David Lloyd - Facing Up To The England Challenge (01 Apr 1996)

David Lloyd - Facing up to the England challenge with pride and joy

BY STEVE YARNELL

EVERY upbeat word he utters is music to the ears of the depressed cricket followers of England. "I`ve got flipping lions roaring off my chest, me," says David Lloyd, barely containing his enthusiasm. "Them and red roses. Lancashire and England - that`s me. When your country wants you, you jump at the opportunity. There`s no thinking about it."

The new England coach was speaking in that familiar, engaging Accrington accent in the unlikely setting of the Wexford Court Hotel in Jamaica`s Montego Bay, venue of Lancashire`s preseason tour. Breakfast with, appropriately, Michael Atherton on Friday had been interrupted by a phone call from A C Smith offering him the job, the first of many from England that day for the besieged hotel operator to deal with.

All callers wanted to speak to the man who, when arriving as a teenager in the mid-sixties at the `dogs home` - Lancashire`s dressing room for uncapped players - was quickly dubbed `Bumble`, not because he was always buzzing around but because of his alleged likeness to the Michael Bentine puppets, the Bumblies. They all had very big noses.

"They`ve all been on. All the big cricket writers. I even had a call from the Press Association of Puerto Rico. Trouble is, it`s hard to ring `em back from here," said Lloyd, feeling guilty that he could not maintain his refreshing custom of always returning calls. "My club have been the prime movers in all this. The TCCB had to approach them first, not me. They are very supportive employers who realise that counties must support the national team. Lancashire are as thrilled for me as I am to get the job."

And there lies the rub. Lloyd, 49, may ooze passion for cricket and revel in self-deprecating humour, but he has never let his excitement cloud his judgment in a wide ranging postplaying career that is notable for its shrewdness and commercial sense. He negotiated with Lancashire, for instance, when he became their coach to continue broadcasting on Test Match Special for three matches each summer, to maintain his public profile and advertise his successful after dinner speaking.

I`ll also give them a kick up the arse when they deserve it. I may always be smiling but sometimes it`s the smile of an assassin

Now, after John Emburey`s withdrawal from the England running because of worries over long-term security, Lloyd has managed to negotiate himself into a position where he cannot lose, even though the new England coach`s job only offers a five-month contract and 25,000. If things do not work out he will return to Old Trafford. In football parlance, he is on loan to England.

"The contract is not a problem. I`ve always worked at Lancashire without one," he says. "I would hope we would have some sort of continuity with England at the end of the season but that`s up to the Board. In the meantime we`ve got some cricket to play and I want to beat India and Pakistan 3-0."

But how does he plan to do that? Is English cricket not at its lowest ebb? "I`m not kidding myself it`s going to be easy," he says, "Heartaches and ups and downs go with the territory. But it must be fun. And I must be a caring bloke. It`s up to me to help the England players achieve their ambitions and that means help with technique, the mental side of the game, confidence and emotion. I will be protective of my players and give them a cuddle from time to time.

"But I`ll also give them a kick up the arse when they deserve it. I may always be smiling but sometimes it`s the smile of an assassin!"

An unlikely assassin, perhaps, but one who does not lack intensity and a short fuse when things do not go right. Graeme Fowler, who learnt how to open the batting from Lloyd, remembers a Lancastrian cup defeat at the hands of Northamptonshire in 1981. "We had 10 overs to get their last wicket and Michael Holding had five of them," said Fowler.

"He can go absolutely mental, and he may have to alter his attitude slightly in the England dressing room, but it`s because he cares so much.

"Geoff Cook and Wayne Larkins had already gone to the pub because they were so sure they`d lose but it came down to the last over. Bumble had to bowl it and I was the keeper. I conceded four byes and they won - Bumble just sat on the wicket, picking at grass for ages and then came back to the dressing room and disappeared under the table drinking brown ale. Then he just smashed the bottles against the wall.

"He can go absolutely mental, and he may have to alter his attitude slightly in the England dressing room, but it`s because he cares so much. He soon forgets about any blow up and his passion for the game is incredible."

That all-consuming passion - Lloyd was asked, over dinner in Zimbabwe this winter while coaching the England under-19s which political party he supported and he just replied: "None of them. Apart from my family I`m only interested in cricket." - has seen him become one of the most innovative coaches in England. When asked whether he will emulate Bob Woolmer`s `modern` scientific approach to the job, his answer was simple. "We`ve been employing many of those methods at Lancashire for ages."

Fowler, like Lloyd a member of the left-handed Accrington-born trio, together with Eddie Paynter, to score Test double hundreds, concurs. "Bumble will bring a lot of new ideas to the job," he says. "He`s always been one for theories. They`ll be dieticians, psychologists and probably a lot of fruit to eat since he`s been introducing a programme on it for Channel 4!

"And he`s flexible. He taught me to play square on to fast bowling but then, years later, when I was having a bad patch, I asked him to help. Straight away he told me to get sideways and I said `but it was you who told me to get chest on`. He replied: `Yes, but I`m still learning. You`re always learning.` "

Now Lloyd will be learning at the deep end. Nine Tests in the Seventies - all his 13 dismissals, curiously, saw him caught - a blasting from Lillee and Thomson which prematurely ended his England career and two under-19 tours as coach are hardly sufficient preparation for the challenges ahead and he may need protecting from the excesses of the press by Ray Illingworth and John Barclay if setbacks prompt his manic side to surface publicly.

"The players just ran out of petrol in South Africa and the World Cup. I felt for them.

Yet he has the support of the England captain and will be made to feel at home by the presence of the large English Lancastrian contingent. A danger, perhaps, of Lancastrian bias?

"No. I`m comfortable with the prospect of being objective about my own players. I liken it to when I umpired. If the ball hits the pad and it`s in front your finger goes up. You don`t worry about being friends with the victim." And can England look forward to happier times? "We`ve got to go out there and show people we can play," Lloyd enthuses.

"The players just ran out of petrol in South Africa and the World Cup. I felt for them. It`s not for me to concentrate on our system and itineraries, I`ve just got to get everyone pulling in the same direction. It annoyed me, for instance, to hear people criticising Lancashire for making Michael Atherton join us here in Jamaica. Fact is, he`s recharging his batteries, doing his own training programme and not getting involved in playing matches. It can only do him good.

"I will be as enthusiastic as any man can be over the next few months and will be looking to instil confidence. I look at the success Alex Ferguson has had over the road and I think `I`d like to be like him.` Fergie and Bill Shankly. They`re the ones I admire. That Shanks quote about football being more important than life and death? Well, that`s me and cricket.

But it has not always been a bed of red roses. "I`ve seen grown men crying in our dressing room when Dominic Cork played out of his skin to win a cup game for Derby against us, so I know what it`s all about. You`ve got to enjoy the good times by remembering how upsetting the bad ones can be. We`re going to have a look at it this summer and see what we can do." With a smile.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)