Carl Rackemann: The coach's view

Zimbabwe cricket is fortunate to have the burly former Australian pace bowler Carl Rackemann as their national team coach. The wealthier countries and provinces have apparently overlooked the genial Queenslander but in Zimbabwe his true value is recognized and appreciated. The players liked and respected him from the start, and they have responded to his skills and leadership enthusiastically.

Carl began his work with Zimbabwe solely as an occasional bowling coach, but it was soon obvious from his rapport and success with the players that he could be well used in a much wider capacity. Dave Houghton resigned as national coach after the tour of West Indies in April 2000 and the position fell vacant. No official comment is available, but it would be remarkable if the Zimbabwe Cricket Union had not been hoping that Carl would be the man to take his place, as first choice. The only problem was his availability.

"My position had been that with commitments back in Australia I would be unable to give 100% of the time required for national duties," says Carl. "So I was always out of the picture. But a few things changed at home and I was able to massage a few things there and say to the ZCU that I was available for all their cricket in the foreseeable future in my capacity as bowling coach - except that September I couldn't do, when New Zealand were here.

"They said that was fine, they wanted me to stay with their team, and then a little while later they asked, 'Do you want to do the whole job?' There was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing and discussing that prospect as well, but eventually they were insistent that they wanted me to do it and I said okay."

Carl took over when Zimbabwe went to Nairobi to play in the ICC KnockOut tournament, immediately after losing their home Test series two-nil to New Zealand but recovering to win the one-day series by two victories to one. Then in Nairobi Zimbabwe were knocked out in the first round by New Zealand, who went on to win the tournament against all expectations.

"Unfortunately, and it's not something I would very often say anything about, the fact is that Alistair Campbell was given out lbw to an atrocious decision," Carl comments. "His obvious amazement at the decision out in the middle was captured by the television cameras and of course that brought down the ire of the match referee and landed him a one-match suspension which was the first game in Sharjah. He realized also the gravity of his dismissal in terms of the game and the team, and you could argue that had he been given not out at that point in time and been able to go on with his innings we would have had a good chance of winning that game against New Zealand. 'If' is one of the shorter words in the English language and one of the most commonly used in hindsight - hindsight being a wonderful thing as well.

"Sharjah didn't go well for us," confesses Carl, "but by the fourth game we started to look like a cricket team, but were very rusty." Carl could not put his finger on why Zimbabwe looked so rusty immediately after a series against New Zealand and found it very puzzling. "The batsmen never really got going, but I think what was good from Sharjah was that it was obvious we could do a lot better. It was not a great experience."

Carl was much happier about the way things developed in India. "We really did work hard on a philosophy of playing confidently and trusting our skills, just trying to play cricket in a fresher frame of mind, if you like. Regardless of the stats in India, which show one-nil to India in the Tests and four-one to them in the one-day game, there was a lot of very good cricket played by Zimbabwe in India.

"In the Second Test, for example, to be asked to follow-on and then two days later be still batting - we batted for three-and-a-half days - was phenomenal. A lot of teams don't do things like that in India, as Australia just found out. The one-day game that we won in India represented the first time Zimbabwe has actually beaten India in India, so it was quite a significant milestone for us and we took a lot of positives out of this tour.

Zimbabwe's next international match was the Boxing Day Test in Wellington when the home side batted for most of the first three days to put them out of the match. "New Zealanders might paint a slightly different picture, but we came out of that Test on very much higher moral ground than New Zealand. Although the game was a draw, we were in a very strong situation, and then we went into the one-day series which we won."

Carl names the third and decisive one-day match against New Zealand as one of the greatest games of cricket he has ever seen. "We were five down for 64 and then rein in 274, with an over-and-a-half to spare, was phenomenal. That was our first one-day series win away from home, once again a tremendous milestone.

"In terms of behind the scenes, it was just an attempt to play positive cricket, and in spite of everything else just to continue confidently. We took that on board, and in India we took on the Indian bowlers. At times we got out doing it, but we did go after them, and there's no doubt we played their spinners much better than the Australians just have been doing. In fact their spinners weren't too keen on bowling at us at the finish, as we just bludgeoning them all over the shop. That's tremendous cricket."

