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.
Sluggy
Roar Guru
Whenever Warne's name is mentioned in the same sentence as the Australian cricket captaincy, I have an immediate flash back to watching him dancing around spraying champagne on the player's balcony at Lords a decade ago. And followed by the phone texting and the drug ban and the weather reports. Ponting got past his earlier indiscretions (after marriage, it seems) and learned about tact and, dare we say it diplomacy. Steve Waugh never did anything indiscrete as far as I remember, nor did Gilchrist. All had what they call in the military 'bearing'. On this count I agree with the selectors.
Ian Noble
Guest
Spiro Warne in his Times column has stated he is unable to consider coaching England because of his present commitments. He is not prepared to commit to just one position bearing in mind his IPL and media commitments. As to the future, there is talk that England may not appoint a head coach but more of a manager and leave the captain and specialist coaches to deal with day to day coaching; hence the suggestion of Giles who is presently Director of cricket at Warwickshire as well as being a selector. The role of the captain in cricket is probably more important than any other sport as he is the leader on the field for 6 hours. Radio communication is outlawed and otherthan breaks for drinks, lunch and tea there are few opportunities for the coach to influence proceedings. Strauss has the ability to be his man but not in an egotistical sense and will consult widely with the likes of Flintoff and other senior members of the squad including KP, as well as the specialist coaches and make decisions on the hoof to maximise peformance. For the forthcoming series in the Windies there will have to be a sellotape solution, whilst the ECB decide which route to follow. If Strauss is successful then I suspect that they will be very careful about appointing an head coach and may go down the manager route.
sheek
Guest
Melon, Diplomacy is far too over-rated. Often it requires people to be two-faced. I would much rather people tell me up-front what they're thinking. But I guess that's just a personal view.......... Guys, Warnie coaching England is a good discussion point. But as Terry says, it's a 'no go' realistically. We can amuse ourselves over the pros & cons, & that's about it.
Terry Kidd
Guest
I think Warne coaching England is a no go for far more basic reasons. Warne has a good gig with Channel 9 for the next couple of months which will give him time with his kids .... something that is important to him .... and then has another IPL stint .... then a short break to play poker .... then back with Channel 9 again. Where is the time to coach England? Best captain Australia never had .... of the current generation .... Simon Katich .... apparently the Blues players think he is the bees knees.
Who Needs Melon
Guest
Cricketing nous is all well and good but wouldn't one of the primary attributes of a good coach be diplomacy? Warne the diplomat? Hmm.... And isn't the coach the responsible one - the first one who cracks down on the players when they go out for a bender the night before a game? Hmm... Not sure how it works in the IPL.
sheek
Guest
Sorry, on a roll here..... Would it be fair to say the current generation 1996-2010, are the most over-coached professional players in history. I feel very sorry for them in some ways. Imagine being one of 45 Lions in NZ in 2005. The forwards coach told you one thing, the backs coach another, the defensive coach another thing again, the kicking coach something else, the mind guru coach something else again, other coaches the titles I don't know something else altogether, & the trainer had his own ideas, & then there was the head coach.......... All obviously competent, all obviously killing the players with well-meaning advice, all the while trying to justify their own position in the set-up & its relevance. I found it instructive when Guus Hiddinck first became Socceroos coach. He saw his job as manager, his title. His job was to mentor the players & develop strategies & tactics. Hiddinck claimed the players, to reach Socceroos level, already had the basic skills & fitness. Wallabies coach Robbie Deans has a similar philosophy to Hiddinck. Technically, cricket probably needs a manager rather than a coach. Indeed, you can take the argument further that when you reach the elite level, you don't need a coach, you need a manager. You have an on-field manager who runs the team's strategy, tactics & fine tuning, & an off-field manager who runs the accommodation, travel, transfers, etc.
