Top 5 cricket coaches who turned the team's fortunes after taking the helm

Brendon McCullum is enjoying 100% success with his new role in the England team.

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England Head Coach Brendon McCullum
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England Head Coach Brendon McCullum (Photo Source: Twitter)

The competition among international cricket teams to win silverware is getting more fierce as each match passes by. Currently, Australia are dominating Test cricket, New Zealand and England in One-Day internationals, and India in the shortest format of the game, T20Is. Players are also getting more competitive to feature in the starting eleven and perform consistently. But the coaches remain the central brain behind the team’s success in every game format.

Head coaches with experience of playing international cricket and mentoring national teams are always in demand. But teams have surprised many by winning big tournaments with some unknown names. Players, especially leaders within the squad, need constant support from the head coach when they are having a bad day in the field. The relationship between a captain and a coach plays a big part in the team’s success as well.  For India, the Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri pair dominated the world cricket last decade and Ricky Ponting-John Buchanan duo for Australia before.

Nowadays, head coaches have plenty of support from their specialized staff in every department. But they are still the main man behind the team’s success or failure on the field. Many coaches need time to settle with a new time and build up a regular eleven from the scratch. While some coaches have turned the team’s fortunes as soon as they landed the big job.

Here’s the list of top-five coaches who turned the team’s fortunes after taking the helm.

1. John Wright (India, 2000-2005)

John Wright and Virender Sehwag
John Wright and Virender Sehwag. (Photo Source: Getty Images)

Indian cricket went through a tough phase in the 1999-2000 season with a lot of changes in the management. Senior Indian players were named in an alleged match-fixing scandal and the team’s poor performances led to a big change. Sourav Ganguly replaced ineffective Sachin Tendulkar as a captain and former New Zealand batter John Wright came in place of coach Kapil Dev.

Wright was the first foreign coach for the Indian cricket team. He installed new training drills and techniques and united star trio Sachin, Saurav, and Rahul Dravid. India enjoyed immediate success by defeating mighty Australia by 2-1 in the Test series at a home. This also ended Australia’s 16-match winning streak in Test cricket.

He also mentored Team India to historic away Test wins in Australia and England. His biggest success came in 2003 when India reached the World Cup final but were defeated by Australia. India enjoyed back-to-back series wins in Pakistan in 2004 but eventually, Wright was replaced by Greg Chappell next year. He joined Indian Premier League side Mumbai Indians in 2013 and immediately guided them to their first-ever title win. He is also praised for fast-tracking Jasprit Bumrah in the squad when he joined Mumbai Indian’s talent scout team.

2. Andy Flower (England, 2009-2014)

Andy Flower
Andy Flower head coach of England. (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)

Andy Flower was still playing with County side Essex but an injury and a chance to be part of England’s staff forced him to retire in 2007. The Zimbabwe great initially joined the England setup as an assistant coach to Peter Moores in 2007 and was the team’s director for the next two years. He replaced Moores in 2009 and became the only second foreign coach in England’s cricketing history.

He soon formed a good partnership with a new captain Andrew Strauss and led England to immediate success. On his appointment, England lost the Wisden Trophy in March 2009 but defeated West Indies three months later. Flower guided England to their biggest success by winning the 2010-11 Ashes series by 1-3 in Australia. This was their first Ashes win in Australia in 24 years and after that England continued to dominate Test cricket for a while.

England also won their first-ever ICC tournament in their history by lifting the 2010 T20 World Cup trophy in West Indies. The Three Lions topped the Test ranking after beating India by 4-0 at home in 2011. They also recorded a Test series win on England soil after two decades in 2012 and also retained the Ashes the next year. He resigned in 2014 after England lost the Ashes down under by 5-0. He joined England Lions as their coach in 2014 and remained at the helm till 2019.

3. Gary Kirsten (India, 2008-2011)

Gary Kirsten
Gary Kirsten. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images for The Hundred)

“He was the best thing that happened to Indian cricket,” MS Dhoni said when asked about Gary Kirsten in 2010. The former South African batter replaced Gregg Chappell after India’s horrific show in the 2007 World Cup. He united the dressing room after the controversial Chappell-Ganguly row. Kirsten is widely regarded for his management skills and building relationship with every player, which helped India greatly during his reign.

His first series as Indian team head coach came against South Africa, which ended in a 1-1 draw. Nevertheless, he guided India to a home series win against Australia and their first-ever bilateral series win on Sri Lankan soil. India also recorded ODI and Test series win in New Zealand after a gap of 40 years. India’s biggest success under his guidance came in 2011 when they won World Cup after a long wait of 28 years.

He was largely credited for the team’s success by many former and current Indian players. Under him, India also became the top-ranked Test team for the first time. He took some hard decisions of dropping senior players and backed MS Dhoni to build up toward the new era.

4. Dav Whatmore (Sri Lanka, 1996 & Bangladesh, 2003)

Dave Whatmore
Dave Whatmore (Photo credit should read JEKESAI NJIKIZANA/AFP/Getty Images)

The former Australian batter is one of the coaches who enjoyed more success and fame as a coach than as a player. He played only seven Test matches for Australia before retiring in 1988. He came to fame by shocking the cricketing fraternity and winning the 1996 World Cup with Sri Lanka, his birthplace country. Since then he coached many national teams and is termed out as one of the most sought-after coaches in the world.

Sri Lanka were never a favorite to win or even reach the finals of the World Cup in 1996. But Whatmore, with captain Arjuna Ranatunga, completely changed Sri Lanka’s fortunes in the cricketing world. He was credited for bringing a more attacking approach tactic to one-day cricket which largely succeeded with Sri Lankan openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana in World Cup. They managed to chase a 242-run target in the final against mighty Australians.

Whatmore did the same with Bangladesh when he led them to the Super Eights in the 2007 World Cup. He joined Ranji Trophy team Baroda in 2021 after a brief stint with Nepal national team.

5. Brendon McCullum (England, 2022 – Present)

England Head Coach Brendon McCullum
England Head Coach Brendon McCullum (Photo Source: Twitter)

Brendon McCullum, with no experience in coaching a national team, replaced Chris Silverwood as England’s new head coach in red-ball cricket in May 2022. On the pitch, Ben Stokes replaced star batter and former captain Joe Root to start a new era in English cricket.

The former New Zealand skipper made an immediate impact with his new coaching role. He put his faith in the same team with no big changes but the results were pleasingly surprising. England enjoyed an immediate turnaround by defeating World Test Champions New Zealand at home by winning all three matches. They approached each game with an attacking mindset and dominated Kiwis by easily chasing 250-plus targets in all three matches.

England continued that momentum against India in the rescheduled fith Test match by successfully chasing a 378-run target with seven wickets remaining. As of now, McCullum is enjoying 100% success with his new role and England’s new approach of playing Test matches is termed as ‘Bazball.’

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