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by SRIAN OBEYESEKERE

John Dyson - Sri Lanka’s cricket coach

Sri Lanka's new cricket coach, John Dyson, is of the view that the homesters would enjoy a huge advantage over England in this November's home series in terms of experience and form. But, he predicted that it would be a hard fought series.

Sri Lanka will host England to three one-dayers beginning November 18 followed by a 3-Test series, the first of which begins on December 2.

Dyson said that from what he had seen of his charges during his short stay upto now in his assignment since last September, he was impressed. The Sri Lankans had the stuff in them to deliver. Some of the star players had struck form. The enormous individual talent bordered on fine technique and aggressive and perfect approach in both batting and bowling.

But, there were no magic formulas. It was upto the players to transform what they derive into tangible results and the acid test as to their capabilities to deliver the goods would come once they get to the middle, the 49-year-old successor to compatriot, Dav Whatmore, emphasised. He hinted that one area he was working on with in consultation with the selectors was finding possible replacements where there would importantly be a set of strong back up players like in Australia which would be effective in so much as putting pressure on the senior players.

As to separate captains, as long as the captain maintained his spot, the former Australian cricketer, while saying he had no complaints as to that, paid the highest possible compliment to Test captain, Hashan Tillekeratne, whose local public image does not rate much, but whom he saw as a fighter like Australia's Steve Waugh in doing the same thing as Waugh as a captain by keeping his wicket intact and inspiring his team.

Following are excerpts of the interview:

(Q): How would you assess your charges since taking over the coaching reins in this brief period?

(A): The Sri Lankans - some of the top players have enormous talent. Each has fine technique. They are aggressive and perfect in approach in both the batting and bowling departments. And I must say we've been given some excellent conditions to practice in.

If you look at the results in the Premier League, some of the key players are doing well. Marvan, Sanath and Sangakkara have all got hundreds.

(Q): How would you fancy Sri Lanka's chances in the upcoming home series against the English which would be your first assignment in the job?

(A): I think if you look at it on paper, we definitely have a huge advantage over England in terms of experience and the games played. If the players are in the best of form, Sri Lanka should have the edge given the home wickets and conditions as well. But it won't be easy. England have done well against South Africa at home recently, and it will be interesting to see how they fare against Bangladesh before coming here.

I think the England one-day squad is behind us in terms of experience, but their Test squad is very good. On form though we've got the advantage. Being in good form we have to play to our potential. But I don't think it'll be an easy series. We will have to play hard. It will be good for cricket. It should be an interesting series for the spectators.

(Q): What more do you feel has to be done after Whatmore?

(A): I think Dav did a very good, excellent job. I think that the areas that we need to look at is to find some good replacement players. It is important to have back up players to put the main players under pressure. Australia has got such depth that their second string team could be a Test side anywhere in the world. We are holding discussions on possible replacements and identifying areas on those lines. But these are early days yet.

(Q): What are the areas you feel that need to be worked on?

(A): It is important that players have a plan to work towards their own game. They must know their strengths and play according to those strengths, and if things are not working well they must know how to change and get their game back on track. Australia is the best example of this.

(Q). When you took over you had stressed on developing individual skills. Could you elaborate?

(A): At the moment we are developing individual programmes, but that doesn't happen overnight. I have to see them in action in the middle. That first insight will be against England.

(Q): Sri Lanka Cricket Board has set its sights on making Sri Lanka the best team in the world. Much of this will revolve around you as coach. Do you think this is achievable?

(A): It is good to set your goals at the highest levels. Australia is on top at the moment because they set their plans 18 years ago and really worked towards achieving that goal in that time frame. If people in Sri Lanka become impatient it can become detrimental. You must be patient in this game.

(Q): Coming from Australia would you be drawing from the Aussie coaching manual?

(A): Not always. Wickets in the sub-continent are very different to Australia's, though the attitude here is somewhat similar to theirs. I would say Australia play to win at all costs.

If they are in a bit of trouble they find a way how to get out of it and win from there rather than draw games, which is good for cricket. Sri Lanka could become a good team if they adopt that attitude.

