Jamie Siddons goal to make Sri Lanka one of the best in the world

Sri Lanka women’s cricket head coach Jamie Siddons communicates to one of the Sri Lankan players through a local coach during practice

• Takes over as national women’s cricket team head coach

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Australian Jamie Siddons has no previous experience of handling a women’s cricket team but he has vast experience of working with some of the top women cricketers in the world like Sophie Devine, Amelia Kerr and Ellyse Perry which he hopes to pass on to our girls.

“I am an international cricket coach first and foremost. I am an international batting coach and an international fielding coach with the Australian cricket team. My knowledge of cricket and how they go about I’ve been involved in about 7 World Cups,” said Siddons, addressing his inaugural conference with the local media at the CCC grounds yesterday where the national women’s team were to play a practice match under lights in preparation for the tour to Bangladesh next month.

“My knowledge of cricket is to pass down those formats with ease. Knowledge of how to play the game in a World Cup match T20 and ODI. Cricket fitness is required from girls as well as men to win games of cricket. I’ve got that knowledge and I have no doubt that my approach to the game will pass down to women’s cricket without doubt.”

Siddons knowledge of Sri Lanka women’s cricket is that they are ranked 6 and 7 in the two formats.

“I’ve had 3 weeks now and gained a lot of knowledge, probably 15 practice sessions. Got to know most of the girls’ names now. I am really looking forward to working with them and getting game plans put together. Bangladesh first and foremost we got 3 WODIs and 3 WT20Is leading into the Women’s T20 World Cup in England.”

“We got three massive games. To start off with against the host team England in our first game. Then we play New Zealand and the West Indies. We’ve got no relatively easier games, but games against the best in the world. We are focusing on that first game against England. Our major objective is to play a game of cricket and the style of play against one of the best teams in the world on their home ground. That’s going to be a big challenge, but first and foremost we’ve got to get through Bangladesh. We’ll be putting some players on the field whom we think can perform in that format against Bangladesh and hopefully they’ll be the ones who will take us forward in the World Cup.”

Siddons’ objective is to develop a team that can beat the best in the world. “Otherwise, we keep winning against the smaller teams and not qualify and go through. We need to keep working through what style of play, how do we get better, what skills we need to get better and what players do we need to bring in, maybe from the under19 or the ‘A’ team that might help us to win the World Cup.”

Identifying the areas he has to work on Siddons said, “From the bowling perspective we need to have some tricks. We need to have different types of bowlers, every fast bowler needs to have several slower balls so that the batsmen cannot just line us up. The best teams in the world hit a lot of boundaries. We need to minimize them. From a batting perspective we really need to hit boundaries. We don’t score more boundaries than the opposition, that’s why we lose. Our aim is to hit harder and into gaps where there are no fielders particularly in the middle overs. We know we got hitters on top so they can score boundaries no problem. In the middle overs our boundaries dry up. We need to get better. From what I have seen so far from the fielding they are a very good fielding side as far as catches go.”

Siddons said that our girls got to develop the skills that Amelia Kerr has. “They’ve got the skills, they need the mindset. My thoughts are that if I free them up and give them a bit of skill. Given that freedom, we can do just as many good things as they can do. We’ve got to develop a style of play that can beat the world, we can’t play safe. The girls are willing, they just need to be pushed along to be a bit braver, especially our batters.”          

Communication is a key factor in getting things done the way you want and Siddons said, “I am always communicating with the coaches, some really good assistance coaches particularly the batting coach. I use him a lot for communicating, especially with the batters. Our fast bowling and spin bowling coaches are fantastic, from their communication back to me on what they require and what they need from the players. My job is to pick the right players and get them in the right frame of mind to play their best cricket, the style of play that could win games against the best in the world. To do that you need to progress through the stages of a World Cup.”

Siddons is of the view that if Chamari Athapaththu can get her fitness right she could serve her country for a few more years.

“I had a great chat with her. She is keen to play for another one or two years. If she gets her fitness right and keeps working on that hard, from what I’ve seen in the last 2 practice matches where she’s dominated the game, she can keep going for much longer.”