Trevor Bayliss era- Of outstanding man management and a last standing loophole in England Cricket

Four years ago, England had returned from a devastatingly disappointing stint in the World Cup down under. The English team was in desperate need of stability, discipline and a miracle to resurrect their perished ODI form. Andrew Strauss and captain Eoin Morgan, together, had their eyes set on the next World Cup, the one in 2019 at home. And that’s what made Trevor Bayliss, most recently a former coach of the England cricket team, Strauss’ top choice.

The feeling that England’s short-form cricket style needed to change drove Strauss as he gave Morgan and Bayliss his full backing and freedom to make the necessary changes to remodel the team into the best ODI side the best in the world. Bayliss recommended his trusted lieutenant Paul Farbrace be appointed as well. A new journey had begun.

Legacy

The World Cup dream was materialized on July 14 this year, with the Lord’s as witness. 

“England may well miss him when he's gone. Well, who doesn't like a scented candle?”, a regular scribe had made a sally in late 2018, rowing back from his own statement from a year before. The man being referred to as a scented candle was aware by all means but he did not make a fuss about it. That’s something inherent in him, he doesn’t make a fuss about anything. He’s as calm as snowfall and has the warmth of an “elder brother”, as Indian cricketer Manoj Tiwary, speaking exclusively to Sportscafe, admirably puts it. 

Man management and communication

There was a massive celebration all around the Lord’s ground when England, aided by the heroics of Ben Stokes, bettered the New Zealand team to win the 50-over World Cup for the first time. The camaraderie of the team looked better than most of the English teams in the past. Perhaps, this mutual gratitude was a result of Bayliss’ efforts. But did you see him running to the ground to celebrate with the team? He probably laidback and smiled in pride and joy and that’s about it.

But fortunately, Bayliss was able to handle and talk Stokes through all the lows of his career. Stokes was able to reintegrate, refocus and return to becoming one of the best all-rounders in the world. To quote Mark Wood from an earlier interview with the BBC, “Trev and Stokesy have gone on to develop a relationship of mutual respect. Stokesy has kept up the Aussie accent, while I think Trev loves the way Stokesy plays, never taking a backward step. ‘Keep your foot on the throat,’ as Trev would say.”

“There is a perception that he doesn't do much for the team. That couldn't be further from truth,” Wood added.

Bayliss’ tenure as head coach was a representation of an era of an unusually unorthodox model of Cricket in the English set-up. The ECB has always boasted about Test cricket being their priority. But the past four years have seen something different. The ODI record was incredible with 62 wins in 93 matches, whereas, in Test Cricket the Win/Loss ratio dropped to 1.07. While the 300+ scores in the 50-over format had skyrocketing progress, the number of 400+ totals in Tests took a significant dip. Also, England were bowled out under a total of 100 four times in the period, whereas if we look at a span of four years before Bayliss, that count was only one.

Test cricket has been losing its priority with the County Championship being pushed into the margins of the season and more numbers of T20 fixtures emerging at the expense of first-class cricket. In fact, an expert in the LOIs, Bayliss failed to translate that in the longest format. The impact he had on Stokes helped shaped his career but at some point the coach needs to help the players with their technique too. Not that Bayliss didn’t, but he never quite emphasized on it. In fact, he didn’t believe in schooling players about their technique. Only when England played a shockingly bad innings, someone like a Michael Vaughan would brutally point out what the problem is and that’s when the players were urged to improve their game.