Tony BeccaTHE JAMAICA Cricket Association is searching for a coach for the national team following the resignation of Robert Haynes a few weeks ago, and the cricket fraternity is anxiously waiting to see who will be the new coach.
Such is the state of coaching in Jamaica, however, that short of going overseas probably to Australia it can only be one of two men. It can be only Jeffrey Dujon or Junior Bennett, and the question is who will be the one?
Based on his experience, his skill and his achievements as a Jamaica and West Indies player, plus his qualifications and his stint as assistant coach of the West Indies team, Dujon, who, as the country's national coaching director, has some good plans for the country's cricket, appears the better man for the job.
Bennett, on the other hand, never played first-class cricket much more Test cricket and although he is qualified, his experience, apart from a short stint as stand-in for Haynes a few years ago when the national coach was involved in a pay dispute with the JCA and withheld his services, is limited to coaching St. Elizabeth Technical High School, St. Elizabeth parish, and the national under-19 team.
On top of that, Jamaica, like the rest of the West Indies, is a country where players generally only listen to those who not only have been there, but to those who, like Dujon, also have performed with distinction.
DUJON THE PERFECT CHOICE
On the surface, therefore, it appears that Dujon is the perfect man for the job and especially so as common sense suggests that the man who can bat, who can bowl, who can field and who can keep wicket should be better able to teach others how to bat, how to bowl, how to field, and how to keep wicket than those who could not.
Coaching, however, calls for more than that.
Coaching also calls for the ability to teach and for a good personality the kind of ability that will make students listen to the teacher and to accept what is being taught.
The kind of personality that demands and wins respect, and in recommending who should be the new coach, the committee, comprising Dujon himself as national coaching director, Ruddy Williams chairman of the national selection committee, Courtney Daley chairman of the under-19 selection committee and Fritz Harris chairman of the Under-15 selection committee, should think about that before making its recommendation.
And before accepting or rejecting the committee's recommendation, the JCA's directors, headed by president Jackie Hendriks, should also think on these things.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Both the committee recommending and the JCA, whose final decision it is, should remember that a good coach is not necessarily the man with the best credentials, but rather the man who can get the best out of the players.
With Dujon being the national coaching director, there are two other things which the committee is recommending and the JCA should take into consideration, and they are these: Should one man, in this day and age, wear two hats and can one man deal with the two jobs satisfactorily?
Even if the responsibility of the coach is only to prepare the national team which it should not be he will be required to prepare the team for three tournaments per year: the Stanford Twenty/20, the regional one-day tournament and the regional four-day tournament.
If he is to do so properly, it will take up most of his time, and the question is this: What time will he have to do his other job to oversee the other coaches, to train and develop other coaches?
Apart from the fact that as the national coaching director all the country's coaches are answerable to Dujon and that as one of the coaches, as the national coach, he would be answerable to himself, if he can manage all that, if he can do all these things satisfactorily, then why, up to a few months ago and when it is short of money, did the JCA have both a national coaching director and a national coach on its payroll?
DIFFERENT STRENGTHS
Jamaica does not need a national coaching director and a coach in one. The two positions call for different strengths, one for planning and administration, one for spending a lot of time in the field, and in the interest of Jamaica's cricket, they should be separated.
With one like James Adams unavailable due to commitments in England, based on who are available, it should be Bennett as the coach and Dujon as the national coaching director.
