“I like the idea of a foreign coach, because they bring a fresh perspective”
The role of the coach is endlessly debated in cricket. In the 2017 edition, Wisden asked several leading coaches to discuss their approaches to the job.
Micky Stewart
Towards the end of my ten years as Surrey captain I could see cricket was changing. The commercial side of the game was getting bigger, and winning trophies was the priority. County captains had always run the show, on and off the field, but I could see that the increased demand for success was going to require someone akin to a football manager to help bear the load.
I was aware of the opposition within the game, particularly as it conjured up the structure of a professional football club. Even so, Surrey invited me to be their first cricket manager in 1979, and seven years later I was asked to do the job for England – mind you, I didn’t accept it until the TCCB agreed to the title of team manager. Their preference was for assistant manager, again because it had less of a football connotation.
He came to talk to us in New Zealand once, and told us about the first day he handed out analysis sheets to his Queensland players: Matthew Hayden loved it, Andrew Symonds was a little confused, Allan Border threw his in the bin. John knew his players would react differently, but it didn’t faze him. I’ve never been averse to trying something new that seems a bit crazy. When I was New Zealand coach, one of my big concerns was that, with so many staff and so much data, players had stopped thinking for themselves and communicating with one another. So we looked at a system of peer appraisals used in Australian Rules, where the players would fill in an assessment of the team’s performance at the end of a day’s play. We made some mistakes along the way – it took too long and it wasn’t suited to Test cricket – but I make no apologies for that. Somebody has to get the ball rolling. As a coach you’ve got to be self-assured and unafraid of failure.
The Ireland job has been very enjoyable because it’s a case of back to the future. It’s a bit like New Zealand in the 1980s. A lack of facilities means the players practise at their clubs, and the coach goes with them, so I’ll book a net with Kevin O’Brien at Railway Union CC. Ireland players have a massive affiliation with their local club. It’s earthy, based around families and communities, and makes for self-sufficient cricketers. In terms of teaching the skills of cricket, I have one overriding philosophy: coach the player using his technique, not a technique.
John Bracewell coached New Zealand for five years from November 2003, and Ireland from April 2015 to December 2017. He has had two spells at Gloucestershire.
