I’d love to be at the World Cup… but it doesn’t always work out
SAYS THE MAN WHO HELPED KICKSTART ENGLAND’S WHITE-BALL REVOLUTION
Paul Farbrace is adamant the one-day revolution that has seen england go from World cup embarrassments to firm favourites for their home tournament this summer could easily have been over before it even began.
‘It could have been so different,’ said the man who kickstarted england’s white-ball improvement as interim coach four years ago when Peter Moores paid the price for the latest and worst of their World cup humiliations.
‘We were 202 for six with 20 overs to go in the first game of that summer at edgbaston against New Zealand,’ said Farbrace. ‘They had just lost to australia in the World cup final while we’d had an absolute stinker.
‘Then adil rashid, who had come back into the set-up, hit his second ball from Nathan Mccullum back into the pavilion for six, Jos buttler made an unbelievable hundred and we ended up with 408 — with liam Plunkett hitting two of the last three balls into the Hollies Stand.
‘It was extraordinary because we’d been struggling and could have been bowled out for 230 or 240. Who knows what might have happened then. Nothing would have changed. certainly what has happened since wouldn’t have been anywhere near as straightforward.
‘We could have been stuck in our old ways but from that moment on it was unbelievable. later in that series we chased 350 at Trent bridge with seven overs to spare and the tone was set. The momentum grew and the players started to believe they could play fantastic one- day cricket.’
Trevor bayliss arrived later that summer, eoin Morgan started to grow into a captain of immense stature and Farbrace settled back into the role of assistant coach where he has been such an influential figure in england’s spectacular rise to the top of the world one-day rankings. Now the journey instigated by former team director andrew Strauss, who had got fed up with england’s perennial white-ball struggles, will culminate with a World cup that could well see them end almost 45 years of 50- over hurt since the first global tournament in 1975.
but the man who was there at the start and has done so much to get england to the brink of creating World cup history will not be there this summer to complete the ride.
For Farbrace, 51, can now be found at the same edgbaston ground where the one-day shackles were thrown off so thrillingly in 2015, in his new role as Warwickshire’s sporting director having jumped off england’s horse at the last fence.
‘ Over the last year I’ve looked at other things and it’s been a case of finding the right job to get my teeth into and really develop,’ said the man who turned down head coaching roles with, among others, Surrey and bangladesh while with england. ‘This opportunity came along at a fantastic club with a lot of good quality younger players who want to play international cricket. I’m keen to be part of that and it really attracted me. ‘Once I started talking to the club about their aims to be up there with the best in the world, I thought, “I’ve really got to give this a go”. everything about Warwickshire is set up for success.’ It does seem wrong, though, that Farbrace will not be part of the World cup this summer, with bayliss, for one, expressing his disappointment that his right-hand man won’t be with him when it really matters. and that disappointment was increased when it became clear that Warwickshire were prepared to wait for their man until July so he could finish what he started, only for new england team director ashley Giles, the man Farbrace has now replaced at edgbaston, to veto the idea. Giles told Sportsmail last month he decided england had to move on without Farbrace after consulting Morgan and bayliss, and now the man himself, almost unrecognisable in shirt and collar rather than his trademark tracksuit top and shorts, is providing his take for the first time.
‘The timing of moving on wasn’t ideal and I would have loved to have been involved with the World cup and ashes but it doesn’t always work out how you want it to,’ said Farbrace. ‘ It would have been very selfish of me to say to Warwickshire, “let me do what I want to do and then I’ll come and join you”.
‘There was the potential to be involved in the World cup and then join Warwickshire but, with hindsight, that wouldn’t have been right. In the end it’s worked out well because england have the chance to get their coaching staff settled before the World cup and I can get on with what I have to do here.
‘Initially I was disappointed that I couldn’t be involved in the World cup and a bit miffed to have got so close, but it’s not about me. It’s about the team.’
even so it does seem a little odd that Farbrace, who coached Sri lanka to the World Twenty20 title before joining england, did not appear to be a candidate to replace bayliss when he leaves after the ashes in September. He insists he was never in the frame.
‘We never got to the stage of talking about me possibly succeeding Trevor,’ said Farbrace of his pivotal meeting with Giles during england’s caribbean tour. ‘I told ash I didn’t think I was the right person to take the Test team forward because they need a new voice after the ashes.
‘That will be the right time to freshen things up around the Test team and, anyway, I wasn’t sure I could commit to another four-year cycle of being away from home. It would have been wrong to have been perceived to be in contention.
‘I was very open and spoke to Gilo about the Warwickshire opportunity and he knew that excited me. I told him before we went to the West Indies that I’d been to birmingham to meet the chairman, chief executive and a member of the committee, so it wasn’t a secret. Then we had some good conversations in the West Indies about the role at edgbaston, because he was halfway through making some major changes here, and how he saw the england team going forward.
‘I shared some very open and honest thoughts and every conversation I’ve had with him has been excellent.’
Farbrace — who puts forward england women’s coach Mark robinson as a realistic candidate to replace bayliss from within the ecb set-up, while throwing in former bowling coach David Saker as an outside bet — looks back on his five years with the national team fondly.
‘I wasn’t good enough to play for england but as a coach I’ve had five years with the england team and enjoyed a lot of real success,’ he said.
‘In one-day cricket we’ve made some real strides but it will always be a frustration that we weren’t able to make as much progress in Test cricket. We’ve still had that inconsistency about us as a team. but a lot of good things have happened and if I’ve played a small part in them then great.’
and if Morgan does lift the World cup at lord’s on July 14 then Farbrace will be entitled to believe he did his bit to make it happen, not least on that momentous day at edgbaston when it all started to change for england.