Interview
I don’t want to travel the world with the national team: Siddons
Jamie Siddons and Mominul Haque arrived at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur in early morning on Saturday. The Australian batting coach worked with Mominul for two hours at a stretch and seemingly relished that lengthy session. Since returning to Bangladesh cricket for his second tenure, Siddons has expressed his desire to work outside of the national team’s bubble. But the busy schedule of the Bangladesh team kept him from doing so.
Finally, he is getting that chance. He has officially been named the batting coach of the Bangladesh ‘A’ team and Bangladesh Tigers. The former Bangladesh head coach got initially ‘relegated’ to batting coach in his second stint. Now, he is out of the national team’s coaching panel entirely. Siddons, however, is not finding it difficult to adjust as this is exactly what he wanted from the beginning. In an interview with Prothom Alo on Saturday, Siddons spoke about his new role and shared what he hopes to achieve in his new post.
Q :
You always wanted to bat with young batsmen. Finally, you have officially received that opportunity…
It’s a big move for me. Every coach wants to work with the national team, everyone. I want to add my value to Bangladesh Cricket Board. My main skill is teaching of the skills… Not just how to play but how to succeed at international level. I see lots of holes in that area and that is where I can add value and that is why I asked them to put me down there because if you want me to add value and what you pay me and spending my time in Bangladesh and not with my children, the best value I can add is to work with the younger players and not travelling the world with national team players. Although that’s the glory and that’s what every coach would love to do. But my vision is to work down and long term.
Q :
What kept you from doing this when you were working with the national team?
They are always preparing to play, not preparing to get better. You can do little bits but not like how I trained today (with Mominul). You cannot do one to one with players for two hours, you cannot do it. You cannot have the opportunity because they are always travelling, always preparing for the next game. Making changes when you are playing a Test match is nearly impossible.
Q :
What was your experience working with the national team this time around?
I think my contract is batting consultant and that is working everywhere. I think they (national team) lost their batting coach and I loved that I got the opportunity to go internationally and that’s great fun and more so after we started to win after six months. Batsmen started to come good which I think is lot for me but the timing is really good for me and the players are doing well. Chandi (head coach Chandika Hathurusingha) is a really good batting coach in the same mould like me and we have very similar views in batting. I don’t know who their next batting coach is. They can always come back to me.
Q :
A number of Bangladesh’s best ever cricketers emerged during your last tenure. Do you hope to do the same in your new role?
It will take time. We just played one shot today and Mominul might play that in a Test match in six months. He doesn’t have pull shots and we are starting them and that might take time for him. He can be exposed in a Test match with short balls, maybe. When you can take away all the weaknesses that is when you become a good player. That is why Mushy (Mushfiqur Rahim) is such a great player. You can’t get tied down. In one-day cricket, you have to play your shots and have a bigger game plan because we can’t have restricted games plans. We got to have expansive game plans and to do that we need to have lot more shots and that takes lots of time. I think if I work in this role for three years and work with players like Dipu (Shahadat Hossain) and others. I know he is an HP (High Performance unit) player, you have really good players. You might have another Shakib or Mushy.
Q :
Both Shakib and Mushfiq have played in all three formats for Bangladesh for a long time. Shakib is still active in every format. Nurturing new three format batsmen, will that be your biggest challenge?
A hundred per cent. I am not coaching for Test cricket, I am coaching them to be better players. Most practice sweeps and reverse sweeps and that is needed in all formats of cricket. So you can’t be restricted and can’t be limited because you need to have pick-up shots in Test cricket. He (Mominul) wants to play in BPL (Bangladesh Premier League) and I guarantee in 12 months’ time he will play BPL.
Q :
Was that the thinking behind picking Afif Hossain and Mohammad Naim for the ‘A’ team? Because Afif is known to be a white-ball cricketer. For the first time he has been considered for four-day matches…
Afif doesn’t want to play only white-ball cricket. He thinks he is a good four-day cricketer. So with practice and with patience in his leaving the ball game and defensive game, he will do well. He has got all the shots and now we need him in four-day cricket… He is a very good one-day player and I hope he is back in the national team soon. He is developing. I am working with him for all formats.
Q :
In this new role, how crucial will your relationship with Hathurusingha be?
