Birkenshaw gets Lloyd's backing (21 May 1999)
As England approach tomorrow's crunch game against South Africa at the Oval, which will probably determine which team finish top of their World Cup group, David Lloyd, England's outgoing coach, has indicated that Jack Birkenshaw is the best possible
21-May-1999
21 May 1999
Birkenshaw gets Lloyd's backing
Michael Henderson
As England approach tomorrow's crunch game against South Africa at
the Oval, which will probably determine which team finish top of
their World Cup group, David Lloyd, England's outgoing coach, has
indicated that Jack Birkenshaw is the best possible candidate to
succeed him when he leaves the post after the competition.
"He would slip into the job very nicely," Lloyd said of the man who
has coached Leicestershire to two championship titles in the past
three seasons. "He would be easy with the players, and the system,
and he's pretty well respected. He's a real cricket man, steeped in
the game."
Lloyd announced his departure this year after discussions with Lord
MacLaurin, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, led
him to believe that his contract would not be renewed. Before he
joins Sky Television this summer as an analyst, he wants his
successor to know that he will benefit from the developments over the
past three years.
"The system that has been put in place is strong," Lloyd said. "It's
a good management and coaching unit. We would concede, the players
and myself, that we haven't got the results we've striven for, but
that's not to say they won't come."
Lloyd played down the game against South Africa, which brings him up
against Bob Woolmer, the English coach, who, like him, is leaving his
job at the end of the World Cup. Woolmer, based in Cape Town, has
made no secret of his desire for a clean break after a five-year term
of office but his name is repeatedly linked with the England vacancy.
Simon Pack, the ECB international teams director, flew to South
Africa last month to find out whether he would be interested in the
post. At the moment it is a diplomatic cat-and-mouse game, which can
only be resolved after the World Cup. Woolmer will not comment on the
matter until then, and ECB officials maintain that he is not the only
candidate.
Lloyd, supervising the England players as they took an optional net
at the Oval yesterday, was supremely unconcerned about the match
throwing them together in a battle of wills. As well he might be.
Last summer, when they met over five Tests, England won the series
2-1. "I can only reiterate what Bob told me last year when he said,
'I'm not after your job'. And I'm not after his."
Both sides have won their two games so far. England have made short
work of Sri Lanka and Kenya, while South Africa have beaten India and
Sri Lanka with a good deal to spare. England have used only four
batsmen in those victories, which does not worry their coach.
"If we'd won by two wickets," Lloyd said, "people would have said the
batting wasn't strong enough. Whoever you play, you can only win, and
we've won two matches very well, particularly against Sri Lanka, in
which they were tactically naive. They need to be more
confrontational but I still think they'll do some damage in the
group. But our batsmen have said, 'We'll probably get a go this
game'."
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)