'My belief is to still have that one coach and share the workload within that' - Andrew McDonald

Veteran Australian cricketer Andrew McDonald has been formally appointed as the new coach of the Men's Australian National Cricket team after Justin Langer completes his four-year tenure. During Langer's tenure, he was the team's assistant coach since 2019.  

McDonald had kick-started his coaching stint with a bang; after being the crucial pillar behind the recent Australia's Test series win against Pakistan. 

Recently, Rob Key got roped in as the new England Cricket Board (ECB) Managing Director. As a crucial step for the team, he was eager to rope an overseas coach to the English squad. 

The go-to options were Andrew McDonald and Justin Langer. Though McDonald was keen to go for that role, he wasn't pleased enough about Key's ideology to split the coaching roles between the red-ball and white-ball lines.

In 2012, ECB tried to execute the coach and format-splitting ideology. But it has caused a little drift between the coaches and has hindered the team's winning stint to a certain extent. 

Andrew McDonald prefers to be the coach for all the formats. He wouldn't even opt for the Australian coach position if they had followed the coach-splitting format. 

In his conversation with the SEN, he said, "No. I don't think there was a risk. I think the way that they're going to set up, structure up, is clear. I think they're going to go for a split coaching role. My views on that differ slightly,"

"My belief is to still have that one coach and share the workload within that. I think for me, the continuity of messaging is critical. But also, the priorities shift. And people probably don't like me saying this, but the priorities do shift at certain times. You can't be everything to everyone," added McDonald. 

"For example, Pat Cummins, on the back of three Test matches in Pakistan, at the end of that, he's severely fatigued, and then the white-ball team gets compromised because Pat Cummins isn't playing. But he's not ready to perform in that environment,"

Also, McDonald stated his argument about why he doesn't prefer the coach and format splitting plan.

"If you had split coaches, which format takes priority? So, I think the ability to have one selection panel, one coach to work through that, give the direction to what the priorities are at the time and managing the overall squad as such and then someone, potentially a Michael Di Venuto or another assistant coach, coming in to allow the head coach to balance the workload but still stick on the same path,” 

“For example, we're going to build towards the 2023 World Cup. Am I going to do every one-day game leading into that World Cup? There's no chance of that. So I think that the continuity of messaging for me is important." 

Andrew McDonald expresses his need to find someone for the vacant place of a full-time bowling coach of the team. He believes that Test-cricket will be the main priority for the Australian team as the World Test Championship is progressing to an end. 

With attaining the recent ICC WT20 title, he is also actively involved in the planning for the shortest format of the game. McDonald is already shaping his master plan as the Australian team is gearing up for the upcoming hectic 18 months of cricket.