I was always asking for this role before Chandi got in. But the big thing is that it’s not only Chandi but with all the coaches like the BPL coaches and making them understand that I’m here to help and not to take their players away. So I need to guide them and need to help them. Not tell them what to do but to guide them and give them other ideas.
Q :
Will you be training the local coaches as well in this new role…
I haven’t seen many of the coaches to be fair. I have been travelling with the national team. Now I should be able to see how they train and see how they teach the skill of the game. I am more interested in skills and how do you teach certain shots of the game, what your expectations of the player is, where you set them up and what directions you are giving them. Are they practicing the skills or playing games all the time. That is where I can help them. At least I have got some experience of international level and every time I talk to them I say I know you got to be really good to find success in that level and they know how good they have to be to succeed in international level.
Q :
You were talking about ‘IB Cricket’ technology with Mominul. How much does this technology help in coaching?
I just talked with Mominul about that I use IB (a device planted in the bat that helps the batter to know about his bat speed and other things) in Australia. I just told him that would he be happy to know more about his batting and he said that will be great. I will set that up for him maybe not tomorrow but I have got those things in my bag. You put that in your bat and that gives details on your bat speed, bat power and swing direction. It also gives you every shots clip visions and as soon as he completes his session he will go to IMO to see every ball that he hit, maybe watch himself and learn a little bit about his batting. It helps and everyone likes to watch themselves and see things that I am talking about. They see and say oh that’s right and will come back as a better player next day, you can see the improvement. That’s one thing and all the stats that you get and all those little bio-mechanics also help and coaches can do that.
Q :
You have spoken many times about the need of good wickets to improve batting. What’s your experience been like in the last one year?
I think it’s still an issue here (Dhaka) as wickets make it hard to play shots. But in Chattogram and elsewhere, the wicket is good and occasionally we get good wickets here. I think in concrete wickets you can practice and play anywhere else in the world. But more often than not we play in really good wickets now. The World Cup will be played in great wickets and the mindset will be like the Sylhet game when we broke all the records, scored 340 odds and on a good wicket players are capable of playing that way.
Q :
What are your thoughts on playing aggressive cricket in Tests?
I think Mushy and Sakib play in that manner depending on the pitch. They can score fast if we put them on good wickets. Sometimes we prepare a wicket that suits our bowling attack. But now we have fast bowlers, we can have great wickets and still win Test matches. Chandi is very keen on playing in good wickets. Not reckless, just be brave enough to play the shots. I think if Shanto (Najmul Hossain) and Hridoy (Towhid Hridoy) play Test cricket they will score fast. Shanto is improving day by day while Hridoy is a really good player.
Q :
Shanto is now scoring runs consistently. What changes have you noticed in his batting?
I think Shakib helps him a lot and gives him confidence to play his game. Chandi is the same, he gives him lots of confidence playing his natural game. Now he is confident that he is going to get picked and not worried about getting dropped. In the first six months everyone wanted him to be out of the team. But now the people that supported him have been proven right. He is now very consistent.
Q :
Shanto was given a lot of opportunities…
I think Russell Domingo (former Bangladesh head coach) was very good at that. He backed players for a long time, sometimes too long maybe. Now, young players that get dropped from the national team will come back to me and they will get better and can make a comeback as a better player. I am their safety net and it’s not a bad thing because they will get better and come back stronger. They are not going to be forgotten and now they have got a safety net to come back to. They have to be given that chance. International cricket is a big step and it’s a tough transition.
Q :
ODI World Cup will take place this year. How do you rate Bangladesh’s chances?
On our day, we are as good as anyone. We proved that against India and England and they are two better teams and we competed. I have no doubt if we play well in the World Cup we can do really well. We have got some great young talents there and got some really good senior players. Mushy is in the peak of his form in white-ball cricket and Shakib is batting as well as I have ever seen him. Tamim is close to his best and working hard and then we got a great team.
Q :
Mushfiq has done well batting at no.6 in ODIs. How do you rate him as a finisher?
He always had the power and the back lift and I am happy. I know what can happen with that bat swing. We are not 6.2 feet tall like English players. We need to swing the bat properly if we want power. He proved to be a good finisher and he might do that in a different way like hitting lots of fours and not a lot of sixes. Now there is only four fielders out at the majority of a game and Mushy can play at all parts of the ground and can find gaps. I think Chandi put him there and gave him confidence.