The golden era heralded by Thomas Masson Moody in Sri Lankan cricket is over. The country is looking forward for a new era and it will be another Australian who’ll guide the destiny of Sri Lanka’s cricket for the next two years, probably until the next World Cup in 2011. Trevor Bayliss is the fifth Australian to take over the mantle of coaching the national team in the footsteps of Dav Whatmore, Bruce Yardly, John Dyson and Tom Moody. The 44-year-old ex New South Wales (NSW) cricketer arrived in the island on Monday and assumed duties two days after. He will be conducting the first training session on Monday at the NCC grounds.
Bayliss spent the last few days getting used to the system visiting the cricket office at Maitland Place, going through fitness reports and records of players. He met national cricketers as well before starting off discussions with captain Mahela Jayawardene on Thursday.
This is Bayliss' first coaching stint away from Sydney. Having functioned at different coaching roles with the Australian state team NSW for the last ten years, his professional life in fact has been spent at NSW. He has been with them for over two decades, first as a player, captain and then in different coaching positions. After he hung up his boots, Bayliss was made Cricket Development Officer of NSW, before being appointed as understudy to Steve Rixon from whom he took over two years ago. He made an immediate impact during the two years as head coach when he guided NSW to the Sheffield Shield Championship (Australia's premier state cricket competition) and two one-day tournament titles.
He may not have credentials coaching outside NSW, but has handled several high profile names such as Brett Lee, Glen McGrath, Michael Clarke, Stuart MacGill and a host of others at NSW.
Sri Lanka had initial discussions with Australians Terry Oliver and Jammie Siddons for the coaching post, but the overwhelming favourite was Bayliss given his excellent record in the premier Australian state.
Internal politics, inefficiency and mess ups are words that are commonly associated with Sri Lanka Cricket, probably the most corrupt and politicised sporting body in the country. If there was something that they did 'right' in recent times that was the way they handled the Trevor Bayliss' case. He was requested to come to Sri Lanka on June 15, (his first ever visit to the island, the Board interviewed him the very same day and even Bayliss would have been stunned when he was offered the contract to be signed barely minutes after his interview. He signed the contract, was confirmed as the national coach and by doing so SLC outsmarted all its sub-continent neighbours who got into a frenzy of finding replacements for Dav Whatmore, Greg Chappell and the late Bob Woolmer.
Bayliss told this paper that he is quite happy with the system that Sri Lanka has in place at the moment. "My job is not to change things for the sake of changing or be too heavy handed. I am sure the things that you have in place at the moment are working well, otherwise you can't be the second best team in the world. Sri Lanka has got a good leader in Mahela and the team is well respected," he said.
Modern day coaching has changed in such a way that renowned coaches of the calibre of John Buchanan and Woolmer used technology to good effect with excellent results. Bayliss insisted that basics is going to be his primary mantra. "Coaching has changed over the years due to advancement in technology, but basics never change. Cricket coaches can gain advantage from computers, but computer is only a small part of cricket. It's ok if players want to use it. It can be a help, but at the end, players should be able to catch, throw and bat," he remarked.
Bayliss will initially conduct training sessions for the squad of players chosen for the Twenty-20 World Cup. The full team will be available only when Sri Lanka's county professionals return on September 2 along with the couple of players on duty with Sri Lanka 'A'. The next series is the high profile tour of Australia and as Sri Lanka is looking up to reach new heights in international cricket, Bayliss' contributions will be vital.
Bayliss spent the last few days getting used to the system visiting the cricket office at Maitland Place, going through fitness reports and records of players. He met national cricketers as well before starting off discussions with captain Mahela Jayawardene on Thursday.
This is Bayliss' first coaching stint away from Sydney. Having functioned at different coaching roles with the Australian state team NSW for the last ten years, his professional life in fact has been spent at NSW. He has been with them for over two decades, first as a player, captain and then in different coaching positions. After he hung up his boots, Bayliss was made Cricket Development Officer of NSW, before being appointed as understudy to Steve Rixon from whom he took over two years ago. He made an immediate impact during the two years as head coach when he guided NSW to the Sheffield Shield Championship (Australia's premier state cricket competition) and two one-day tournament titles.
He may not have credentials coaching outside NSW, but has handled several high profile names such as Brett Lee, Glen McGrath, Michael Clarke, Stuart MacGill and a host of others at NSW.
Sri Lanka had initial discussions with Australians Terry Oliver and Jammie Siddons for the coaching post, but the overwhelming favourite was Bayliss given his excellent record in the premier Australian state.
Internal politics, inefficiency and mess ups are words that are commonly associated with Sri Lanka Cricket, probably the most corrupt and politicised sporting body in the country. If there was something that they did 'right' in recent times that was the way they handled the Trevor Bayliss' case. He was requested to come to Sri Lanka on June 15, (his first ever visit to the island, the Board interviewed him the very same day and even Bayliss would have been stunned when he was offered the contract to be signed barely minutes after his interview. He signed the contract, was confirmed as the national coach and by doing so SLC outsmarted all its sub-continent neighbours who got into a frenzy of finding replacements for Dav Whatmore, Greg Chappell and the late Bob Woolmer.
Bayliss told this paper that he is quite happy with the system that Sri Lanka has in place at the moment. "My job is not to change things for the sake of changing or be too heavy handed. I am sure the things that you have in place at the moment are working well, otherwise you can't be the second best team in the world. Sri Lanka has got a good leader in Mahela and the team is well respected," he said.
Modern day coaching has changed in such a way that renowned coaches of the calibre of John Buchanan and Woolmer used technology to good effect with excellent results. Bayliss insisted that basics is going to be his primary mantra. "Coaching has changed over the years due to advancement in technology, but basics never change. Cricket coaches can gain advantage from computers, but computer is only a small part of cricket. It's ok if players want to use it. It can be a help, but at the end, players should be able to catch, throw and bat," he remarked.
Bayliss will initially conduct training sessions for the squad of players chosen for the Twenty-20 World Cup. The full team will be available only when Sri Lanka's county professionals return on September 2 along with the couple of players on duty with Sri Lanka 'A'. The next series is the high profile tour of Australia and as Sri Lanka is looking up to reach new heights in international cricket, Bayliss' contributions will be vital.
