Plenty to learn for aspiring coach Harris

Former Test bowler Ryan Harris has confirmed that while he aspires to the job of bowling coach with Australia, he might not yet be sufficiently qualified to take on the role full-time.

Australia’s number-one ranked Test and ODI outfit is searching for a replacement for Craig McDermott who relinquished the specialist job earlier this year to pursue other opportunities. 

Ex-Tasmania seamer Adam Griffith is currently filling the role with the ODI squad for the tri-series against the West Indies and South Africa in the Caribbean.

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And former South Africa spearhead Allan Donald has been appointed as consultant bowling coach for the Qantas Tour of Sri Lanka starting next month. 

Jason Gillespie was identified as a preferred candidate by coach Darren Lehmann, his former Australia and South Australia teammate, but Gillespie last week ruled himself out of contention and confirmed his plans to remain in his current role as coach of English county champions Yorkshire.

Harris, who retired due to a chronic knee injury at the start of last year’s Ashes campaign in the UK, has been touted as a candidate to fill the job and has been honing his coaching credentials since ending his career with 147 wickets from 27 Tests and 21 ODIs. 

The 36-year-old was involved as a specialist bowling mentor with the Prime Minister’s and the Cricket Australia XIs that played New Zealand in Canberra last year and has worked also closely with a number of age and senior squads at the Bupa National Cricket Centre in Brisbane.

He oversaw training sessions with Test quicks Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood as part of their preparation for the upcoming limited-overs and Test tours to the West Indies, Sri Lanka and South Africa.

Starc endorsed Harris’s undoubted credentials for the job filled by McDermott since October 2013, during which the left-armer rose to the top of the world ODI bowler rankings and was hero of Australia’s victory at the 2015 ICC World Cup.

“We had him (Harris) up in Brisbane watching us in the past couple of weeks and he's got a wealth of knowledge and that alone will keep him in good stead as a coach,” Starc said in Guyana where he made his return to international cricket in Sunday’s tri-series win over the West Indies.

“The little work with him I've done outside his playing days, he's got a great cricket mind and he's great to talk to about different tactics and things.

“There's no reason why he wouldn't make a good bowling coach.

“Obviously we'll find out in the next few months who our new full-time bowling coach will be and I'm sure he'll be up there in the candidates.”

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But while Harris believes he could fill the role on a consultant basis, as Griffiths is doing now and Donald (who has indicated his interest in taking on the job full-time) will do in Sri Lanka, he does not feel he has acquired the full skills set less than a year after calling time on his playing career.

“For me at the moment, it’s learning the art of coaching,” Harris told cricket.com.au. 

“If I was to go on a tour as a bowling coach at the moment, I think I could handle that pretty well because I know what goes on.

“I know from Craig McDermott who I learned a lot from, as well as Joe Dawes (former Queensland quick who recently worked with the Southern Stars) who spent a bit of time here with Queensland and spent some time in India (as national team bowling coach). 

“On tour it’s a lot about just fine tuning guys and getting to know characters.

“I think I could do that, but it’s the other stuff away from that - the writing the reports and not just looking at bowlers and seeing how the ball comes out but breaking down an action and trying to help a young guy who’s counter-rotating or who’s got a problem with injury.

“You’ve got to be the man to fix that, or contribute to fixing that.

“And that’s the sort of stuff which I’m working really closely with (former England and Australia Test bowling coach) Troy Cooley, and with Joey Dawes as well when gets back from the Indian Premier League. 

“So I feel as though I’m with the right people to learn what I need to learn to take me to being an international assistant coach or bowling coach.” 

Harris’s typically honest assessment of his suitability for the job does not rule him out of contention for a role that Cricket Australia is aiming to fill before the upcoming home summer that includes three-Test series against South Africa and Pakistan.

But the highly respected seamer believes that he is better suited – and that Australian cricket might be better served – if he gained experience from being involved in the set-up on an upcoming overseas tour rather than plunge in and learn the finer points of the coaching craft on the job.

“I said when the news broke about Craig (McDermott), if Darren (Lehmann) and the staff of Cricket Australia reckon I was ready tomorrow I’d have a crack at it,” Harris said.

“I probably wouldn’t be suited for it, but I’d like to get that experience.

“I think I’ll know when I’m ready, and more importantly I think the people above me who will employ me will see that I’m ready and will put me in a position that they think will suit me.

“Whether it takes a month or six months or four years, that’s something that I’m going to have to wait and see.

“For me at the moment it’s just learning the art of bowling, communicating, and what it takes and what it means to become a coach."

In the meantime, Starc is looking forward to resuming his partnership with Donald, the feared former fast bowler known as ‘White Lightning’ with whom he worked closely during their respective stints as strike bowler and bowling coach with IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The pair will be reunited in Sri Lanka next month ahead of the three-Test series that begins in Kandy on July 26.

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“He's a great guy to talk to as well,” Starc said of Donald.

“He's another fantastic cricketer in his day and he was awesome to talk to during the IPL.

“He knew right from the start it wasn't going to be (as case of) ‘I've got six weeks, let's try and change things'.

“It was more ‘I've got six weeks, there's no point trying to change things technically now, let's talk tactically and let's see how we can get batsmen out and work together to pull this team along’.

“He was fantastic to work with, very open and willing to chat about different things.

“I've only had him in a T20 capacity but I'm excited to work with him in Sri Lanka on a Test tour and hopefully the one-dayers (that follow those three Tests) as well. 

“It's exciting times ahead.”