Another View - The Dennis Lillee Coaching Plan (27 August 1999)

27 August 1999

Another View - The Dennis Lillee Coaching Plan

Colin Croft

I find absolutely nothing wrong with the fact that the great former Australian fast bowler Dennis Keith Lillee has been contacted and contracted to come to the Caribbean to coach our younger fast bowlers in their art.

Dennis Lillee is, to my mind, simply the best fast bowler to have played Test cricket in my lifetime. Please remember that this is coming from someone who has played, along with many other fine fast bowlers, in a West Indies cricket team dominated by fast bowlers, Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding included. No-one has ever been able to control all of the important aspects of fast bowling, including determination, guile, outright aggression and a never-say-die attitude as well as D.K.

Here is another thought. When was the last time, if ever, that anyone has seen the promising Guyanese fast bowler, Reon King, bowl a "bouncer"? The young West Indian fast bowlers are simply too soft. Most of them lack that special aggression, attitude and confidence to perform well at the top of their game. Some of them are rude and self-centered, but they have no real cricket attitude. If anything, Lillee, more than anyone else, should be able to instill some streak of being "mean on the field", but professional at all times, into our young quickies.

It has been suggested that the West Indies have produced so many great fast bowlers in the past that perhaps the contract should have been given to one or a few of us. While there is some great merit in that attitude, I prefer to compare cricket to aviation. Both are rather big in their own way

If an airliner crashes, all of the airline companies, as bitter commercial rivals and enemies as they are, come together to find out where the mistakes had been made, and to try to find solutions so that there would be no similar mistakes in the future. It makes sense to the airlines to collaborate on the investigations and share their findings and to help each other. In a very similar way, cricket could benefit from that type of collective highly progressive attitude.

Some may say that Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts, Wayne Daniel, even Colin Croft and perhaps Ian Bishop and Ezra Moseley could have been asked to do this assignment instead of Dennis Lillee. That may be true, but a man is seldom really appreciated by his own. If no-one else knows that, believe me, from the experiences I have had in the Caribbean, I know!

It should also be noted that both Andy Roberts and Malcolm Marshall have been coaches of the senior West Indies Cricket team in the recent past, but nothing special has happened to the performances or attitudes of the young fast bowlers. They still produce very little on the field of play while being sulking and unfriendly of the field. The old masters Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose are still, in the evening of their careers, carrying the torch, both in friendliness and performances. Our young fast bowlers need help badly!

I know for a fact that at least Michael Holding and myself have done many clinics and coaching sessions in Australia, the United Kingdom and elsewhere worldwide. Indeed, when the West Indies were in South Africa late last year, I was asked no fewer that 12 times during that three month tour to go to various places, including schools, to give pointers on the art of fast bowling. I had no problem doing so. Incidentally, this exact offer was made to both the Guyana Cricket Board and the West Indies Cricket Board many times. The offer has not yet been taken up by these bodies.

If past cricketers, especially really good ones, from anywhere, could be used in any way to enhance the wonderful game of cricket, then that should be done. We in the Caribbean do not possess such riches these days that we can afford to ignore help from anywhere.

In the meantime, most of us are still very available to help the West Indies cricket fraternity if ever we were asked to do so. It is not for want of asking that we have not been involved. Simply, it seems that the Caribbean does not always want people around who could really be honest and try to bring about change. Perhaps we like what we have.

In any case, at least Andy Roberts is going to be involved with Lillee sessions. Let us hope that Andy, among others, also learns something of being authoritative. You will remember that it was he, as the then Manager/Coach of the senior West Indies cricket team, who lamented, in Barbados in 1995, that "the players were not listening to me!" In the normal American way of sport, Andy would have been fired immediately, on the spot, for such a remark. We must like what we have, but I hope it changes.

Roberts, and hopefully many others, would now have an opportunity to learn something other than fast bowling from another great for mer player, as is Roberts. Lillee has done a fine job with coaching and teaching assertiveness, confidence and skills to younger players, especially in India, Sri Lanka and at home at the now renowned Australian Cricket Academy. This is the same establishment that has produced the players that, these days, have contrived to make Australia the World Champions of cricket. That Academy and Australia advent to the top of the cricket world did not happen by accident. It was a plan fully activated.

We in the Caribbean cannot allow ourselves to be further bogged down in the insularity that has crippled our cricket over the last decade or so. With our recent dismal cricket performances in our minds, we must learn to be very much more open to criticism and hard facts. We must learn to recognize that help is available and to accept that help. We should be very pleased to have anyone, from anywhere, make an effort to try to help us.

I sincerely hope that the young players of the region take this golden opportunity to learn something real about this tough game of cricket from a really great past player. Dennis Lillee is a player who was always tough, professional but fair and, off the field, very friendly. Dennis Lillee could easily be described as "a truly great cricketer." His greatness will live on!

Source :: Colin Croft