Fletcher will bring firm hand to task of lifting England (25 June 1999)

25 June 1999

Fletcher will bring firm hand to task of lifting England

Charles Randall

This time Duncan Fletcher, a respected disciplinarian, has got the job as England coach and the name of Bob Woolmer was once again not far away.

In 1994 Fletcher seemed destined to replace Mike Procter as national coach of South Africa before the authorities decided to appoint Woolmer from a short-list of three candidates.

The wheel moves round a few clicks, and Fletcher and Woolmer have found themselves in line once more, this time for the England job, with Woolmer again first choice before ruling himself out of consideration.

Dave Houghton, Zimbabwe's coach, knows from experience that England have made a "formidable" choice, and the Glamorgan club, the 1997 County Champions under Fletcher's guidance, would agree.

Houghton, a member of Zimbabwe's 1983 World Cup giant-killers, recalls how Fletcher, as captain, instilled a professional approach that formed the basis of achievement seemingly beyond the country's potential, as evidenced during the recent World Cup.

Houghton said: "I think he'll do a very good job for England. I remember him as captain when there was no coach - captains did everything in those days. Duncan introduced the physical fitness side and extra special effort in the fielding.

"He was a very hard man. He expected absolute discipline, which he got. He commanded absolute respect and he wanted you to perform. If you weren't performing, you weren't going to be around in the team too long.

"Socially he's a very nice guy, but business is business, and when it comes to business, he expects the best quality you can give him.

"He comes in with a great record behind him and he's got an excellent knowledge of the game. He's quite innovative and I think he'll bring in a lot of new ideas towards practice, fielding and so on."

England supporters would be relieved to know that Fletcher has squeezed results out of the most unpromising material, for example as captain of Zimbabwe when his side beat Australia in the 1983 World Cup and had India, the eventual champions, 17 for five. Most people have forgotten they beat Pakistan, one of the tournament favourites, in a warm-up match.

Glamorgan, though talented enough, must have been underachieving for several seasons before, under Fletcher's mature rule, they stormed to the 1997 County Championship. His winter job, guiding Western Province into South Africa's four-day champions, has been similarly successful.

Looking back, he did not feel disappointment at missing out to Woolmer in South Africa. He said: "I remember coming out of my interview and thinking I wasn't quite ready for it. I would certainly like to do it some time in the future." He could not have imagined his step up would be with England.

Sport has been in the Fletcher family's blood. His sister Anne won a gold medal with Zimbabwe's hockey team in the Moscow Olympics; his elder brother Colin played squash for South Africa during the apartheid era and his younger brother Allan became a double international for Zimbabwe at cricket and hockey.

Two years ago Fletcher was looking towards moving into cricket administration, but that was before Glamorgan's success brought joy to the Welsh cricket community. If anyone can shake England into a successful unit, he can.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph