Stephen Fleming, England’s latest men’s Head Coach, was notably absent from the inaugural Test of the Root-Fleming era, preferring to stay at home with family in New Zealand. Admittedly his prerogative, as his official duties begin later on with tour of South Africa beginning in mid-December, though the optics were decidedly poor.
But what did the England team miss by Fleming’s absence? This is, in part, one for the trio at the ECB’s helm – Thompson, Gould and Key. Not content with lavishing millions of pounds on a Head Coach in McCullum (initially, approximately £2 million per annum, with a substantial rise in 2024 upon his extension to coach England’s white ball teams) – a person who has been addicted to gambling in all walks of life, and ultimately had to be sacked for his ingrained addiction – the trio have lashed out on another high priced Kiwi with a four-year contract (the exact fee, it seems, not as yet publicly disclosed).
Fleming also appointed, like McCullum, with no experience of coaching a Test cricket team – none whatsoever! This is, in its wake, robbing English county championship cricket of much needed support. Can you really imagine this happening in the world of professional football, appointing someone without any directly relevant experience?
The erstwhile Brendon McCullum’s merit was the refreshed positive attitude he brought to the England players following their languishing in a lengthy series of defeats. Ironically, he pointedly brought on board a Kiwi sports psychologist – Gilbert Enoka – whilst virtually ignoring the ECB’s appointed Chris Marshall (in post up to December last year, his contract not being renewed).
The ECB has replaced Marshall with someone by the rather exotic name of Jon Marzetti. So with Marzetti now in the wings, that is the England team’s psychology role filled. And Joe Root has taken on himself, perhaps rightly, to lay down team cultural guidelines – including don’t drink alcohol and get inebriated in public when celebrating a win, and suchlike, with veiled sanctions up his sleeve. Root is also taking care of on-field tactics and match strategy, as displayed during the just completed three match series against Pakistan. He didn’t need to either fill-in Marcus Trescothick or have resort to a non-playing “captain” as in golf’s Ryder Cup style. So, realistically, what dimension of real importance can Fleming bring that’s not already catered for. IMO, precisely Nothing!
The same basically goes for Australia, India et alia. When you think of players like Frank Worrell, Garry Sobers, Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards captaining West Indies, can you name the Head Coach – if, indeed, there was one! And likewise Allan Border and Pat Cummins for Australia, and Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Babar Azam for Pakistan; and Andy Flower for Zimbabwe. Just witness their body language and leadership to realise that any Head Coach would, very largely, be superfluous!
In England’s case, a Head Coach has been something of an obsession to “get right”, partly because the selectors have chopped and changed the captain so frequently and virtually at whim. Consider the 1970s: the succession of Illingworth, Denness, Lewis, Edrich, Greig, Brearley and Boycott. Then for the 1980s: Botham, Fletcher, Willis, Gower, Emburey, Chris Cowdrey and Gooch. And, rest assured, I’m not just making this up for a good story!
Some of the specialist coaching roles are undeniably valuable, such as England’s Sarah Taylor who Adam Gilchrist rated the world’s best in action and is currently teaching Jamie Smith how to do it more effectively at Test level. But having a batting coach is a monumental waste of money: all, or nearly all, specialist and all-rounder batsmen will reply on their own personal coach, as and when needed. Likewise for the counterpart bowlers.