Shane Warne has the cricketing nous to be a terrific coach of England, or any other team for that matter. He is certainly the greatest Test captain Australian cricket never had. And that cricketing brain that still makes him a wonderfully astute and inspiring captain could easily be transferred to the coaching arena.
There can be no qualms either about one of the finest cricketers to wear the Baggy Green cap defecting to the old opposition to make them a formidable side in their quest to regain the Ashes.
Former players are coaching any team that makes them an offer they can’t refuse.
I can’t see the England and Wales Cricket Board, though, making Warne the sort of offer he’d find impossible to refuse. To begin with, by forcing the resignation of Kevin Pietersen, the ECB showed that it will not tolerate any hint of player-power, for there is no doubt that the entire Warne-must-come-in and Peter Moores-must-go controversy was engineered by Pietersen.
Warne and Pietersen are great mates.
They share a similar approach to cricket and, to a certain extent, for the life as international celebrities. My guess is, too, that Warne’s philosophy of coaching is that the leadership of the team must rest virtually entirely with the captain.
This is the same philosophy that Ian Chappell – a critic of the coach as the leader school of thought, and a great admirer of Warne’s captaincy skills – has espoused for years.
If Warne were the coach, he’d be more of an adviser, someone offering tactical and strategic ideas, rather than someone trying to run the show like John Buchanan (remember the boot camp fiasco?) or Moores.
The more I think about it, the more it’s become unlikely, too, that Warne’s coaching staff at Rajasthan, Darren Berry, the former Victorian keeper, and the former England all-rounder Jeremy Snapes, will be brought into the England coaching set-up by the ECB.
In my view, something like this was part of the game plan of Pietersen when he virtually demanded that Moores be stood down.
The ECB has appointed Andrew Strauss as the captain for the tour of the West Indies. This, it seems to me, will be a permanent appointment.
Strauss had the job before and handled it well. His batting has consolidated, too, and he is now a first-pick opener.
Andy Flower, the former great Zimbabwean wicketkeeper/batsman with statistics that rival those of Adam Gilchrist, is the acting coach. Whether he will be the permanent coach remains to be seen.
England had some success, it needs to be remembered, with another former Zimbabwean, Duncan Fletcher.
The SMH mentioned the names of other Australians (aside from Warne) who could be or should be in contention: Greg Chappell, Dav Whatmore, Tom Moody and The Roar’s Geoff Lawson (our pick).
The British media, though, for some time have been mentioning the name of Ashley Giles.
Giles is just the sort of anaemic and useless pick (as he was when he played so many Tests for England) that English cricket specialises in.
Let’s hope the ECB remains true to its form and they make Giles England’s coach for the Ashes series.
With a bored team led by a colourless coach, England would be odds-on to make a poor showing in their Ashes campaign – a bit like Giles’ bowling and batting for England, when you think of it.
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