- The reason in the whatmore era BD beat minnows has a lot to do with the talent becaming better in BD, it wasn’t all whatmore's doing. and this better quality of talent is what is allowing siddons to implement the method he's currently implementing. siddons knows the players can play big shots, but he needs them to learn another side of the game to be a competitive team, the big shots are useful but at times you need to graft, grind and build. BD players need to learn to analyse/asses the game as it's played and react appropriately (sometimes this will mean hitting out and others it will mean hold down an end or it might mean play an aggressive innings but in a safe manner). not to say being proactive isn't a good thing either but that too needs to be calculated and implemented well, don't be proactive if your not going to back it 100% and don't do things that you don't think you can pull off.
- As i've said from the beginning real results from Siddons changes likely won’t show for about a year from when he started coaching the team. things should be starting to work from about now, but the full effect likely won't be seen for another few months.
- In ODIs under Siddons we already have 19 50+ scores in ODIs. 13 against top 8 teams, whatmore got what, 30-40 in 4 years against top 8 teams? siddons has 13 in 7 months, now that will probably be higher after the next 5 months (which will be a full year for siddons), if you just take the 50+ scores under siddons for the 7 months and x by 4 (whatmores no. of years coaching the BD team) it comes out to 52 which is already more than the 30-40 said BD got under whatmores 4 years. so if we wait 5 months, then multiply all the 50+ scores from ODIs it will be even higher than that 52, so siddons is on track to beat whatmores no. of 50+ scores against top 8 teams (he might even do it by the end of his 2 years as opposed to whatmores 4 years) if things keep going like they are). obviously there is no guarantee it will happen but so far the 50+ scores against top 8 teams are rolling in pretty nicely (by BD standards) under siddons.
- Siddons isn’t saying the players don’t have the talent, by saying they’re not good enough to compete atm he’s possibly trying to motivate them to improve and prove him wrong. at this point they have the talent but not the skills.
- Maybe siddons is talking to the bcb behind closed doors about the domestic infrastructure, someone earlier mentioned he should be doing this, fact is we don't know what he's saying to the bcb behind clsoed doors.
- It’s impossible to give a time frame for improvement as at least half of the effort if not more is up to the players, it depends on how quickly they catch on. i disagree that there have been no signs of improvement as the team has scored 2 of the top 3 highest ever ODI scores by BD and one of them is the highest ever against a top 8 side which is 280+, certainly an improvment on the previous record of 265. individual improvement (which has been occurring with the batsmen) will eventually lead to team improvement. If you get individual players consistent then eventually players will start performing on the same day. If they perform inconsistently like they were before siddons came along then it’s just a fluke that they perform on the same day, whereas the more consistent they are (siddons goal) the more likely more than one player will fire on the same day which is what you need to win matches consistently at this level.
- JS has been positive with this article, he was previously saying just aim for 200+, now he’s saying 240+. why would he say that unless he thinks the players are improving? the fact that he's now upping the target is something positive.
- The goal of Siddons is to change cricket mentality in the BD national team (which will hopefully lead to a change in the lower levels), even if the team doesn’t get back up to it’s previous level in Siddons 2 years it will be a good base to build on. Whereas what Siddons started with was a poor base to build on, if BD had a good base these sort of changes wouldn't be needed because they'd already be there.
- there's all this talk about the 50+ scores under siddons not really counting because the team isn't trying to win, that's completely bogus, has siddons specifically said that he's told the players not to try and win the matches they've played? as far as i'm aware he's just said wins don't matter atm, my interpretation of that is that he's just saying don't worry about winning or losing, i don't believe he means it in a way which is saying don't try to win. if the the latter is the case then i would be completely against that philosphy. the reason the 50+ scores under siddons haven't been match winning scores is because the players are learning to play a different way and it's going to take time for them to get use to it and get good at it. siddons is trying to teach them to play a better way, a way which will result in more consistency and more skills, the previous method worked on occassion but it was so risky (and narrow in the skills department) that high consistency was unlikely to ever come. siddons method has a much greater chance of bringing consistency and skills and consistency plus skills equals wins.
- whoever mentioned siddons lack of mentioning the bowling brings up a good point, JS is always talking about the batting and rarely the bowling which for me is a bit of a worry. but in regards to the bowling getting worse isn't there supposed to be a fast bowling coach? what are they doing to rectify the situation?
- personally i think the current lack of results are worthwhile if this works in the long run and i think this has a good chance of working in the long run. i guess if you think the method won't work in the long run then yeah you'd be upset, but the old method wasn't working either so continuing with that method is also pointless.
at the end of the day i think siddons is a better batting coach than head coach, i think having someone like whatmore as head coach with siddons as a batting coach would have brought improvement quicker than the way it's currently going.
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