Twenty-three years since he took part in the failed 1992 campaign, Craig McDermott
will mentor Australia's fast bowlers at the 2015 World Cup after
re-signing with Cricket Australia as assistant coach with the national
team for two years.
Recognising the success of the Test bowling battery against England and
South Africa, CA have upgraded McDermott's contract and increased his
remit to cover major tours across all formats, rather than the Test-only
position he took up at the start of the 2013-14 Ashes summer. He will
now be the right hand man of the coach Darren Lehmann.
"I've already had a couple of meetings with Darren mapping out the next
two years," McDermott told ESPNcricinfo. "Once we go to Dubai for
Pakistan it's pretty much full-on until the end of the 2015-16 season
really.
"After we get back from Dubai we've got the one-dayers at home to South
Africa, and that's pretty important leading not only into the Test
series against India where we'd like to reverse the 4-0 the other way
like we did previously in Australia, but also the tri-series with India
and England and then the World Cup.
"I feel like we've got a really good group at the moment. While all the
guys are playing well, it's really been great to build this close bond
with them all - the boys call it the fast bowling cartel, but we also
let Nathan Lyon in - and we're all really motivated to keep that going.
I'm also looking forward to taking on more responsibility and to work
closely with Darren to broaden my coaching skills and alongside Michael
Di Venuto to ensure we're a well-oiled coaching unit."
Ali de Winter,
who had replaced McDermott as pace bowling coach when he temporarily
left the job in April 2012, had been commissioned to look after the
bowlers in ODI and Twenty20 matches, but will now work alongside
McDermott, mainly at the National Cricket Centre while touring
occasionally.
"Craig has built a really strong rapport with the bowling group," the
team performance manager Pat Howard said. "Combine that with the
international experience and technical expertise that Craig brings and
it has proved a successful combination in recent times and we're keen to
see that continue and for Craig to continue to grow and develop as a
coach.
"Craig will also do a bit more work with the limited overs players,
along with Ali de Winter, as we head towards the World Cup early next
year and will be closely connected to the work being done at the
National Cricket Centre."
The prospect of working at the World Cup is something McDermott is
particularly eager for, given his own unhappy experience of the 1992
campaign when Allan Border's team did not reach the semi-finals in their
attempt to defend the title won in 1987. A pair of unexpected defeats
at the hands of New Zealand and South Africa meant the hosts were always
chasing from behind.
"We got beaten by New Zealand in that first game, I can remember we then
had a barbecue at Steve Waugh's house and the talk was all 'oh we'll
just win the next one'," McDermott said. "But we didn't win the next one
and were playing catch-up all through the tournament. It was
disappointing because we'd all wanted to win a World Cup in our home
country.
"New Zealand opening the bowling with spin was a shock to everyone, the
wicket was low, slow and the New Zealand attack really suited that with
guys like Dipak Patel and Chris Harris. That first loss was a major
psychological issue for us - we expected to beat New Zealand because at
that stage we were always beating them, so that took a while to recover
from. Then South Africa beat us as well in Sydney, and we never really
recovered from those two games.
"Hopefully our boys can do it this time, we've got a good one-day side,
we're ranked up the top, we've just got to make sure that we stay
there."
Central to the 2015 campaign will be the pace and aggression of Mitchell
Johnson, currently turning out in the IPL following the twin peaks of
an Ashes sweep then a stirring 2-1 defeat of South Africa away from
home. Though Johnson claimed a staggering 59 wickets from those eight
Tests, McDermott said there was still room for improvement.
"I don't think Mitchell bowled as well in South Africa as he did in
Australia," he said. "It was always going to be hard to improve on what
he did against England ... if I wanted to work on something with
Mitchell it would be to make sure we get his swing back that he had in
Australia. He didn't quite get the same shape he had in Australia, so
that's something he has to work on going forward.
"His aggression and pace and everything else was exceptional in South
Africa on two very docile wickets in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. He
bowled well at Centurion, so we've just got to make sure he gets some
rest and then we'll see if he is selected for Zimbabwe or gets some
extra time to groove some things to get ready for Dubai."
Daniel Brettig is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @danbrettig
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