Ottis Gibson to the Windies?

Splitter.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/8476180.stm

Would it be a loss? Not sure England's bowlers are any better than they were when he took over.

He's not had the best of raw talent to work with to be fair - Amjad Khan anyone?

Yeah, not sure how much of a loss though the bowlers seem to get on well with him.

Coach is a step up from bowling coach however, so a natural progression. Wonder if he'd be paid more? The WICB always seem in financial straits.

They've got all that money Stanford promised them still to come through though, right?

You never really know how good these people are. It's a transitory role anyway; people come, people go. They'll replace him, and we're off again.

Zat wrote:They've got all that money Stanford promised them still to come through though, right?

Yep, cheque's in the post

Meh. most bowling coaches seem to do more harm than good anyway. Very rarely does it seem like an England bowler makes significant strides after being selected from county cricket. 3 years later, Liam Plunkett is still recovering from being 'Shined'.

Well it will be nice to have a head coach with expertise on fast bowling. It often seems that Taylor, Fidel, Roach etc are almost on their own whilst the batsmen get all sorts of advice.

Still no further news on this though so we will have to wait and see.

Gibson must have been some use

I'm sure the Anderson cycle gets mentioned less frequently ...or is it just that England have had more days with swinging conditions

Henry wrote:Meh. most bowling coaches seem to do more harm than good anyway. Very rarely does it seem like an England bowler makes significant strides after being selected from county cricket. 3 years later, Liam Plunkett is still recovering from being 'Shined'.

A fair call, Trev. It appears that Cooley got all the credit that the mints really deserved, sucked CA into hiring him, and preceded to fark up a natural talent in Midge.

It is quite clear that Midge has technical flaws (can't keep the seam upright, nor the wrist properly vertical and behind the ball) but Cooley's work was just doing the boy's head in and making him totally ineffective (see Ashes 09). It seems obvious this summer that Midge has said "Fark all that technical mumbo jumbo, I'm just gonna run in and bowl". He has looked a much more dangerous, albeit occasionally wayward bowler.

A good bowling coach will observe a bowler's natural action and work around that, rather than completely try to re-model everything.

skully wrote:It seems obvious this summer that Midge has said "Fark all that technical mumbo jumbo, I'm just gonna run in and bowl". He has looked a much more dangerous, albeit occasionally wayward bowler.

Someone also seemed to twig to the idea that he really isn't a new-ball bowler. He's done much better at first-change.

So it's confirmed-

http://www.cricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/446357.html

Shows how out of the loop the ECB is with these sort of things. Just a week ago an ECB spokesman was saying that they are "certainly not aware of this and no deal has been reached." Either they deliberately tried to make themselves look silly, or they really are that much out of touch that they have no idea that their chief bowling coach is heading to another country in less than a week.

England have lost Troy Cooley, Allan Donald and Ottis Gibson in the past 5 years.


Pretty f*cked up if you ask me.

Meh, good luck to Otis. Head coach is a big step up from just bowling coach.... anyone would take the promotion.

Even if the Windies job is a bit of a hospital pass!

JKLever wrote:Meh, good luck to Otis. Head coach is a big step up from just bowling coach.... anyone would take the promotion.

Aye.

Like I said before, is it a big loss? I mean, what else could he have taught the bowlers that he hadn't passed on in the previous 18 months?

Surely the bowlers have long-since locked down the basics of bowling, so a bowling coach is merely a bloke to keep things ticking over, pass on the odd idea or suggestion.

A new coach every couple of years, a few fresh ideas knocking about, seems like it couldn't hurt.

As long as it's not Kevin Shine, the Ruinator, of course...

The hardest thing for any coach is to leave well alone. They have to justify their salaries, so it takes a very confident coach to be able to look at something and say that the best course of action is not to touch it.

Why should the position of bowling coach always go to a former seam bowler? John Emburey would be an excellent choice if he is not considered too old or Shane Warne or Mushtaq Ahmed, who has coached England spinners in the past. I think it is more important to separate the roles for the Test and limited-over sides since different disciplines are required. If a traditional appointment were to be made I would have Andy Caddick coach the Test side and Darren Gough the limited-over sides.

Basil wrote:Even if the Windies job is a bit of a hospital pass!

I wonder how long it will be before Otis finds himself coaching Floyd Reifer and co instead of the senior players?

Tbh he will be a step ahead of Bennett King and John Dyson if he actually turns up to some of our domestic matches instead of spending all his time abroad.

Its official then Gibson is off to the Windies - good luck to him.

As for his replacement - feck knows: there aren't many stand-out bowling coaches in our domestic game. AD anyone?

AD was overlooked by Gary Kirsten for the India job, which doesn't exactly send a ringing endorsement.

One suggestion that has been put up: Craig White.

So long as it isn't Kevin Shoite

He admitted himself it didn't work out. So that's a no any way you call it. However, it's worth remembering that Shine had difficult buggers in the shape of Hoggard, Flintoff and Harmison to work with. You can't coach those that won't be coached, and they made life difficult for him.

Shoeshine wrote:AD was overlooked by Gary Kirsten for the India job, which doesn't exactly send a ringing endorsement.

One suggestion that has been put up: Craig White.

The Grauniad has nominated Kaspa and The Gypsy as possible replacements.