I think the coaching skills here are very good. If you look at some of the guys here we have seen very good skills indeed and improving those skills would be good for the future of Sri Lanka cricket.

(Q): After your cricketing career, you were directly on to coaching?

(A): I was always involved in cricket at High School level, club level, New South Wales level. I've worked very hard with Geoff Lawson.

(Q): How would you assess your role as a coach?

(A): People look at changing things and try to make it complicated. But the fact is that the game hasn't changed. Only the players have become smarter. There are no magic formulae nor magicians. It is simply that the players have to practise and work hard for it.

People think that coaches can bring short cuts. No, the players have to work to achieve what is imparted to them.

(Q): What are the other areas in the Lankan team that has caught your eye?

(A): From what I have seen there is tremendous batting talent. The fast bowling talent is enormous. I'm a little bit worried because we don't have the same depth in all the areas of spin bowling. We only have a handful of excellent spinners. It is just an area to develop. You have to look why that has happened, whether the wickets and style of the game has changed.

(Q): Of late, Muttiah Muralitharan has been affected by injuries leading to a controversy as to whether he should not be overtaxed. Your comments?

(A): I hope Murali can play as long as he can. That is the main thing and it is important to maintain physical and mental fitness. It is a matter of Murali maintaining his fitness. If he develops injuries it will be upto the physio to nurse him and it will be necessary for prioritise work on him and to ensure that he can play as much as he can.

(Q): With regard to Hashan Tillekeratne as the Test captain, there have been rumblings in certain quarters with Tillekeratne not being viewed as the ideal captain in the local public image because he is a slow starter. How would you view Tillekeratne?

(A): It is important that the captain is first picked as a player and as a captain after that. I must say that both Marvan (Atapattu) and Hashan have some excellent attributes to bring to that form of the game.

As a player Hashan had an excellent series against New Zealand. As a captain he does some very good things. It is good to see captains getting heavily involved.

I don't think that you have to be a fast mover to be a good captain. If you watch Steve Waugh, he's a slow mover.

He has, with age, conditioned his game so that he grafts his runs these days.

He has, assessed his game and knows his strengths and has played to that capacity. He doesn't go and dominate bowling attacks like he used to. I'd like a lot of guys to adopt Steve Waugh's batting approach. Some batsmen are aggressive in their strengths and play to that potential like some of the Aussie batsmen who play a dominant role and Steve blends to that. Likewise, Sanath Jayasuriya is a dynamic batsman. A team functions better with a mixture of different types of players. So we can find Sanath dynamic and if Hashan is not so dynamic that's fine. Hashan is a fighter like Waugh who inspires his team. I can see Hashan doing the same, keeping his wicket and inspiring the other players.

(Q): As to our fielding, it had lost the shine it had about the time of the World Cup. Has homework been done on raising the standard?

(A): Sri Lanka has got some superb fieldsmen. They are fast across the ground, their ground catches are good as much as their throwing arms. Fielding drill has been introduced to all training sessions with fielding coach Ruwan Kalpage in attendance.

All indications are that they are fielding very well. Dilshan and Chandana are superb fielders. Marvan has one of the strongest throwing arms I've seen.

(Q): Do you think the team can retrieve its lost image? We lost a home triangular.

(A): Given the next couple of series in Sri Lanka, there is a huge opportunity for the boys to retrieve some of the punch they have lost. If you look at the series early in the year in the triangular involving New Zealand and Pakistan in Dambulla, all teams took some valuable lessons from there. The wicket was intriguing for all teams.

(Q): How would you look at the game of cricket as a whole. Would you say that it is becoming universally more and more competitive?

(A): In the one-day game there is a formula that can be successfully evolved. Almost everyone has evolved that. But the cricket purist who enjoys the long version of the game which is not going to change much, will sometimes feel one-day cricket is a little boring, where they find Test cricket is not so because it is not played to a formula unlike in the one-day version. In Test cricket it is not as easy to adapt to a formula as in the one-day game.

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