There was Misbah-ul-Haq at the end of the Old Trafford Test in earnest conversation with his old team-mate Saqlain Mushtaq.
Were they pondering how Pakistan might plot their renaissance after being thrashed by England by 330 runs? Probably not. Saqlain was on England’s side in Manchester and there is now the possibility that he might also be enlisted by the ECB during the winter.
Earlier in the day there was a bit of banter between Mushtaq Ahmed and some of the England players. To clarify their relationship: Mushtaq used to coach England’s spinners as well as spending hours throwing balls at Kevin Pietersen in the nets; he is now working with Pakistan.
It was all very friendly in Manchester, which has not quite been the case in Pallekele, where Australia are playing a Test match against Sri Lanka. Muttiah Muralitharan, the iconic spinner of Kandy, whose greatest cricketing torment occurred in Australia, has been recruited by the Australians to offer advice to the spinners in Steve Smith’s team. Before the series began there was an angry exchange of words between Murali and the Sri Lankan team manager, Charith Senanayake.
Murali is, understandably, a hero in Sri Lanka given all the work he has done to raise funds after the tsunami, not to mention all those wickets. And he has never been one to shy away from an argument; he does not appreciate any suggestion of treachery. “These people who are accusing me should go and look in the mirror [and compare] what they are doing to the country and what I am doing”, he said.
“The other fundamental wrong is that when our players become brilliant coaches [he is thinking of the likes of Chandika Hathurusingha, currently the coach of Bangladesh, and Marvan Atapattu] the board chases them off. They are valued far more outside of Sri Lanka. What we do is bring all the top coaches from abroad when we already have talent here. Am I the traitor or are they the traitors? Also the foreign coaches are paid so much more than the Sri Lankan coaches.”
After Murali had let off steam he received messages of support from the two sages of Sri Lanka cricket, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene; the latter recently had a short-term contract with England as a batting adviser.
Unusually, it was all rather more cheerful at the FA’s headquarters when Sam Allardyce was presented as England’s latest football manager. Afterwards there was much talk of Allardyce, who has joked that he might have got the job earlier if his name was Allardici, bringing a much-needed sense of English identity to the national team. This has rarely been a concern in cricketing circles – though Paul Downton was minded to appoint an English coach, who turned out to be Peter Moores, when Andy Flower left the job.
It is understandable how that yearning for national identity is stronger when considering the football team. Footballers spend most of their time with their clubs; they come together for their country sporadically, so any sense of identity must be harder to achieve. The opposite is true of our international cricketers.
For Alastair Cook, Joe Root and the rest England is their club team; they may be loyal to the counties that have nurtured them but the national side is where they find their mates. There is no need to strain for an identity; they are together so frequently that happens automatically; there is no need for a coach to foster one.
Hence the nationality of the coach is far less relevant in cricket. In recent years it so happens that England have been most successful under Duncan Fletcher, Andy Flower and Trevor Bayliss. Currently Pakistan have Mickey Arthur (from South Africa) as head coach, with Steve Rixon (from Australia) and Grant Flower (Zimbabwe) assisting alongside Mushtaq; India have sometimes employed foreign coaches such as John Wright, Greg Chappell, Gary Kirsten and Fletcher; so too have Sri Lanka – without Murali’s wholehearted blessing, it seems – and occasionally the West Indies have done so.
Only Australia, after one unhappy experience with Arthur, and South Africa, with the exception of Bob Woolmer, tend to stick with their own. Mind you, these are the two countries where most of the international coaches seem to be nurtured.
In cricket the quality of the coach is surely more important than his/her nationality and clearly that is how the majority of international sides approach their appointments. The flag, the anthem and some sense of national identity never meant much for me. All those years ago, if I remember correctly, I was as motivated playing for West Australia as for Somerset or England.
Playing for your mates in the team is what matters most, while the odd conversation, or a random tip, from a Murali, a Mushtaq or a Saqlain might just be gold dust.
