I just didn’t know enough...... Bayliss

CRICKET: Like most onlookers, Trevor Bayliss didn’t know what to make of Muttiah Muralitharan’s action when the prolific off spinner first exploded on to the international stage.

Now, 15 years later, Bayliss is preparing to lead the Sri Lankan side at a time when Muralitharan is challenging Shane Warne for supremacy atop the Test wicket-takers list.

Bayliss will leave Australia next week to assume Tom Moody’s former coaching post, is certain that his main bowling weapon possesses a legitimate action. But it wasn’t always so.

Bayliss, a former opening batsman and coach with NSW, conceded that he was unsure of the legality of Muralitharan’s unique bent-arm action in the early days.

“I thought it was unusual, and I think most people did when they first saw him,” Bayliss said. “I just didn’t know enough about it to form an opinion on it. It was so different, I wasn’t sure.”

However, Bayliss said Bruce Elliott, the biomechanist who tested Muralitharan’s action at the behest of the ICC, had convinced him of the legality of the action. “I think if the sceptics heard what Bruce had to say, it would change 99 per cent of their opinions.”

When he arrives in Colombo later this month, Bayliss will take charge of the fastest improving team in international cricket. Sri Lanka have surged to third on the Test rankings, ahead of South Africa, India and Pakistan, and are equal fourth in one-day cricket.

Bayliss’s first assignment will be the Twenty20 World Cup in September, followed by a five-match one-day series against England in October. Then comes the major examination: a two-Test series in Australia in November, pitted against a team desperate to prove their worth without Warne and Glenn McGrath, and against a crowd that will, presumably, continue its furious, long-running campaign against Muralitharan.

“The Sri Lankans have been successful at home and increasingly away, but the biggest challenge for any international team at the moment is beating Australia in Australia,” Bayliss said. “I’m not going to be underestimating Australia. Anyone thinking that way is just looking for punishment.

“You take away McGrath and you replace him with [Stuart] Clark, then you take away Warne and you replace him with [Stuart] MacGill. Both those replacement guys would have taken hundreds and hundreds of wickets in another era. It will be a great challenge.

“Murali understands what is awaiting him, in terms of crowds. I spoke to Tom [Moody] about this, and he thinks that really it’s all a backhanded compliment. Australian crowds go at him because they know how good he is and they’re looking to unsettle him. It should be interesting when he breaks [Warne’s] record.”

Bayliss’s sudden departure from NSW prompted a major coaching shake-up at the Blues. Matthew Mott has since been installed as Bayliss’s replacement, with former England batsman Graham Thorpe his assistant. Simon Cook and Brad McNamara are favoured to fill the remaining vacancies on the Blues’ coaching roster, with McGrath now rated highly unlikely to accept a position as bowling tutor.

“It all happened very quickly and I hope I haven’t burned any bridges at NSW,” said Bayliss, who was contracted for another two years with the Blues. “It’s just that it’s not every day you get an opportunity to coach an international team.”

Steve Waugh has knocked back a coaching offer from the breakaway Indian Cricket League. Waugh has a number of commercial and charitable interests in India, but opted against signing on with the made-for-television Twenty20 series. Current players including Inzamam-ul-Haq and Stephen Fleming are understood to be considering offers.

Sydney Morning Herald