“If we get past 60 I’ll be pretty happy,” jokes Michael Di Venuto, the newly appointed head coach of Surrey, whose side begin life back in Division One of the County Championship on Sunday against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, scene of Australia’s spectacular Ashes meltdown last summer.
The 42-year-old, who began his new role last week, was the batting coach for the tourists on that fateful morning in Nottingham last August when, in the space of 90 minutes, Stuart Broad and some particularly adhesive catching by England rolled the tourists for 60 all out in their first innings, effectively winning the series in the process.
Di Venuto’s time with Australia is certainly not defined by that green-top toppling, however, with his three years working in Darren Lehmann’s coaching set-up also featuring a 5-0 Ashes whitewash, the victorious 2015 World Cup campaign and a much-credited role in turning Steve Smith and David Warner from ugly ducklings into international swans.
This reputation, along with 13 years of experience as a leading county batsman, was why Surrey’s director of cricket, Alec Stewart, headhunted Di Venuto through his former Durham team-mate Steve Harmison. A move that took place after the club’s previous head coach, Graham Ford, having overseen last season’s second division title, made the sudden switch to Sri Lanka in January.
“I was in New Zealand at the time working as Australia’s acting head coach – Darren Lehmann had stayed at home after suffering deep vein thrombosis – and I got a message from Harmy saying he’d passed on my contact details,” recalls Di Venuto, a plain-speaking Tasmanian who won nine one-day caps for Australia during his playing career.
“At the time I was negotiating a new contract with Cricket Australia and had in mind at least a couple more years in the job, but then this offer came in. I didn’t even know Surrey had a vacancy but I spoke to people close to me and Darren Lehmann in particular said: ‘Mate, you’ve got to go for it, this is too good to turn down.’ He was excellent about it.”
Not everyone was prepared to say goodbye, with captain Smith understood to have contacted Cricket Australia in the hope they could persuade Di Venuto otherwise; some endorsement from a batsman averaging 60 in Test cricket, and sitting on top of the ICC’s rankings in a three-way game of musical chairs with England’s Joe Root and New Zealand’s Kane Williamson.
“I’d heard bits and pieces [about that],” says Di Venuto. “And that was the hard part, really, letting go of the relationships you build with the players you have worked with. But the opportunity to be a head coach of a club like this and to expand my experience was just too good to turn down.”
In hiring Di Venuto, Stewart believes success stories like Smith’s, a one-time leg-spinning sideshow who has scored 14 Test centuries in the past three years, and Warner, a converted short-form slugger sitting now with a Test average of 50, can be repeated with Surrey’s crop of young batsman and the hard-hitting Jason Roy in particular.
Can such red-ball alchemy be performed with England’s limited-overs opener? “I’m not sure I can make him do that – Jason has to score those runs himself and he has got to want to do the work. But I understand he is a hard worker and I’m looking forward to getting to know him. He’s got to trust me and what I’m about, and we’ll see what happens from there.
“Guys like Smith and Warner, they are both big trainers. They want to be the best and day-in, day-out they train to do that. I spent a lot of time with them over the past few years but it’s down to their own work ethic; they learned how to bat and play their way. Because everyone is different and that’s how I coach: helping players get better at what they do.”
Di Venuto’s own career as an aggressive left-hander saw him rack up 25,200 runs and 60 centuries in first-class cricket, winning the Sheffield Shield with Tasmania in 2006-07 and back-to-back County Championships with Durham in 2008 and 2009, his third English club after spells with Sussex and Derbyshire.
“I learned a lot playing over here although I didn’t pick the best batting wickets in the country. I certainly wouldn’t have minded playing here at The Oval,” he says.
“I love the county game. I made a lot of friends and enjoyed team success at the back end with Durham. They were some of the best moments of my playing career. Success is what it’s all about, especially at that stage when international cricket isn’t going to happen again. And it was about being a role model to the younger players and helping them be the best they could be.”
One such former team-mate to benefit from Di Venuto’s mentoring was Ben Stokes, the England all-rounder who is currently recovering from the torment of last Sunday’s World Twenty20 final defeat to West Indies and the four sixes that creamed off the bat of Carlos Brathwaite in the deciding over.
Di Venuto recalls: “I remember myself and Dale Benkenstein first seeing this kid in the nets before the Champion County fixture in Abu Dhabi in 2010. We looked at each other and knew immediately we had to get him into the team; his talent stood out. It was just a case of playing him, because it was clear he would learn. You look at him now, he’s fit, strong and an excellent cricketer.
“He will be hurting right now but I know he will be fine, because he is one those guys who put themselves on the line because of the characters they are. In the final it didn’t happen for him, on a big stage, but that’s the game and there will be plenty more days when he will win games.”
The pair will likely be reunited on 1 May when Durham visit Surrey, but before then comes Sunday’s opener. Provided they get pass 60, it sounds like Di Venuto’s squad will enjoy working under him, with a player-led approach in keeping with Lehmann, as well as compatriots Jason Gillespie of Yorkshire and the England head coach, Trevor Bayliss.
“I’ve learned a lot from Darren Lehmann over the past three years with Australia and a lot of my philosophies are the same. He is a lover of his players but also not afraid to kick them up the backside if they need it. I’d like to think I’m a relaxed coach – I don’t tend to get too worked up. But we’ll see what happens. I’m sure there will be days when I get grumpy.”
Is Surrey therefore a stepping stone towards one day taking over from Lehmann? “Not at this stage, no. That environment is pretty full on and you average 300 nights away. I have two young kids. The family will come over during school holidays and I’ll return home at the end of the season. So in this job I’ll actually spend a lot more time with them than I did with Australia.”
And how does he expect his newly-promoted team to fare this summer? “We are just quietly going about our business. There has been some terrific work done in the past couple of years under Graham Ford, Alec Stewart and the captain, Gareth Batty. I have only been here a week but it looks like a talented bunch and we’re confident of further progress.”
