Bangladesh’s newly appointed pace bowling coach Allan Donald says he will be focused on finding out the “identity” of the bowling unit before sharing his experience with his charges. In a free flowing chat with Cricbuzz, the legendary pace bowler discussed his coaching philosophy among other things.
What prompted you to take up the pace bowling coaching role of Bangladesh?
It was an easy one for me and what prompted me to take up the bowling coach role was to get back to international cricket. It’s been a while since I have been on international circuit. My last assignment was with Australia in Sri Lanka and it was a very cool one obviously, but we didn’t have a great deal of success as the team didn’t have such a good time over there. I think with Bangladesh and obviously knowing Russell Domingo pretty well, it makes it lot easier for me working with him for the next nine months. So should be an exciting ride with some exciting Test matches and series ahead. This one in South Africa is no different.
How excited are you about your new assignment? Did you follow Bangladesh cricket?
I have also been following Bangladesh cricket -- not as closely as I should have done but I think here and there. In their last series in New Zealand I followed them nice and close. A spirited performance from the Tigers and they have shown they can mix it with some really good teams and it doesn’t get much bigger than New Zealand who have established themselves as a fantastic outfit now and for Bangladesh to have done what they did was great. Unfortunately losing the second Test match was not ideal but it was magnificent performance, so I look forward to this stint with Bangladesh with some exciting young fast bowlers in the ranks and look forward to working with them.
Have you done any home work regarding the Bangladeshi pace bowlers?
I have done a little bit of work about the Bangladeshi quicks. You sit afar and you look all these guys like Taskin Ahmed and Ebadat Hossain. Shoriful Islam for me is a serious prospect -- tall left-arm bowler who bowls good pace and looking him from far, he's got a great attitude and he's only 22 years old and played in the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa. He stood up by a mile in that World Cup and Khaled Ahmed and he would be probably be considered as a back-up according to the coach. And that Fizz doesn't play Test match anymore is a great shame actually because I think he got plenty to offer on surfaces conducive here in South Africa. Look, it's an exciting bunch but for me, I am all gonna sit and know each and everyone from these guys. I think sometimes coming in blind or semi blind, if you know what I am mean, and just get a look from a fresh standpoint of view, getting to meet the individual, getting to talk with the individual... sometimes that is a nice way of connecting. I think Bangladesh got a nice attack and there is no way they are going to be underestimated by South Africa in the coming weeks. So I think it's going to be a mouth-watering series and I think Bangladesh got a great opportunity to make history here.
There will be a lot of expectations from you? How do you see that? A similar expectation was there when Walsh joined Bangladesh considering you both are legendary cricketers?
Yeah, lot of expectation you know when you use ex-players who have had the experience of playing at the highest level and becoming very successful at that level. But as a coach, the name doesn’t matter and it’s about delivering what the players need. I am looking very much forward to having open discussion with the bowling group and just get a feel of what their identity is and how they see their identity in different formats. In South Africa they will be playing three 50-overs game and two Test matches and that’s done. So you get your white-ball hat on and my philosophy on white-ball cricket is I first need to know what is their bowling attack. I know their spin coach as well but from a seamers’ point of view I need to know what their identity looks like and how they see their identity in terms of 50-over cricket. And on a later stage, we get into the T20 mindset.
