Bradburn has lofty goals with Scotland and beyond
Grant Bradburn is hoping what he’s learnt - and achieved - in Scotland will lead to his elevation to the highest coaching ranks.
The former Northern Districts cricket stalwart has just extended his contract as head coach for the Scotland men’s side until the end of 2018, after taking up the job in April 2014.
But the 50-year-old will leave Scotland once that contract has expired, and he has lofty ambitions that include coaching the Black Caps.
‘‘I definitely have a burning desire to continue up the coaching ladder and I’d love to coach a full member nation Bradburn said.
‘‘I’d like to take Scotland to that level. I’d love that to be New Zealand one day too, but as you know there’s only one New Zealand coach at one time and there’s 10 full member nations.’’
Bradburn, who played seven tests for New Zealand and coached ND from 2008-2013, said his time in charge of the ICC associate member Scotland side had sharpened his coaching skills.
‘‘When I was in New Zealand, it was common knowledge that I needed to go to another environment, to take myself out of what I knew well in the ND environment - despite the fact that was a very successful and enjoyable time.
one-day,’’
‘‘I always knew that to go to another level and to challenge myself, I needed to take myself out of that environment.
‘‘I can see now how hugely valuable that has been - I feel from a coaching point of view, things are becoming a lot clearer as you get older and wiser. Working with different groups and nationalities and the heaps of different challenges I’m faced with here that you just wouldn’t get back home .. it’s been hugely valuable.’’
Before he leaves, Bradburn is aiming to guide his troops to two major achievements this year.
‘‘2017’s a really important year. It’s the culmination of two competitions that have been running for the last three years, which is the World Cricket League - and the ICC have stated that the team that wins will go into the one-day Future Tours programme along with all the other full members, so that’s a massive carrot - and the Intercontinental Cup.
Scotland have six matches left to play in the WCL and should they win all six, they should emerge victorious.
‘‘They’re six games that we should win - but as always in associate world, every game has something on it,’’ Bradburn said.
‘‘Unlike a full member series - where yes, there’s often ranking points up for grabs, but often there’s no real context to it - in associate world, it’s way different. If you lose a game and you’re out of the competition, it can mean a real loss of funding and have a real effect on the programmes you can run.’’
The six one-day matches are against Namibia (two), Papua New Guinea (two) and Kenya (two) and Scotland indicated their ability by stunning Sri Lanka this week in the first of two one-day matches the visitors were playing as warmup games for the Champions Trophy.
They’ll also play Intercontinental Cup four-day matches, with the Cup victor set to play four tests against the bottom-ranked test nation, with the winner either gaining or retaining test status. Bradburn is wary of that though, believing ‘‘Ireland and Afghanistan may already have the leap on that’’.
‘‘The major goal is to be classed as the leading associate, and to break into full-member world - that means not only more funding but regular game-time, which our guys need to progress,’’ he said.
Bradburn said one of his major frustrations is not getting enough game-time for the national team. ‘‘We just don’t play enough. ‘‘I think for ND, an average contracted player would probably play 70 to 80 days of meaningful cricket a year, whereas our guys last year played 26 days of international cricket, and 17 of those were rainaffected.
‘‘We don’t get enough funding compared to the likes of Ireland and Afghanistan, which is hugely frustrating.
‘‘We’re just so hungry to play more cricket and that’s a big part of my job - with the executive team, to try and be creative with the funding we get.’’