| Player: | JM Buchanan, SK Warne, TJ Jenner, PA Emery, AC Gilchrist |
DateLine: 25th September 2006
Australian cricketers have gone in to bat for coach John Buchanan amid criticism by champion leg-spinner Shane Warne of his relevance to the team.
British tabloid The Sun quoted Warne this month as saying Buchanan deserved few plaudits for Australia’s world cricket domination. He also reportedly suggested the team didn’t need a coach at all.
Former Australian fast bowler Damien Fleming said the legendary leg-spinner valued coaches noting that Terry Jenner has been Warne's mentor for two decades.
“Warney has been saying what he thinks about coaches but he's got a very important mentor in Jenner,” Fleming said. “Coaches and mentors are very important whether it is for a team or an individual.”
Warne and Jenner, a former Australian Test leg-spinner, forged a strong bond from Warne's earliest days at the cricket academy in Adelaide during the late 1980s.
Vice-captain Adam Gilchrist, who is resting from the limited-overs tournament in Malaysia, has no doubt that Buchanan has made an enormous impact on the team during his seven-year reign.
"Some of his methods did confuse some players and I'm sure there are players over time who haven't taken well to the way he works and that's fine - we're all different people," said Gilchrist.
