Tuesday 26 May 2015 12:32, UK
Nasser Hussain thinks Trevor Bayliss’ experience in one-day cricket could have been the deciding factor in him landing the role of England head coach ahead of Jason Gillespie.
Yorkshire coach Gillespie, who has now ruled himself out of the running for the job, had been the hot favourite to succeed Peter Moores but Sky Sports understands the ECB is now in exclusive negotiations with Bayliss to become England’s next head coach.
And Hussain thinks Bayliss’ experience in the limited overs cricket could have ticked more boxes for ECB director of cricket Andrew Strauss.
“It’s a question of whether Jason said ‘no, it’s not ideal for me’ because of the expected time away from his family or whether there were some other issues,” Hussain told Sky Sports.
“Andrew Strauss will have interviewed all of the candidates and it may be that his gut feeling – and his gut feelings have been pretty good over the years – is Bayliss.
“He very nearly got the job last time and they went for Peter Moores. He’s obviously hugely experienced.
“Jason Gillespie hasn’t done a lot of one-day cricket – Yorkshire haven’t had a huge amount of success – whereas Bayliss has done IPL. England need to look at their one-day cricket so maybe he just ticks more boxes.
Bayliss has plenty of international experience as a coach having coached Sri Lanka for four years between 2007 and 2011 alongside the man standing in as England coach, Paul Farbrace.
Bayliss has not played international cricket – a criticism also labelled at former coach Moores - but Hussain is not concerned about his lack of playing experience should he become England’s next head coach.
Jason Gillespie hasn’t done a lot of one-day cricket – Yorkshire haven’t had a huge amount of success – whereas Bayliss has done IPL. England need to look at their one-day cricket so maybe he just ticks more boxes.
“It doesn’t concern me that he hasn’t played international cricket – Duncan Fletcher only played a bit for Zimbabwe,” he added.
“The key is for him to get in that dressing room and start to get to know the players and get very close to the England captain Alastair Cook and one-day captain Eoin Morgan.
“If the coach is an expert in all forms of the game I’m happy for him to do all – that’s what Darren Lehmann does.
“I do believe that we need to look at our one-day cricket differently so it would be nice to get some sort of external view on what we’ve been doing wrong.”
Meanwhile, Sky Sports expert Shane Warne was surprised that Gillespie has fallen by the wayside but says Bayliss will be a good appointment.
“I’ve obviously played with Jason Gillespie for a long period of time. I think he thought he was the man by all accounts, although I haven’t spoken to him," he said. "Andrew Strauss travelled up to see him and had an interview with him. He looked like the leading candidate.
“I know Trevor Bayliss well. I’ve played a bit of cricket with him and against him; he’s done a wonderful job with all of the teams that he’s coached, whether it be Sri Lanka, the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, New South Wales.
“Everyone is a big fan of Trevor Bayliss. He played cricket in the right way. I think he is more of a background sort of coach – he’s not front and square all of the time; he’s not afraid to give a few rockets when they are needed. He’s fair, he’s harsh and he creates a pretty good environment.
“He’s a good man, a really good man.”
Finally, David Lloyd believes Farbrace is a key reason behind the potential appointment of Bayliss.
“He’s got a great reputation – particularly with the work he did with Sri Lanka," he added. "The key there is that his number two was Paul Farbrace, so they are teaming up again.
“He has coached around the world in all different sorts of formats. He is an old-style coach in my opinion – he will want the players to think for themselves.
“He’ll prepare the way for them and then say ‘over to you’.”
“I think it’s important that Farbrace is there. Bayliss will want to get up to speed quickly with the English game and Farbrace is terrific with the players.
“The one cloud is that he hasn’t played international cricket; that was said about Peter Moores. Bayliss has got this great reputation – he’s a very good man – but he’s not an international cricketer. It will be fine if they win.”
