Saker won't hold back on his opinions

Fast bowlers might be the "yeah, nah" men of Australian cricket, but their new coach David Saker is no yes man. The newly appointed assistant coach has vowed not to hold back on his opinions when he joins head coach Darren Lehmann in the national set-up, despite their history of what they have both referred to as "robust" discussions.

As coach of Victoria last summer, Saker raised the ire of Lehmann by questioning why Australia would rush fast bowler James Pattinson back from injury, comments that led Lehmann to publicly tell Saker to mind his own business. But Lehmann has spoken of his admiration for Saker's passion and energy, and Saker said he would continue to voice his sentiments in his new role.

"A lot was made out of that, but Darren and I talk on the phone quite regularly and we begged to differ on a few things last year," Saker said in Melbourne on Friday. "But we've both got Australian cricket at heart and we both want the best for Australian cricket.

"Sometimes you need good robust conversations in a group. You can't have people always agreeing. I don't think that's a great environment. That's one of the things that I hope I do bring to the team. I hope I'm honest and say what I think. I think that's important.

"He [Lehmann] probably works a bit similar to me, he's quite relaxed in the dressing room, he knows a lot about the game, he communicates really well. I think those are the things I do well. We do have some really good discussions at times. Obviously throughout the year we did that. But we both have the best interests of Australian cricket at heart."

Saker will join the Australian group in time for the one-day tour of South Africa in September-October, and will leave his position as coach of Victoria after only one season - albeit one in which the Bushrangers won the Sheffield Shield. And Cricket Australia has already floated the likelihood that Saker will step in as head coach at some point in 2017 to give Lehmann a chance for time off.

Western Australia coach Justin Langer was acting head coach during the recent one-day tri-series in the West Indies and has been viewed as a strong candidate to take over the job whenever Lehmann chooses to step down, but Saker's new role will see him well-placed for the position as well. Saker said he did harbour head-coaching ambitions, but first was keen to learn from Lehmann.

"To work with Darren Lehmann and to be maybe put in charge of a tour here and there, that's really inviting," Saker said. "It's a great opportunity and one that I'm really looking forward to.

"This is just another learning curve for me. It's been great, all through my career I've learnt off a lot of really good coaches. Working under Darren Lehmann is going to be the same. It's going to be a really good experience. What happens down the track we don't know, but I'm always keen to keep going with my coaching and see where it goes from there."

Prior to succeeding Greg Shipperd as Victoria coach, Saker spent five years as England's bowling coach and during that time was part of their away Test series wins in Australia and India. His brief with Australia will be to help them achieve similar success in such campaigns, initially in India during a four-Test tour early next year.

"When they've got all their players on the park, they're a really good team," Saker said of Australia. "Mitchell Starc is as good a bowler as there is in the world. I think when they get all their bowlers back and firing, you've got a really good attack. I think the really pleasing thing about it is there's quite a lot. You need six or seven of them, and they've got that.

"Most of them are quite young, compared to Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, who are pretty experienced cricketers. When they get two or three more years of experience, there are going to be some serious bowlers in that group."