Buchanan re-appointed Australian Cricket Coach

SYDNEY—Cricket Australia (CA) said it had re-appointed John Buchanan as Australian team coach to a new contract through to after the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. Buchanan’s contract with CA was due to expire this month but there has been a raging debate over his influence on the Australian team during the recent 2-1 Ashes series loss to England.
One of Buchanan’s fiercest critics has been former Australian Test Captain and now television commentator Ian Chappell, who urged skipper Ricky Ponting to seek guidance from senior players rather than Buchanan. “Before the next World Cup we want to get the Ashes back so John will be in control to give him an opportunity to turn around what happened in England this year,” CA Chairman Bob Merriman said at the announcement during the Super Test here Friday. A six-man committee, chaired by former Test captain Allan Border, is reviewing the state of the game in Australia at the behest of CA. “They have not completed that review, but we thought it was important at this time regarding the renewal of John Buchanan’s coaching contract and we will be making further statements on the outcome of the review commitment in due course,” Merriman said.
Buchanan, 52, said he was relieved and happy with the conclusion of negotiations over his renewed contract and thanked the support of the players and CA. “What the Ashes have done is give us an opportunity to stop and have a look and there is a review procedure in place and that’s a very positive outcome of the Ashes campaign,” Buchanan told a press conference.
“We now have an opportunity to do some exciting things moving forward and I look very forward to being part of that”. Buchanan, who replaced Geoff Marsh as team coach in 1999, said he was looking at ways to improve the national team coaching set-up.
“There are some big events coming up on the horizon and I’m very much excited at being a part of it again,” he said. Merriman said CA wanted to get Buchanan’s contract talks out of the way so planning could begin immediately for the coming home Test series against the West Indies and South Africa.
“We felt clearly to delay it beyond any further time would be unreasonable both in respect in the dealings with the team and in particular to John,” Merriman said. Merriman said the issue of adding specialist coaches to the coaching set-up was part of the review process.
“England set some benchmarks during the Ashes series which we can all aspire to and hopefully improve on and one of those notions is support staff around the team and we have been discussing that... the fine detail for that has yet to be worked out,” Buchanan said. Buchanan has the impressive coaching record of 54 wins and 11 losses in 76 Tests with the national team.
A six-man committee, chaired by former Test captain Allan Border, is reviewing the state of the game in Australia at the behest of CA. “They have not completed that review, but we thought it was important at this time regarding the renewal of John Buchanan’s coaching contract and we will be making further statements on the outcome of the review commitment in due course,” Merriman said.
Buchanan, 52, said he was relieved and happy with the conclusion of negotiations over his renewed contract and thanked the support of the players and CA. “What the Ashes have done is give us an opportunity to stop and have a look and there is a review procedure in place and that’s a very positive outcome of the Ashes campaign,” Buchanan told a press conference. “We now have an opportunity to do some exciting things moving forward and I look very forward to being part of that”. Buchanan, who replaced Geoff Marsh as team coach in 1999, said he was looking at ways to improve the national team coaching set-up. “There are some big events coming up on the horizon and I’m very much excited at being a part of it again,” he said. Merriman said CA wanted to get Buchanan’s contract talks out of the way so planning could begin immediately for the coming home Test series against the West Indies and South Africa.—Agencies