Now Warring Coaches?

Earlier it was the prerogative of the players to lay slants on one another in a pre series jibe. But now if one goes by the hype of one of the highly anticipated series, that role has perhaps now shifted to the coach.

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Australia have a habit of setting precedents. It then perhaps follows that the coach takes over from the skipper when the latter finds himself preoccupied. As Ponting debates between employing Shane Watson or Andrew Symonds or both by dropping the spinner, the Australia coach has served a salvo to the South Africans preparing to take on the might of the world champions.

A day earlier Tim Nielsen had warned South Africa against using “cheap talk” in a bid to pump themselves up in the pre media hype. But Nielsen though seems to be suffering from some form of delusion, as Mickey Arthur suggests. In the South African coach’s defense, so far all talk ahead of the all important clash between the numbers one and two in the Test world has been of how South Africa have been preparing themselves, their level of confidence and the balance of the team. Both the coach and skipper Graeme Smith have expressed their satisfaction in the way the lead up to the tough Tests down under was shaping up.

Looking in that light, Nielsen’s comments appear largely misplaced. While Arthur has felt the need to respond to Nielsen’s attack, he himself feels the coaches should restrain themselves from engaging in the pre series jibe. While South Africa and in particular, Smith, was guilty the last time of trying to gee up a couple of Australians, it is done with the aim to shield his own fledgling of a team. This time perhaps his silence is indicative of the fact that not only he is more mature than the last time when South Africa took a 2-0 nil drilling from Australia but also, is feeling more self assured about the team he has on hand.

Although it has to be said that the South Africans did send out feelers that they will try to disconcert Matthew Hayden given that the opener is in a bit of a slump and given his age, there will be a certain amount of pressure on him and also, hope to exploit Andrew Symonds’ perceptible mental fragility in the past year that has seen him lash out in unacceptable behaviour.

But there is no doubting that South Africa are doing everything in their power to push up the ante against Australia by soliciting help outside of the dressing room. Arthur had roped in Duncan Fletcher to aid South Africa’s preparation as consultation coach and is also said to have exchanged notes with the Indian coach and former South African opener, Gary Kirsten, in order to get into the chinks of the Australian team that lost the Border Gavaskar Trophy to India by a similar margin only recently.

South Africa are tightening their preparation and Australia look to sort out a couple of spots. The series and the season are definitely warming up. But no Christmas presents are planned to be exchanged.

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