Australia’s recent Test tour to India once again highlighted the confusing role of the head coach currently occupied by Mickey Arthur.
The sweep shot dismissals of David Warner and Phil Hughes in the second Test and subsequently Ed Cowan in the final Test sent me scurrying for Peter Philpott’s book How To Play Cricket, a coaching manual that I devoured as a kid in the 1970s.
Warner, Hughes and Cowan all demonstrated a poor technique against the Indian spinners, playing the sweep shot and it is their inability to play this shot correctly that must be the responsibility of the coach.
Going back to Philpott’s book, “make sure your front leg is thrown wider outside the line of leg stump to cover the break back and the danger of being bowled around the legs” when playing an off spinner like R Ashwin to a left hand batsman.
All three just threw their pad straight down the line of the stumps, missed the ball and were bowled around their legs.
It brought a wry grimace to this observer and bewilderment to how this could happen at Test level. So many coaches, so many poor techniques. I imagine Graeme Swann is salivating at the thought of bowling to these left handers.
Given the plethora of Australian coaches, how can it be that these international batsmen make such a basic batting mistake.
You wonder what the hell is going on. Mickey Arthur oversees the other coaches and if a Test batsman’s techniques are inadequate then he is failing his role.
If this is the case shouldn’t this role be re-labeled team manager because it’s certainly isn’t facilitating coaching.
Test players know their games and often have their own personal batting coaches, someone they trust and who also knows their game.
Leave the coaching to them. This would allow a team manager to be responsible for organising the players to be where they needed to be and arrange practice sessions in conjunction with the captain.
Ultimately the captain should have the say in where, when and how the players train and play.
Players do not need intense coaching at this level, and are obviously not receiving it, just a little overhaul every now and then.
Coaching positions have been a self-perpetuating system and the recent homework shemozzle in India seemed like a case of Arthur trying to justify his position of authority.
Ideally a Test side requires a strong captain as leader with the manager acting as a support, working alongside; he would be responsible for organising the captains’ wishes.
Moving towards England I would expect the Australian batting to be well versed in the art of playing the swinging ball and the bowlers in the art of swinging and seaming the ball.
It is one thing to be beaten by a better team in batting and bowling but if basic elementary batting techniques are exposed you have got to raise the question what are our coaches doing, what are they being paid for and why are our best international players incapable of showing the finer points of batting techniques?
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