Cricket: Coach holds all the aces, not skipper

By RICHARD BOOCK

Whatever else might be made of Mark O'Donnell's appointment as Auckland coach, the decision has at least highlighted the province's no-nonsense approach to the question of governance.

In stark contrast to the New Zealand team's captain-first policy, Auckland have made no bones about their philosophy of having the coach in the top position and delegating power as he thinks appropriate.

O'Donnell, coach at Gauteng in one capacity or another since 1995, will take over from Tony Sail, who guided the Aces to the State Championship title last season before stepping down.

The New Zealand-born O'Donnell, 39, played club cricket in Christchurch before taking on coaching assignments at Eastern Province, Griqualand West and Gauteng, and was chosen from a shortlist which was understood to include former New Zealand test player and Central Districts coach Dipak Patel and Auckland second X1 coach Alan Hunt.

Auckland chief executive Lindsay Crocker said his organisation believed the coach rather than the captain required the ultimate power in terms of team strategy and direction because it was the coach who was held accountable for the team's performance.

He reasoned that in times of poor performance, it was unfair to expect coaches to "take it in the neck" when their powers had been compromised to the extent that they were no longer in control of the operation.

"We're quite clear on this," he said yesterday.

"The coach is in charge and it's up to him to delegate his power as he sees fit.

"And quite obviously, if he happened to have a very experienced and astute captain, the coach would probably delegate a lot of the power to him.

"On the other hand, if the experienced captain broke a leg and there was a rookie in the job instead, the coach would probably figure more prominently in the decision-making process.

"The point is that it's the coach's call, not the skipper's."

Crocker emphasised that Auckland would never advocate an approach which saw the coach being intrusive in respect of the captain's on-field tasks, but believed there needed to be a clear line of command and, even more importantly, a clear understanding of it.

Ironically, Crocker believed the demise of Australian captain Steve Waugh had as much to do with his bullish and autocratic approach to the job as his waning form and steadily increasing years.

Waugh, who last year advised New Zealand's Stephen Fleming to adopt a similar "one-face" style of captaincy, stepped on many toes during his last couple of seasons and possibly ended up causing more problems than he was solving.

A strong promoter of the self-rule style of governance, he bridled at interference from coach John Buchanan in India and then got offside with selector Trevor Hohns, and was eventually relieved of the captaincy altogether.

"I'd imagine that situation became pretty unworkable in the end, and that's the danger you risk whenever you blur that line of command," Crocker said.

"From our point of view, Mark comes into this job as the key figure in respect of the performance of the team.

"In 1995 he might have been pretty much in the background of a Ken Rutherford-run ship at Gauteng, but here things will be different and he's aware of that.

"It all comes back to this question - how can you possibly hold him accountable if he's not in charge?"