Gary Kirsten was batting down the
order as low as No 9, bowling some off
spin and having a lot of fun at the bar
when Duncan Fletcher arrived as
coach at the University of Cape Town in- Fletcher persuaded the young
“loveable rogue”, as he termed him, that
he could become a serious batsman.
First Kirsten moved up to No 4 and
then to the top of the order. Soon
Western Province came calling and
then South Africa. Kirsten ended up
playing 101 Tests and making 21 centu-
ries. He was a serious player all right.
Fletcher, who was so successful as
England head coach between 1999 and
2007, was a mentor to Kirsten as a
player and as a coach, becoming a
father figure to him. Indeed Kirsten
recommended that Fletcher take over
from him as India’s head coach in 2011.
And now, after being overlooked for
the England job in 2015 and 2019, it
seems increasingly likely that Kirsten
will be a strong candidate to replace
Chris Silverwood after this Ashes
series, if, as is expected, England decide
to make a change at the helm of their
coaching set-up.
If Kirsten can have the same influ-
ence as Fletcher did in being the sharp-
est batting technical guru the English
game has seen, then that will surely be
a significant step forward in England’s
desperate need to improve its Test
fortunes.
Kirsten, 54, missed out in 2019 to Sil-
verwood for a couple of reasons: one
that he did not want to oversee all for-
mats and two that his presentation and
interview were apparently not as slick
as Silverwood’s. Neither should be a
problem now, especially as you would
hope now that Ashley Giles, the ECB’s
managing director of men’s cricket, has
realised that his troubled experiences
of a split role as one-day coach with
head honcho Andy Flower from 2012 to
2014 is not a reliable indicator of today’s
pressures and requirements. You would
also hope that Kirsten’s CV – he has
taken India and South Africa to the top
of the world Test rankings, and coached
India to the World Cup on home soil in
2011 – speaks rather more eloquently
than any response in a boardroom.
“The England job is always a consid-
eration because it is a tremendous
honour,” Kirsten told talkSPORT’s
Billings and Curran put on Ashes alert
CONTINUED FROM FRONT
philosophical guy who has had
certain things go on in his life, so he’ll
say, ‘This is cricket, we’ll play to win, but
can you get better?’ He’ll bring a bit of
energy and a nice sense of perspective.”
In 2004, two years after his brother
Ben died aged 24 in a car crash in Aus-
tralia, Hollioake retired from cricket. “Ijust fell out of love with the game,” he
told the Daily Mirror yesterday. “But
now I have come full circle. I just love it
again so to even be considered to be a
small part of this tour is an honour.”
Head was reported to be
asymptomatic and will remain in
Melbourne to isolate with his partner
for seven days, in line with Victoria
government health requirements.
Cricket Australia said that he should
be available for selection for the final
Test, scheduled to take place in Hobart
from January 14. Australia have added
Mitchell Marsh, Nic Maddinson and
Josh Inglis to their squad.put several players who are involved in
the Big Bash tournament on alert.
These include Sam Billings, Tom Cur-
ran, Ben Duckett and Saqib Mahmood.
Speaking before England’s flight to
Sydney, Thorpe said of Hollioake: “He’s
not just another set of hands. He tried to
help us out with some stuff up on the
Gold Coast [where England trained
during their quarantine after arriving]
as well. He knows the players.
“He will be comfortable in the
dressing room. He’s a pretty good,Kirsten has enjoyed success
with South Africa and IndiaFletcher disciple ready to
go in and bat for England
Cricket Collective podcast. “I’ve walked
this journey twice now [in 2015 and
2019] and I’ve always made it clear that
I would never commit to doing all
formats.
“I’ve tabled on a number occasions
now — and not just with England but
all around the world – that you need to
create specialist coaches in different
formats.
“Some of the guys who are involved
in franchise T20 cricket have done hun-
dreds of games as coaches — they have
a lot more experience than any inter-
national coaches. The time has come
for having different coaches in different
formats. And obviously with Covid
being such a challenge for players and
coaches travelling the world, it high-
lights it even more.”
Kirsten has his eyes firmly on
England’s Test cricket. “My focus is al-
ways on the format where I think the
team can reach new heights and it feels
like English Test cricket has a great
chance to reset and make sure they
have a formidable team, like they have
with the one-day team and the shorter
formats,” he said. “The team hardly
changes and that is what needs to
happen with the Test side.”