Carl noted that in Australia, Zimbabwe performed much better against West Indies than against the hosts, and I mentioned my theory, supported to a degree by Stuart Carlisle for one, that the players found the pressure greater against West Indies because victory was seen as possible and vital, whereas against Australia they didn't give themselves much of a chance and therefore did not feel under the same burden of pressure.

"I've heard that theory before," replies Carl, "but I wouldn't be able to identify whether that's got merit or not. We were in a winning position against them in the first game at Brisbane and should have won that, and then the last game in Perth we should have won, after being set 179. I think we went to Australia from India and New Zealand on much lower, slower pitches, and the West Indies' tall fast bowlers got quite a lot of bounce and bowled fractionally shorter length than the Australians bowled. The balls were coming through on a tight line and bouncing quite a lot, and I think we weren't coping with that. Their fast bowlers were just doing too much damage in the early part of the innings and that was the problem. I think a bit more time spent in those conditions would have started to turn that round quite rapidly. I think that's probably the biggest factor in terms of what was happening there."

I asked Carl if he felt slightly schizophrenic when Zimbabwe played his home country. "No, I was very keen on winning and didn't have any problems with that at all," he laughs - obviously a man of adaptability.

While Zimbabwe returned home after Australia to play in the Logan Cup, Carl did not return until the Bangladesh tour was due to start six weeks later. "I spent most of that time on my farm," he says. "I had some things to attend to in Brisbane but the majority of the time I spent on the farm."

Carl is impressed by the potential of the Bangladesh team in Zimbabwe. "They look to me to be a competent unit all-round," he says. "Their batsmen are all prepared to go for their shots and their pace bowlers, as we saw in the one-day games, swing the new ball and keep quite a good line. The Test matches, I should think, will be pretty good cricket."

Carl will not be drawn on questions concerning the qualities and potential of individual Zimbabwe players. "From that point of view I think it would be wrong to single blokes out," he says. "I think one of the strengths of the team is the effort that they all put in. It's very much a team thing."

He has not seen much of Zimbabwe players outside the regular squad, but again feels he cannot mention names of any who have impressed him. "I wouldn't like to make a comment in that regard and have that endorsement to be held up as a bargaining chip for anyone's promotion or demotion." Unfortunately we will have to wait until Carl eventually leaves the job, if then, before we find out what he really thinks about individual Zimbabwe players, but with his positive attitude his comments would be more likely to compliment than to offend.

Carl is fully supportive of the task force that the Zimbabwe Cricket Union has recently put together to examine cricket at all levels of the game, and also to ensure that no question of racial bias or disadvantage should be evident in the country's cricket. "I hope the outcome at the end of the day is that the good things that are happening now will continue to happen with the expansion and promotion of the game, and that down the track the player numbers in Zimbabwe will be multiplied as finances allow. If we do that, then we will see Zimbabwe as a natural consequence start to go up the ladder in world cricket. That's what a lot of people would like to see and a lot of people are working very hard towards."

Carl has, of course, seen next to nothing of domestic cricket in Zimbabwe, but naturally he has his opinions. "The revamped and expanded Logan Cup is a tremendous thing, obviously, for cricket in the country. But as player numbers at levels below that increase, then the standard of the Logan Cup will increase. That is the healthy, positive direction in which cricket needs to be going. The only thing that is needed is for more games to be played by the Zimbabwe A team, or the Board XI, whatever you want to call them. As much cricket as could possibly be organized for them would be hugely to the benefit of Zimbabwe cricket at the moment without a doubt. I understand that also is being looked at very closely.

What sort of programme does he feel would benefit the Zimbabwe A team? "That may mean sending them away on more overseas tour or having other countries' A teams come here more often or as much extra cricket as we can possibly play in South Africa. We need these guys to be playing cricket at as high a level as possible and getting experience at a level closer to Test cricket than they would otherwise have at home here. That's what it's all about."

He agrees that it would be wonderful if the South African authorities could be persuaded to promote the Board XI to their SuperSport league as a 12th team; unfortunately, the feeling among Zimbabwe officialdom seems to be that the South Africans will be too preoccupied with their own interests to grant Zimbabwe any further favours. It would cost them extra money and administration to include Zimbabwe, and their tardiness in playing Test cricket against us appears to show how half-hearted their support is. But Zimbabwe cricket lives in hope, and while Carl Rackemann is part of the scene there is plenty of it. He is the right man for the right job at the right time, and he will surely stay to see some fine results for his efforts.