England’s new Australian coach, who was on the Sri Lanka team bus attacked by terrorists in 2006, knows how to keep cricket in perspective
“If you look in history at the best players in the world, they’ve all been self-reliant,” said the bespectacled and slightly bestubbled Trevor Bayliss, decked out in an official England training top and speaking the first time in his new role as head coach, on a sweltering Wednesday at Lord’s. “Not only are they single-minded and they know what to do off the field and how to prepare, they are able to make decisions for themselves out on the ground rather than look to the coaching staff for an answer.”
And so, the rumours are seemingly true. In the five weeks since Bayliss was appointed by England’s director of cricket, Andrew Strauss, the void has been filled by the ringing endorsements of those players who have worked under the 52-year-old Australian.
Eoin Morgan, Mahela Jayawardene, Brendon McCullum and Brad Haddin – disciples of his regimes at Kolkata Knight Riders, Sri Lanka and New South Wales – have talked up his ability to empower cricketers by keeping their dressing room calm and delivering concise, considered messages without ever going down the route of hyperbole, or, as Morgan put it, “bullshit”.
“I keep things simple. At the top level it’s about creating a good environment,” Bayliss continued. “If you’ve got a good, honest, hard-working environment where players enjoy what they’re doing, it allows them to go out with less pressure and show off the skills they’ve got.”
These words could have been delivered by Paul Farbrace, who is reunited with Bayliss six years after their time together in the Sri Lanka set-up and who seemingly began the unshackling of England’s cricketers while they awaited the permanent replacement to Peter Moores. “He will be my eyes and ears early on while I get to know the system and the players,” said Bayliss, who admitted his old friend played a part in convincing him to up sticks from Sydney and start a new life in the mother country. “He is a good coach as well. I’m very lucky to have him.”
The pair have been through more than just cricket together, of course, having both been on the team bus that was attacked by terrorists in Lahore in 2009 and saw six policemen and two civilians killed.
“I certainly remember when the bombs and the bullets were flying around,” he said, while demonstrating he was just a matter of inches from being struck. “There was nothing you could do except keep your head down and your arse up.”
Bayliss admits that ordeal, along with the tragic death of the batsman Phillip Hughes last November when playing for South Australia against his New South Wales side, has shaped his outlook on life and keeps the cricket fully in perspective.
Having left his dual roles in Australia and Kolkata following a £400,000-a-year offer from Strauss – an approach he neither courted nor expected having agreed contract extensions at both – Bayliss will not be joined by his wife and two children for at least 12 months because of his 17-year-old daughter’s final year at school.
Now, with a working visa secured, the former first-class batsman can familiarise himself with their new home and continue passing on a message of self-determination to his players that began during their four-day training camp in Spain over the weekend.
“One of my philosophies is that the best coaches are the other 10 players in the team,” he said. “The younger players look up to those older players and learn from them. If you’re watching the right things, listening to those players, asking the right questions, you will learn more about the game actually competing than you will from any coach.”
Whether this player-led approach, the green shoots of which were evident against New Zealand, can bring about an Ashes victory this summer remains to be seen, with just seven days now until the first Test in Cardiff. Much has been made of his inside knowledge of Michael Clarke’s tourists, with nine of his former charges in their 17-man touring party. Yet again, it comes down those who take the field.
“There are enough guys in the England team with enough experience and who have played these guys plenty of times before,” Bayliss said.
How will he feel when the national anthems blare out at the Swalec Stadium just as the sledging-heavy pre-series hype turns into actual bat on ball action? “I am old enough that in the first seven or eight years I was at school I sang God Save the Queen so I know most of the words and probably more than I do of our own at the moment,” he joked.
While Bayliss has worked with the one-day captain, Morgan, at Kolkata, his relationship with Test equivalent Alastair Cook is just days old. Asked if he rated his new ally’s abilities as a leader, he replied: “I’ve not seen him up close or worked with him before. What I will say is that it is a lot easier from the captain’s point of view if the team are playing a good, positive brand of cricket.”
And the overall objective? “Like any other team worth their salt we want to be No1 in Test matches, ODIs and T20s. If you haven’t got those aspirations I think you’re kidding yourself.”
With a CV that includes two Sheffield Shields, two IPL titles, winning the Big Bash League at Sydney Sixers and two ICC limited-overs finals with Sri Lanka, success has followed everywhere Bayliss has worked. To make that hot streak to continue, England’s players will be told to stand on their own two feet. There will be no spoon-feeding.
