be in shorts and a tracksuit, in the nets trying to make players better and understand how to win a game of cricket.
Former Australia coach John Buchanan once explained that a coach who focussed solely on winning wouldn’t be in the job long. It was a statement that really bothered me, but in the county game now I think a lot of coaches have the same mindset because they are more concerned about the longevity of their own careers. Yes, you have to develop players, but primarily players have a responsibility to develop themselves. It can’t always be down to the coaches who, these days, find themselves primarily tasked with creating an environment where players can perform at their best. I think there are too many counties who are satisfied with low expectations, even using the excuse that there are only three trophies to win. That doesn’t sit right with me. I’d rather not bother than go into a competition thinking you can’t win.
One of the most enjoyable periods of my career in the game came in the spring of 2014 when I was asked if I would join Sri Lanka’s tour of England in a consultative coaching role. Paul Farbrace, who had just led them to success in the T20 World Cup, was about to be named as England coach Peter Moores’s assistant. The new coach, Marvan Atapattu, was taking a team to England and I was asked to help in all areas of coaching and preparation and offer advice on English grounds and conditions.
When I was approached I was on the verge of taking a totally different direction in my career. An entrepreneurial opportunity to promote a Sussex-based product was on the table but when Sri Lanka got in touch I had no hesitation in accepting. I guess it showed that my passion still lay with coaching and cricket. I had a fantastic seven weeks, culminating at Headingley when Sri Lanka beat England with one ball to spare to clinch their first series win in England. It was a privileged insight into how an international team works and how some of the best players in the world operate.
I am very proud of my input into what was a very successful tour, although I won’t deny that plotting England’s downfall was something I struggled to come to terms with. When the players were cavorting on the Headingley balcony I found it difficult to join in, although inwardly I was delighted, especially when the captain Angelo Mathews said afterwards that he couldn’t understand why the best coach in England was working for Sri Lanka!
At the start of the tour Marvan led a team meeting and I was surprised that there was no interaction at all with the team. Of course there wasn’t much you could tell guys like Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena and Lasith Malinga, all legends of the modern game, that they did not already know but afterwards I asked Marvan, who was still finding his way as a head coach, if he’d considered involving the players more. I asked if I could work with the bowling group alongside the bowling coach Chaminda Vaas, who was a lovely guy but who struggled with his presentation skills. We went through a plan and I asked him to trust me that it would work. When the group met, Chaminda said a few words by way of introduction and then invited Lasith to explain his plans for the various English batsmen to the rest of the group. When I arrived in the room Lasith looked as if there were a million other places he’d rather be than in another team meeting but within a minute or so his whole body language changed. He was scribbling all over the flipchart like a mad scientist as he explained how he would try and get the different English batsmen out. Chaminda, the team analyst and I just sat at the back. It was brilliant, you could feel the energy in the room. The feedback to Marvan was positive and that is how meetings were conducted for the rest of the tour. Marvan would prime the players in advance that he wanted them to lead the discussion and it worked wonderfully well.
I threw myself into the tour, not least because of the opportunity it presented to put myself back in the shop window and slowly I began to get more involved in the decision-making. We won the T20 and one-day series but the focus was always on the two Tests. Before the first Test at Lord’s I told Marvan and Angelo that we should bat first if the pitch was firm and the sky was blue, no matter how much grass there was on the wicket. ‘Don’t look down look up at Lord’s’ was the old adage. I felt for us to win the game that we had to bat first so we had Rangana Herath, our quality left-arm spinner, to bowl at them in the last innings. There was always the chance that we could get rolled over cheaply in the first innings but we had a batting line-up good enough that when it flattened out to get 500 in the second dig. So, of course, Angelo put England into bat! For the first hour it did all sorts and then it flattened out. We would have lost but England delayed their declaration too long and Sri Lanka saved the game by the skin of our teeth on the last day with nine wickets down.
The wicket at Headingley was greener and it was overcast. I felt the brave option again was to bat first, although it was 60-40 this time. England won the toss and put Sri Lanka in but I was delighted that when he was interviewed at the toss Angelo admitted he would have batted first – he’d come around to my way of thinking! We dragged it back on the third day to restrict England’s lead to 108 and then made 457 in the second innings with Angelo scoring his second century of the tour. That put England under massive pressure. We timed the declaration right, took four wickets on the fourth evening and then won the game despite a magnificent hundred on the last day by Moeen Ali and some brave resistance by James Anderson.
Despite winning the series Marvan had to re-apply for his job and I was asked to apply too. I’d love to have been his assistant but was told it wasn’t an option. I then got a call to say I was on a shortlist of five and that I’d be contacted about interview arrangements. Five minutes later I was called back. I was no longer on the shortlist, was thanked for my interest and before I’d got a word in edgeways the conversation was over! Marvan and the rest of the guys there were great to work with but in September 2015, after they had lost a home series to India, he left his job. I’m hoping the Sri Lanka authorities consider me when they appoint his successor.