sheek
Guest
To digress..... Ahhh, Ian Chappell, my favourite captain & one of my all-time favourite players. He wrung every bit of ability out of his talent, & was a man to have in a crisis. Interesting that his former team mates mostly revere him many years after they all retired. Back in 1975/76, after he had relinquished the captaincy to his brother Greg, I remember reading the Windies placed a bigger price on Ian's wicket than they did on Greg's, even though Greg was the superior batsman. Obviously, the Windies understood Ian's value to the Australian team. I also remember reading Chappelli scorning some advice Simpson gave him on the 1966/67 tour, Chappelli's first overseas tour with Australia, of which Simmo was captain. Chappelli reckons the advice held him back until he realised it wasn't for him. For all his greatness, Bradman wasn't above carrying grudges. You don't get to be the ruthless batsman Bradman was, without some dark personality traits in your soul. Miller was the antithesis personality to Bradman. Miller was up-front, while Bradman appeared to behave differently behind a person than in front of him. Always difficult to combat. John Buchanan was a very ordinary opening batsman for Queensland, averaging lower than 20 in his brief career. Not that it should be held against him. At least he was good enough to be given the chance to play Shield cricket. But Bucho ws one of those computer geeks. I don't know, you can get so much info from computers. But at the end of the day, you have to sift through the info. It's how you use that info that is critical. There still is a paramount place for intuition, or gut feeling, or whatever you want to call it. I must confess I went off Warnie for a while, but I'm a fan again..........
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
Spiro, I am reading Peter Roebuck's book "In It To Win It" at the moment. He writes that Ian Chappell is convinced that Simpson accepted payment from the ACB to come back as captain in the late 70s, and that Chappell is still sniffing around for official evidence of this!
Spiro Zavos
Expert
Sheek and Greg, of course you are right about Keith Miller as a brilliant captain. It was the Bradman connection (Miller apparently bowled bouncers at him in a testimonial and lead a somewhat unconventional life, and the Melbourne establishment that ran the Australian Cricket Board at the time preferring Ian Johnson) that worked against Miller being appointed captain of Australia. I think Greg's point, too, about Warne distaste of coaching England to beat Australia, given his closeness with Ian Chappell, is a strong one. Finally there is the Chappell/Warne hostility to the notion of coaches. I'm wondering if this has anything to do in Chapell's case with Bob Simpson taking over Australia as an elder pro during the Packer Circus days (and trying to thwart the Ian Chappell-led players revolt) and his subsequent appointment as the first full-time coach of the Australian cricket team. Anyway, Fitzy's column in the SMH on Saturday ran this from Warne on John Buchanan: 'I diagree with John Buchanan all the time. I don't think he has made one good point in a long time, actually. Everything that I have read that he says, he is living in pixie land ... We had to listen to his verbal diarrhoea all the time. He is a goose and has no ideas and lacks communication.' This diatribe seems to land Warne in the Keith Miller school of captaincy on the famous occasion he led NSW on to the field and said to his players waiting to be put into position for the first over: 'Scatter!'
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
It is appropriate that Spiro mentions Ian Chappell. Warne recently said that Chappell has been the biggest influence on his cricket career (as an aside: I wonder how Terry Jenner feels about this remark). Clearly Chappell and Warne greatly admire each other and have many similarities. Notwithstanding Chappell's disdain for the role of coach in cricket, he once said that he could never accept a position as coach of another country (I think Pakistan were seeking him), because he would never be able to coach a team to try to beat Australia. Everything about Warne screams the same. He would be fine for coaching England against any other opponent (he would probably imagine he was playing for Australia), but it is impossible to imagine that Warne could put his heart into coaching England to beat Australia. Re Sheek on Keith Miller, I agree. Richie Benaud always says that Keith Miller was the best captain he ever played under. That's good enough for me.
Brett McKay
Expert
Spiro, should it not be the case that all of Australia and the rest of the cricketing world joins the English media pumping for Ashley Giles to be appointed England Coach - for EXACTLY the reasons you've outlined!! :-)
sheek
Guest
Spiro, Shane Warne - the best cricket captain Australia never had? I would argue many of your generation would be up in arms over this. What about Keith Miller, I can hear them clamouring! Let's say the two best cricket captains Australia never had, were Miller & Warne. In any case, I know what you mean, & support you. Very perceptive fellow is Shane Warne. The cricketing maverick Shane Warne has been treated much better by the cricket community, than the rugby maverick David Campese was treated by the rugby community. Both absolute legends of their sport - one embraced, one often ridiculed.