I am intrigued by the recruitment of Chris Adams as a “consultant” to the Sri Lanka squad for their England tour which begins next month.
Intrigued, indeed, not just by the fact that they already have a head coach and an assistant, albeit interim appointments, but also by what precisely a “consultant” will add to the sum of knowledge already contained within the team.
Notwithstanding their great successes in the Asia Cup and the World Twenty20, Sri Lankan cricket is in turmoil, with financial problems, political interference and pay disputes. Then came the defection of their coach, Paul Farbrace, who was with them only a few months, back to England to become the assistant to Peter Moores. There was criticism of the England & Wales Cricket Board for recruiting him and Farbrace for accepting the offer. As this practice of enticement and recruitment goes on in all walks of life – they call it head-hunting – I am at a loss to understand the brickbats.
Anyway, Marvan Atapattu was appointed the head coach last week by a three-man panel comprising the chairman of selectors, Sanath Jayasuriya, the head of coaching, Jerome Jayaratne, and the cricket committee chairman, Ranjit Fernando. The trio also subsequently appointed Ruwan Kalpage as Atapattu’s deputy.
Now Adams has been added. He is a fellow with a solid pedigree, as an excellent county cricketer, with 48 first‑class centuries, and highly successful captain of Sussex (in conjunction with the then coach Moores, thus lending a tenuous confrontation to the series for those who like to seek such things). As a coach, or director of cricket at Surrey between 2008 and last summer, when he left mid-season, his credentials are less obvious: certainly there does not appear to have been a clamour to employ him in a coaching capacity since.
So what is his employment now about? On the surface, Sri Lanka appear to be saying that along with the departure of Farbrace goes their connection to the game in this country, a knowledge of players and conditions. But then I think, well, this will be a fourth tour of England for Mahela Jayawardene and a third for Kumar Sangakkara with 10 and nine Tests respectively against England here, and 20 and 21 against England in all.
They will have learned an awful lot in that time, not least that batting here, especially early season, is a different world to Sri Lanka, as the plummet in their respective averages amply demonstrates. They know the conditions all right.
Indeed, in an effort to acclimatise here, against the red Dukes ball, Sangakkara has secured himself a couple of games for Durham and, according to the Sri Lanka management, up to half a dozen others will be arriving early for practice. So it strikes me that between even the esteemed pair of Sri Lanka champions, there is already a wealth of knowledge and experience, as much, you might think, as anyone would need.
Is there much else that Adams could add to this? There might have been a time when some local knowledge of players would have been handy but Sri Lanka have played England enough times for most of the opposition to be familiar to a greater or lesser degree. Those who are not will be scrutinised through the footage and wealth of data that is readily available these days.
This is not to say that really precise specialist knowledge cannot add value. On the Ashes tour of Australia in 2010-11, it was David Saker, the bowling coach, who, as a recent coach of Victoria, knew the characteristics of the drop-in pitch at the MCG better than anyone in the England team. It was his last-minute intervention, particularly robust I was reliably told, that persuaded Andrew Strauss to change his proposed strategy to bat first should he win the toss and instead put Australia in. Australia were dismissed by tea for 98. The two Tests to be played by Sri Lanka here are at Lord’s and Headingley, and Adams would not have that level of specialist knowledge of either over and above others.
All in all, it looks as if the pudding is being overegged but then again, for his part, there is an opportunity for Adams to get a foot in the international door. The rapid manner in which this appointment came, so close to those of the head coach and assistant – with scarcely time to think it through, make an approach, get a response and get approved – makes me wonder whether a role of some description was already in the pipeline, instigated by Farbrace, perhaps even as his assistant.
Atapattu and Kalpage, it seems, have interim roles, which presumably means that they are open to renegotiation in the near future. Adams may find this is not a bad time to be around.
