Model of success

Clive Woodward's single-minded vision turned the England rugby union team into a world power. But could it work for his other sporting love? Alison Kervin asks how the coach's methods could transform cricket

Clive Woodward: transformed English rugby ... could he do the same for English cricket? © Getty Images

Dressed in knee-length shorts and an over-sized England rugby T-shirt, Clive Woodward looks more like a leader of the boy scouts than the head coach of the most feared rugby side in the world. He stands up, paces the room, then sends a hotel porter out to get some information. The media is quietly awaiting his attention but his mind is on other things. There is a large television in the corner of the room. For the fourth time that morning he asks whether it can be switched on to Channel 4.

The porter returns with tidings and Woodward looks thrilled. He skips to the front of the room. "Right - let's get this press conference under way. The cricketers are going well at The Oval," he says. "I think they're going to pull this one off."

Woodward is a big cricket fan. "I watch it whenever I can," he says. "It has so much in common with rugby. The chess-like approach, the people, the attitude and the culture. There is much we can learn from cricket and much they can learn from us."

Interesting. Rugby union has transformed itself under Woodward. If he wins the World Cup in November he will have achieved everything he can in the sport. Could he then waltz into cricket with a plan to make England the best side in the world? Could Woodward, realistically, win World Cup Australia 2003, then World Cup West Indies 2007? Arguably he could. He understands how to manage high-class performance and says that his achievements in rugby have been in driving the sport towards professional standards - a transferrable skill. "I could easily replicate in cricket what I've done in rugby," he says. "Or football or any sport. Top-class performance is about certain key principles."

How did Woodward do it? By recognising that great change cannot be executed by committees and working parties over long lunches and golfing weekends. First, he secured enough money to fund his England dream, an achievement which should not be underestimated. One of Woodward's greatest strengths is his unshakeable conviction that he is doing the right thing. Nowhere was this more evident than in his ability to take the entire Rugby Football Union - with its myriad committees, individuals and county buffoons - with him. Somehow he convinced them to spend around £30m on getting England into pole position for the World Cup. All his subsequent work has been achievable only because of the money at his disposal.

English cricket does not have that kind of money. The ECB's annual turnover is only £67m and the allocation of cricket's revenue is a constant source of debate and dispute. A cost-cutting exercise was one of the radical proposals that did for Lord MacLaurin, whose vision for the England cricket team was as ambitious as Woodward's. But ultimately he left his post when the counties did not rally behind him.

Woodward used much of the £30m on an elite playing programme which brought all the England squads (including the under-21 and sevens teams) under the same financial umbrella - and under his control. He created a talent identification programme, with every side feeding into, indeed existing to feed, the national team.

But the matter of control is still the most contentious one in English cricket. There are any number of authorities (and pressure groups) in the game, most with conflicting ideas on how it should be run. No one has emerged as a clear leader. England have only once given absolute power to a single man - when Ray Illingworth combined the positions of manager and chairman of selectors - and memories of the El Supremo years are not particularly happy.

Control and finance are crucialo to Woodward's success © Getty Images

Woodward then built a team of experts - 14 different coaches, including coaches in defence, attack, throwing, kicking, scrummaging and line-out, as well as a lawyer, fitness experts, video and match analysts, a visual awareness trainer and a medical team big enough to run a small hospital. "Getting the right people is the biggest trick in business," he says. The England cricket team have a much smaller collection of support staff. They recently appointed a full-time medical officer (Peter Gregory) but the fact that the bowling coach (Troy Cooley) is only part-time drew much criticism this summer, as has the lack of a specialist wicketkeeping coach.

Working together, Woodward's team pursued detail, detail, detail. They ploughed into the minutiae of performance and training while Woodward stayed in control of the vision. The coaching team scrutinised everything - even the changing rooms were redesigned (inspirational music in England's and a mop and bucket in the visitors'). On discovering that England play significantly better at the start of the match compared with the start of the second half, Woodward found ways to recreate the pre-match conditions, including a two-minute silent period and fresh shirts. The latter has since been copied by all the other major international sides.

Woodward's vision was to create Team England, a dynamic, professional, confident organisation. He played mind games with the players, for instance dropping key personnel to prove that everyone was vulnerable and no one's place was guaranteed. He made the England team a highly competitive but also fun environment. Being part of Team England turned your career around - it was the team to play for.

Team England is a concept that the ECB adopted from its inception in 1997 when David Lloyd was the England coach. The idea was to foster a closer team spirit and to inspire the development sides by making them feel part of the bigger picture. Mark Butcher is the epitome of its success: since his return to the England team in 2001 he has achieved new personal heights within its stabilising framework.

Woodward knew that to transform England rugby he had to transform the players' mindsets. He had to make them believe that they were the best. Woodward took that aim seriously, creating expectation and refusing distracting excuses. He demands complete honesty from his players. England's cricketers moved towards this under the brutally candid Nasser Hussain. But it is unlikely that Woodward would have found favour with the way Michael Vaughan blamed the county game after the defeat at Headingley.

So, how can Woodward's plan translate to cricket? What is crucial to his success are the issues of control and finance. Only if the cricket authorities were prepared to hand over total control of the future of cricket and vast sums of money to one man could cricket replicate the Woodward era and transform itself so quickly.

Woodward is not just the selector and coach of the national side; he is the most important figure in the modern game. The sport twists and turns around his demands, so that everything that happens happens for the betterment of England. If the ECB were to do the same, it would have to take the same enormous risks. By entrusting Woodward with the money, the RFU effectively showed confidence in him and his team, helping Woodward give them the belief that is so vital to their success. One man, one vision and a bloody great budget did it for rugby. Perhaps it could do it for cricket, too.

Alison Kervin is chief sports feature writer of the Times.

This article was first published in the November 2003 issue of The Wisden Cricketer. Click here for further details.

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