Surprise coaching job sees Sayers build new career path

Chadd Sayers was planning to spend his first winter as an ex-cricketer as hired help for a mate on building sites around Adelaide, and readying for a return to his former grade club Woodville where he hoped for "a little fairytale finish" to an already storied career.

But instead the 33-year-old, who retired last summer as South Australia's third-most prolific wicket-taker in their Sheffield Shield history, is heading to the ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman after fielding a surprise offer to work with Papua New Guinea as assistant coach.

Sayers admits he boasts even less experience as a top-level coach than he does as a T20 bowler – he was on the Adelaide Strikers BBL list for a couple of seasons though never played a game – but is more excited than anxious about being called up for his maiden World Cup campaign.

While he had been eyeing low-key coaching work in Adelaide amid wringing another couple of Premier Cricket seasons out of his battle-weary body, his plans were hastily revised when he received a phone call from former Australia Test seamer Greg Campbell, now chief executive of Cricket PNG.

"It was a bit of a surprise," Sayers told cricket.com.au.

"I wanted to stay involved in the game as much as I could and wherever I could, so I'd been talking to a couple of schools about some potential coaching work but this was out of the blue.

"But what a way to start – an international side at a World Cup."

Image Id: D2FB572A675040EFAA95C8DE79E60CB9 Image Caption: Sayers called time on his career at the end of last summer // Getty

PNG earned a place in this year’s T20 World Cup by finishing runners-up to the Netherlands at the ICC's 14-team qualifying event staged in the UAE in late 2019.

The Barras – short for Barramundis – won six of their eight matches and will now battle it out with Bangladesh, Scotland and Oman in round one of the World Cup in October with the two top-ranked qualifiers from that group to take part in the Super 12s component of the showpiece event.

Should PNG finish second in their group – not an unlikely outcome given they boast a 17:8 win:loss record in T20Is – they will progress to Group 1 of the Super 12s where their opponents will be England, South Africa, West Indies and … Australia.

Sayers can see the irony in potentially coaching against the nation for which he played one Test – at Johannesburg in 2018 – in a white-ball format, since his stellar career only included 15 one-day appearances for SA and none in the 20-over version.

"That would be pretty cool wouldn't it?" he said of the prospect of lining up in opposition to Australia who, like PNG, have never claimed the World T20 crown.

"But it's just going to be cool to rub shoulders with some of the best players and coaches around, at a World Cup.

"That's what, as a player or as a coach, you want to be involved in so I'm really excited at what's ahead.

"I've not played a helluva lot of T20 cricket, but it's more of a tactical and skill-based format which were probably two components of my game that I excelled at.

"I'm looking forward to getting into the heads of the PNG bowlers and seeing what plans we can come up with, and see how they execute under pressure.

"Bangladesh are the main team in that (round one) group, and the other two (Scotland and Oman) we'll get a look at before we play in the real stuff.

"There's quite a few warm-up games before the World Cup – I think PNG are also playing a one-day series against Oman and the USA leading into it – so there will be a fair bit of cricket in a short period of time.

"I'm sure if we play our best cricket, we can shock a few people and hopefully make it through to the main group of the World Cup."

Image Id: 1D09E58995E04D5595BE2BED4C7C57EA Image Caption: PNG celebrate at the World Cup qualifiers in 2019 // Getty

Those warm-up games will be sorely needed, given PNG have not played an international since the final of that ICC qualifying event almost two years ago.

The Barras were supposed to be part of the NT Strike League T20 competition that gets underway in Darwin next month, but the most recent COVID-19 outbreak in Australia and resultant restrictions meant they were refused permission to travel here and will stage a domestic T20 tournament at home instead.

Sayers will join the group when they travel to the UAE in late August, although he's spending his spare time (once he's downed tools at the building site) watching video highlights of the Barras' previous matches and drawing on his own first-hand experiences against them.

"They played in the pre-season SACA (Premier and Redbacks League) competitions for a couple of years about three or four years ago," he recalled.

"So I've seen the way they go about it, and they're bloody competitive.

"They run around with a lot of energy and they're great in the field.

"I've also been watching a fair bit of vision, and they've got some skillful bowlers as well as some handy part-time spinners which, with the conditions they'll be seeing in the UAE and Oman, should mean they'll assist the quicks and hopefully restrict the teams we play against."

The former swing king's pre-departure research will be bolstered by planned chats with PNG's previous head coach Joe Dawes, the former Queensland quick who has worked with Adelaide Strikers in recent years, and current West End Redbacks coach Jason Gillespie.

Dawes was coach of the Barras for three years during which PNG also regained their ODI status, but stepped down from the role earlier this year and was replaced by Australia-based former Italian international Carl Sandri.

Prior to Dawes's appointment, Gillespie stood in as interim coach of the Barras in 2017 and also boasts significant experience with developing teams given he began his coaching journey at the helm of domestic outfit Midwest Rhinos based in the Zimbabwean provincial centre of Kwekwe.

Having been catapulted into an international role with his first coaching appointment, Sayers is now re-evaluating his own ambitions as a mentor.

He's still planning to don the whites when he returns from the World Cup, returning to Woodville where he originally played alongside his brother (Aaron) in the footsteps of their SA-capped dad (Dean) before transferring to rival outfit Glenelg seven years ago.

He figures he'll only miss the first few rounds of the 2021-22 season and then hopefully help Woodville to their first Premier Cricket crown in a decade.

But he'll also keep an eye out for potential coaching opportunities, and might yet forge a path in the 20-over format that doesn't feature on his impressive playing résumé.

"I'm happy to keep my eyes open for any role really," Sayers said.

"The PNG job came out of the blue and I'm really excited to see how that goes and to see if I really enjoy coaching, that's the main thing.

"I've never done it before, so I'll have to learn quickly in the international environment.

"And then wherever it takes me, I'll give it a crack."