Howard refocuses after signing new deal

The management of Australia’s fast-bowling stocks will be vital to the team’s aspirations to reclaim the world’s number one Test ranking from South Africa, according to newly-reappointed head of team performance Pat Howard.

Howard, the former Wallabies representative who was installed in 2011 to oversee the nation’s elite men’s and women’s national and domestic teams in all forms of the game, has signed on for a further two years to extend his contract that was due to expire in June.

In confirming Howard’s ongoing role as Executive General Manager of Team Performance until 2017, Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland noted the success of Australia's teams at international level in the recent past.

That includes the Australia men’s team securing the 2015 ICC World Cup last month and briefly rising to the top of the Test match rankings last year, while the Southern Stars women’s team won the ICC World T20 a year ago and top the rankings in the limited-overs format.

"This recognises the outstanding job Pat is doing leading the Team Performance function at Cricket Australia," Sutherland said today.

"Our men’s and women’s teams continue to succeed on the world stage while strong foundations are being built to achieve sustained success in all forms of the game."

But Howard is focused on the immediate challenge for Australia’s men’s team, which looms as a heavy schedule of nine Tests (in the Caribbean, Britain and Bangladesh) as well as seven limited-overs internationals in the UK before a home summer hosting New Zealand and the West Indies.

Howard, who has overseen the introduction of a comprehensive athlete management system since taking up his role at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane almost four years ago, has indicated the workload of key strike bowlers Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc will need to be carefully monitored.

The fact that both left-armers, stand-out performers in Australia’s World Cup triumph, will be moving directly from the 20-over Indian Premier League format (maximum of four overs per bowler) into Test cricket on flat, slow Caribbean pitches might see their initial workloads scaled back accordingly.

In addition, veteran quick Ryan Harris – who underwent knee surgery last year – has been working on a specific Test bowling program at the NCC to focus on the Ashes campaign that begins in early July.

He will miss the West Indies series due to the impending arrival of his and wife Cherie’s first child.

"The first trick to win any Test match is to take 20 wickets so we’ve spent a lot of times in managing our quicks, either those at the IPL or those back in Brisbane," Howard told cricket.com.au today.

"We made the decision months ago with Ryan Harris focusing on (the upcoming Ashes) tour and with Josh Hazlewood not going to the IPL.

"Peter Siddle was great when brought back into the (Bupa Sheffield) Shield competition so there’s three guys that we know are very, very focused on the red-ball form of the game.

"And then we’ve got two blokes in form coming off a World Cup – Mitch Johnson and Mitchell Starc - but they are going to have low (bowling) loads coming out of the IPL.

"So if you take our genuine quicks, we’ll put a lot of work into them and they are all working very hard but we need to make sure we have maximum availability for the selectors come those upcoming Tests.

"There will be injuries over time, we know that so we have to make sure that we’ve got enough depth to be able to deal with it."

The first Test against the West Indies will begin in Dominica in just over a month, on June 3.