John Buchanan (cricketer) - Australian Coach

Australian Coach

Buchanan served as the coach of the Australian cricket team. Appointed in October 1999 to replace Geoff Marsh he was considered an unlikely candidate given that he had not played at the Test level as had his predecessors, Marsh and Bob Simpson. His initial results were very impressive however as he has helped steer the team to unprecedented success. At one stage his record was 15 wins from 15 games played. However, his contributions have often been questioned by legends of the game including Ian Chappell, Sunil Gavaskar and even Shane Warne who played under him. The most common criticism has been that he inherited a very strong team and his presence just happened to coincide with their victories. Warne has consistently held that Buchanan tends to reinvent everything and complicate all aspects of the game. Buchanan has, along with former captain Ricky Ponting, led the side to numerous successes, including a world-record 16 consecutive Test match victories and 23 ODI victories in world cup tournaments, Buchanan only not involved in the first one, a 2001 and 2002-03 Ashes domination winning both series 4-1, the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa, the 2004 tour of India, in which Australia hadn't won a series there in thirty-six years, and more recently, following their shock Ashes defeat, a whitewash of the Super Series that saw the Aussies up against a World XI. In late 2006 he helped the team to their first ever ICC Champions Trophy victory, after four previously failed attempts and followed this with a 5-0 whitewash in the 2006-07 Ashes Series, the first since the 1920-21 Series. In 2007 his team won their third consecutive world cup. His unorthodox methods have raised a few eyebrows and Shane Warne was dismissive about his role in the team. Ponting credits him as being one of the important reasons why Australia completed their World Cup hat trick of wins.