The one caveat is that Kirsten may
not be the strong, authoritarian voice
some have suggested that England
need now. Another South African, Gra-
ham Ford, or indeed Australia’s Justin
Langer, would fit that bill better, as
Kirsten much prefers Fletcher’s
view as the coach being the con-
sultant, and the captain being the
more dominant figure.
“The coach is not the man to
sit on the parapets in cricket
— it’s not like soccer,”
Kirsten once told me.
“Duncan taught me
that.” Kirsten’s time
with India con-
firmed that because
there were teething
problems in that role, as he tried
a little too hard to impress,
clashing with some senior
players over the number of
meetings before settling down.
Despite coaching Welsh Fire
in the Hundred last season,
Kirsten is no aficionado of
county cricket, but that should
not be an obstacle. Trevor Bay-
liss wasn’t either, memorably
asking Jos Buttler during his
first Test in charge which
county he played for, and he,
like Fletcher and Flower, was
able to cut through county
cricket’s maze of prioritiesand agendas more easily than a home-
grown coach. And Kirsten learnt
enough last summer to know where the
big difficulty lies: England’s top six and
their techniques.
“I was fortunate to have a short stint
at the Hundred and to understand
English cricket a little more,” he said.
“There’s a lot to be encouraged and im-
pressed by. I asked a number of county
coaches and senior players who their
top six would be in their batting line-up
for the Test side, and I never got the
same answer from anyone. For me,
that’s a red flag.
“For me every great Test playing
team has a very secure top six. You
should know who your top six techni-
cally best England Test batsmen are.
“Test-match batting is about great
techniques, not about makeshift tech-
niques, but about being able to handle
the best bowlers in the world in difficult
conditions. It is as simple as that. That’s
what makes a great Test-match
batsman. Wickets are important, but
your top six sets up games.”
Kirsten would immediately want to
involve Sir Alastair Cook.
“The first conversation I would have
with the powers that be is: make sure
you have five or six people in the room
who are the best Test-match experts
you could have in English cricket,” he
said. “So for me, the number one stand-
out would be Alastair Cook. He would
have to be in the room to discuss the
game going forward at Test-match
level in England.
“Importantly, those best cricket
minds need to agree on a top six bat-
ting line-up where everyone
agrees that technically these
are the best players in the
country, and then you can
move forward.”
And Kirsten would not
advocate the ‘batting time’
mentality that has seen
England’s batting become
too mired in negativity
and uncertainty.
“I’ve been fascinated
with the batting in
England,” he said. “Joe
Root is a standout, an
unbelievable Test match
cricketer. But it blows me
away that you could think
batting at two runs an over
up front would be a way to
go in Test-match cricket. It
is not. You get found out
very quickly because you
can’t spend that much time
at the crease with the game
not going forward. A strat-
egy of just surviving is not
a strategy in Test-
match cricket.”South African coach
Gary Kirsten would
build team on solid
batting technique,
writes Steve James
and when Michael Clarke took over it
was exactly the same. If the captain is
not scoring runs, it provides more
challenges for the leadership group,
and although Root has played nicely,
he has not yet managed the big scores
he would have liked. But he has had a
truly extraordinary year with the bat.
I played with Root at Sydney
Thunder, at a time when he wanted to
develop his white-ball skills to get
back into the England T20 team. He
provided so much input and was
engaging with everyone around the
group, regardless of who they were or
how old they were.
My son asked me the other day
what Root was like and I said he’s
probably the nicest person I’ve ever
played cricket with. I wish him well.bowled incredibly well and played
a huge part in England winning
the series, but that hasn’t happened
this time.
I feel desperately sorry for Root.
Things haven’t gone to plan. The
bowlers in Adelaide, when the ball
was moving around, did not perform
well; the batsmen haven’t scored
anywhere near enough runs. He’s
copping it, but I suppose that comes
with being captain of an English
touring team who are not doing well.
I just wish they’d take a bit of heat off
Root, because this England team are
not the best.
Ponting always wanted everyone in
our team switched on against the
opposition captain, to not give him a
chance to get into a game or series,
Head should be
available for the
last Test in Hobartthe times | Saturday January 1 2022 2GS 15
Cricket Sport
Ben Stokes
and his fellow
batsmen have
struggled in
AustraliaMARK AVELLINO/SPORTPIX