Tracksuit XI would hold their own at World Cup

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Wellington

MOST of the focus at the 2015 World Cup is on the players, not the coaches. But a team drawn from the ranks of the dugout denizens - call them the Tracksuit XI - would not disgrace themselves.

In fact, a team consisting of some of those who once did and now teach could win a more games than a few of the teams playing in the tournament. Like England.

Gary Kirsten and Marvan Atapattu - SA’s batting consultant and Sri Lanka’s coach - would make a fine opening pair: a left and right-handed combination who were never given the chance to let fly with the impunity that modern batsmen enjoy because of one-day cricket’s absurd playing conditions.

Grant Flower, Pakistan’s batting coach, is a bulletproof No. 3. SA consultant Mike Hussey, Australian coach Darren Lehmann, and Bangladesh bowling coach Heath Streak would round out the top six.

And how about an attack spearheaded by West Indies bowling coach Curtly Ambrose and Pakistan coach Waqar Younis? Or should that be Shane Bond, New Zealand’s bowling coach, and SA’s Allan Donald? Whichever way around matters not. For a spinner look no further than Pakistan spin coach Mushtaq Ahmed.

Phil Simmons, Ireland’s coach, and Australian bowling coach Craig McDermott could crack the nod as alternatives to Streak and Bond.

There is no obvious wicketkeeper in the side, but if Kirsten could do it once - in an ODI against India in Mumbai in December, 1996 - he can do it again.

Conversely, the team would be spoilt for choice for a captain. Any of Kirsten, Atapattu, Hussey, Lehmann or Waqar could do the job.

Head coaches like SA’s Russell Domingo, Mike Hesson of New Zealand and England’s Peter Moores would be forgiven for taking a sideways smirk at all of the above.

They do, after all, not have a test cap or a one-day international appearance between them. Of the three only Moores has played first-class cricket.

Which, given England’s first-round exit from the tournament despite Moores’ 231 first-class games, could make Domingo and Hesson wonder whether the fact that they come without preconceived ideas of how things should be done - or were done in their day - and a player’s ego is why their teams remain in the running.

A SA-New Zealand final is unlikely given the way the World Cup cookie is crumbling, but if it happens Domingo and Hesson might exchange knowing smiles before they get down to business.

After England crashed out of the tournament by losing to Bangladesh in Adelaide on Monday, their fourth defeat in five games, Moores said, “I’m not going to stand here and say we all shouldn’t take some responsibility. Of course we should. I’m the coach, we have a set of players, and everybody has got to take an amount of the entire responsibility.”

But, as Moores will know having previously served as England’s coach and been fired, he will have to carry a bigger can than anyone else.