Lehmann would be the assistant coach in Warne’s dream team
Almost all people associate the word dream team with a star group of players that would be invincible against any opposition, but former Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne has taken the term to a whole new level after revealing his candidates for Cricket Australia’s dream team.
Warne’s dream team includes Mark Taylor as the high performance chief, while former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming would be the coach of the national side and ex-Australian skipper Ian Chappell would be that fatherly figure who would mentor and give advice to all players both young and experienced.
The rotation policy does not exist, captains are not chosen way ahead of time and sleep is the remedy for all players suffering from fatigue and exhaustion.
Warne believes that captain Michael Clarke should be getting a lot more support from the team management and added that this would be possible if his dream team line-up was put into effect.
Taylor would replace former rugby star Pat Howard, while Rod Marsh would be chairman of the selection committee, which would also include Mark Waugh, Damien Martyn and Glenn McGrath.
Fleming was chosen to be the national team’s coach, with Darren Lehmann being his assistant and Warne believes that neither of them should be a selector.
Former veterans like Michael Bevan or Michael Hussey would be potential candidates for the role of batting coach, while Merv Hughes or Bruce Reid are likely candidates for the bowling coach position.
“All the above people are cricket people, not rugby, tennis or from any other sporting code,” Warne wrote on his website. “They all understand the game of cricket, they have lived and breathed the game for a long time and most importantly have the best interests of Australian cricket at heart, along with being super passionate and above all, they just love the game.
“Cricket is a simple game; sure it has room and a place for scientific research and current technology, which can help [you] learn about an opponent, but not instead of using your cricket brain – they can work hand in hand. Technology can help in recovery, but so can sleep and a common sense approach to recovery.”
Warne was also in favour of sticking to the same team across all three formats, with the occasional changes here and there, and he noted that only if injuries were deemed to be serious do players get to sit on the sidelines.
“A simple criteria is pick your best team and stick with it in all forms, then the players get used playing together and being with one another on tour, you get to know the person,” Warne wrote. “Too much chopping and changing leads to insecurity, players then start to look out for themselves and over their shoulder, this breeds selfishness.
“It’s also why rotation and resting players will never work. I believe the players should be united, take ownership of this, it’s a very powerful and strong message to send to CA if the players’ message is ‘I do not want to be rested or rotated; I want to play every game, if I don’t perform drop me’. If this decision comes from the players then CA have to respect that and follow suit on selection accordingly, this will then mean someone is accountable.
“We have the best batsmen/captain in world cricket at the moment in Michael Clarke and the spine of a good team with [David] Warner, [Shane] Watson, [Matthew] Wade, [Peter] Siddle and [Nathan] Lyon, the rest of the spots are up for grabs in my opinion. Opportunities for players now are there for the taking.”
The former leg-spinner intends to meet Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland and discuss his ideas with the hope of seeing some change sooner rather than later.