A coach’s heady mix of jam stealers

in Brisbane WHERE does the buck stop with SA’s World Cup squad? With captain AB de Villiers? With coach Russell Domingo? With manager Mohammed Moosajee? Or with one of the other members of a support staff that outnumbers players?

There are 18 non-playing members of SA’s tournament contingent, which makes them the biggest crew of jam stealers at the World Cup. There are, of course, only 15 players per squad.

The confusion that imbalance could cause was highlighted this week when Shane Warne took issue with Australian coach Darren Lehmann for appearing to signal a declaration during the test series against India this summer.

“He’s got to remember that’s the captain’s job, not the coach’s job,” Warne told Sydney radio station 2GB. “The captain is in charge and it’s something UNHAPPY: Mickey Arthur complained about political interference during his tenure Australian cricket has to look at with the way they want to do things.”

When Warne says something it stays said, but the line of authority in Australian cricket does not seem to be as clear as he thinks it is.

In a new book, Whitewash to Whitewash by cricket writer Daniel Brettig, Mickey Arthur — who coached both SA and Australia — is quoted as saying, “I felt with Australia I never had the freedom to do it (my way), simply because I always felt suffocated.

“I felt there were so many people touching the team — and I said this numerous times to Pat (Howard, Cricket Australia’s general manager of team performance) — I wanted the freedom to run the team the way I knew I could, and I never ever felt I had that freedom.

“When I ran SA there was a selection panel, but I would pick teams and I had a lot more freedom. At CA I felt every decision we were going to make, I had to make five phone calls to five different people, whereas with SA I just made my decision, put it in my report and told the board at the next meeting.”

Which will come as a surprise to South Africans, who remember Arthur complaining about political interference during his tenure as SA’s coach. And what makes him think he “ran SA”?

But De Villiers had no such questions.

“We’re in a very good place,” he said. “We only have one extra consultant in Michael Hussey. Gary (Kirsten) has been around the team a long time. All the other guys have been around the side. We don’t have the psychologist that we normally have in the World Cups.

“I really believe the team is in a good space. We have the right amount of management here. Every person knows his role.”

As long as one of them knows that, win or lose at the World Cup, it is their buck to stop.

We’re in a very good place. We only have one extra consultant