The Perth Scorchers are into their fifth BBL final from six attempts. Gee they must have a squad.
Not many thought so coming into BBL06. They are the best-coached team in the BBL though and coach Justin Langer continues to provide masterstrokes.
As they disposed of the Melbourne Stars, recruitment will no doubt come near top of the agenda.
The Stars have banked on Kevin Pietersen bringing an elusive title while the Melbourne Renegades thought that taking Brad Hogg would get them in the finals. Despite the good form of each, if a franchise is looking for success, then Langer is the place to start.
While Shane Warne doubts the influence of a coach, Langer continues to get the best out of his collective.
One of the best examples of Langer’s effect as a coach can be seen by the performances of Shaun Marsh in BBL06. The older Marsh has no doubt been a star performer for the Scorchers since inception, so many would perhaps not be surprised by his return to form come the finals.
He started the season in terrible form and couldn’t hit the ball off the square. Langer publicly backed him, no doubt pumping his tyres up and against the Hurricanes he took the power play pressure off by dropping him down the order. Class is permanent and sure enough Marsh struck form again on the eve of the finals and again batted the Scorchers to safety against the Stars.
Take the other approach adopted by Hurricane coach Damien Wright. The Hurricanes had a legend of the game in Kumar Sangakarra as their international player this season. The competition started Kumar wasn’t in great form. Wright didn’t notice that he’d just started to hit a few out of the middle and despite being spectacularly caught on a couple of occasions, a tough call was made to drop the superstar.
In Wright’s defence, Sangakarra’s replacement Ben McDermott has performed spectacularly, and his form perhaps was a reason as much as any to make the change, but Sangakarra sat the rest of the season out on the pine. With the season on the line against the Scorchers, Sangakarra ran drinks while McDermott missed out.
It is just one example of an excellent coaching display that is ongoing from Langer. It has been well reported that this year they have had Justin Behrendorff, Nathan Couter-Nile and Joel Paris all unavailable for the entire BBL06.
To top it off they lost star import David Willey mid season and haven’t missed a beat. It is hard to imagine where you would fit those players now with the likes of Mitchell Johnson, Andrew Tye and Tim Bresnan in top form. He has also seen Michael Beer and Brad Hogg depart in recent years but has put faith in the Ashton duo to do the spin job for the team. Sure enough, in BBL06, they have.
Now for the Final they lose Shaun Marsh. Langer has a couple of days to make his selection but I bet whoever he gives the gong to will make a good fist of it. History would tell you that Langer would expect – and get – nothing less.
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