Chappell blasts Buchanan

As Australia and England prepare for the most important Ashes Test in recent memory, Ian Chappell has launched a stinging tirade against John Buchanan, the Australian coach.

With Australia struggling to cope against a resurgent England and continuing to be out-thought at key moments throughout the series, much of the criticism has been directed at senior players such as Matthew Hayden, Jason Gillespie and the captain, Ricky Ponting. Although Buchanan's role has also been called into question, the criticism hasn't been as fierce as Chappell's comments.

Speaking to AAP, the former Australian captain told Ponting to take leadership of the team, moving away from Buchanan and instead looking to players such as Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath for advice.

"If I was Ponting, I would be relying on those types of cricketing brains," Chappell said. "Warne is one of the great cricket brains of any time and McGrath is behind him a bit, but not bad either. Why would you listen to Buchanan when you can listen to these blokes?"

Referring to Buchanan's often-questioned and relatively limited playing experience - he played seven Sheffield Shield matches for Queensland in 1978-79 - Chappell said that experience couldn't prepare him for the challenges of Test cricket.

"All this crap I hear about plans now, everybody has a plan when they go out and the plans that come off, they only come off all the time because you are up against a mediocre player. "But if you are bowling to [Garry] Sobers or Viv Richards, you better have seven or eight plans and you better be ready to run right through them four or five times in a day, and be able to suddenly develop another plan when you might see something a bit different."

Chappell also criticised Buchanan's change in attitude while under pressure, referring to several statements the coach has made to the press. "See how angry Buchanan is getting. People are starting to ask him some pertinent questions. He didn't deflect any of the credit when people said `This team has won 16 Tests in a row under John Buchanan'. He was not saying `well hang on, it was the team that won the 16 matches', which is the truth. The one coach that has deflected is John Wright when he coached India. He said 'the coach does nothing I do a bit but it is the players who do it'.

"Buchanan does not deflect the success and he is getting angry now because people are starting to question his coaching."

Buchanan's contract as coach ends next month, although he has stated in the past that he is keen to stay on until the 2007 World Cup. And despite the criticism, his record as coach is among the most impressive in recent years; in 76 Tests under his coaching, Australia have won 54 matches and lost only 11.