Later that summer I was asked by Mick Newell, the Nottinghamshire coach, to conduct a root-and-branch study into why the county weren’t developing their own home-grown batsmen. For five or six weeks I watched a lot of cricket, from under-13s to second XI before presenting my report. I enjoyed the work and I hope some of it will be implemented because it’s a shame that a county with such a strong tradition of bringing through their own have largely imported batting talent since Samit Patel came on to the scene a decade or more ago.
Such is the transient life of a coach for hire that a few weeks after running the rule over Nottinghamshire’s age group teams I was in the heat of a South African summer, working for the Netherlands in the Second Division of the World Cricket League. Roland Lefebvre, against whom I’d enjoyed some good battles when he played for Glamorgan and Somerset, had made the initial contact. We met at an ECB coaching convention and he asked me if I would get involved, working alongside their young South African coach Anton Roux. Anton had only played a handful of first-class games but over the next few months I saw what an impressive young coach he was developing into. He made a few mistakes, but he’s done a lot of things right and I can see him working at a much higher level in the future.
After a training camp in Pretoria we moved to Namibia for a week-long tournament where the aim was to qualify for the First Division. The focus of Pete Borrens, the captain, and his players seemed to be solely on making sure they finished in the top two to secure promotion. My challenge to the group was to win the tournament and secure the Netherlands’ first trophy for 14 years. To the delight of everyone, we did that by beating Uganda in the final group game and then defeating the hosts in the final.
In the summer of 2015 I linked up with the Dutch boys again for the T20 World Cup in Scotland and Ireland. I like the set-up in so much that there isn’t a big backroom staff and it means the players have to step up and take more responsibility for their own performances. Of course with part-time cricketers you can get fluctuations in form but Peter is tactically one of the most innovative captains I have come across in my career. He’s very creative in a lot of what he does and although we had a few ups and downs we came good when it mattered, winning our last two group games and then beating Ireland in the semi-final. The final was washed out which meant we shared the honours with Scotland but all being well I shall be working with the Dutch boys again at the finals in India next year.
One of the benefits of being out of work was the time I was able to devote to a new passion of mine, tennis. In fact, I’d call it more of an obsession these days. Sam had played a lot during her early years and joined a country club a few miles from our home in West Sussex called Wickwoods. For my 42nd birthday she bought me a tennis lesson. I wasn’t that keen initially and for the first ten minutes I was under-cutting every shot, just as I would have done on the squash court. The coach stopped me, we went back to basics and slowly I became hooked on the game. I had found another sport that gave me everything cricket did. As well as the physical element, there is a tactical and mental aspect too. I started playing in the fourth team and gradually rose up the ranks and earlier in 2015 made my debut in the firsts. I play three or four times a week and occasionally team up with Sam, although we do try and avoid it for the sake of marital harmony.
For a couple of tough years Wickwoods has given us an environment where we have been able to make new friends and enjoy a sport together. We call it therapy!
So I love tennis but I am desperate to get back into full-time cricket. In the past it would have had to have been in some sort of leadership role but that doesn’t matter to me anymore. I look back to when I started at Derbyshire nearly three decades ago when it was just Bud Hill or Phil Russell running the team, with input from the captain, Kim Barnett, and sometimes think that the balance then was just about right, as long as the players have a physiotherapist available every day instead of just Tuesdays or Thursdays!
I just think it’s gone too far in the other direction. There is still a great need for strong cricketing knowledge to be passed on to players but I can’t believe when I go to a county game these days how many people are on the field of play before the game. Is it really necessary to have an inordinate number of support staff or are all these different voices merely cluttering the minds of the players? Certainly on matchdays it is my firm belief that players need to be tuned into their job and that is the game itself, with no distractions whatsoever and minimum dialogue except from captain and coach.
Working with Sri Lanka in 2014 demonstrated to me that a team can be successful with a relatively small support staff as long as the players know their roles and are prepared to pass on the benefit of their experiences and ultimately take responsibility for their performance, whether they are someone who has played 100 Tests or still to make their debut.
Cricket has been my life ever since I first picked up a bat in the back garden at Whitwell with Mum, Dad and David. I have always encouraged my girls to enjoy their sport and I’m as proud as any parent would be at the progress my eldest, Georgia, is making with her cricket. She has played for Sussex for nearly ten years and is part of the England Academy set-up. After a couple of injuries she is fully fit now and I hope she gets a game for the full England team one day. Having watched her development I feel the higher the standard the better she will become.
Sophie’s love is ponies and she is more academic than her two sisters but has all the sporting ability her sisters have while my youngest, Mollie, loves anything where a ball is involved. In the summer of 2015 she began playing in the junior set-up at Horsham Cricket Club and has already shown a real competitive edge and determination with a tennis racquet or cricket bat in hand. I wonder who she gets that from?
And then there’s Sam, my rock for 23 years of marriage and many years before then as well. She is the most incredible person I have ever met. She has kept things together and put up with the highs and lows that being married to a professional sportsman entails without complaint. In times when I have struggled she has been strong and likewise when things have been tough for her I hope I have been the support she needed. I have been very lucky in so much of my life so far, but never more so than the day I met Sam.
We’ve had a terrific journey together so far and I’m looking forward to what the next stage involves.