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Darren Lehmann
has been rewarded for his positive impact on Australia's performance
with a one-year extension to his contract as head coach. Lehmann was
installed on the eve of last year's Ashes series in England when Cricket
Australia made the dramatic last-minute decision to sack Mickey Arthur,
and while an Ashes defeat was the immediate outcome, Australia have
been on the rise since then.
A 5-0 clean-sweep at home returned the urn in the Australian summer, before Michael Clarke's
men travelled to South Africa and won 2-1 earlier this year, putting
them temporarily back on top of the ICC Test rankings. It has been a
remarkable turnaround from early 2013, when Australia virtually imploded
both off the field and on it in India, where they were crushed 4-0 and
four players suffered the ignominy of being suspended during the homework saga.
Lehmann was originally contracted until June 2016 but Cricket
Australia's confidence in him has now encouraged them to lock him in for
another year, until the end of June 2017. The move came during a rare
off season spent largely at home, during which Lehmann and Cricket
Australia had the chance to look back on a largely successful period
since the Ashes in England.
"After the [World] T20 in Bangladesh we had some time off, reflection
time to see where we needed to improve more so than anything else,"
Lehmann said. "It was an up-and-down 12 months. It was a great back end
obviously but we certainly changed the way we went about things on and
off the ground. From our point of view we've made strides but we're also
looking to improve."
So far, they have done that. The home Ashes triumph would alone have
been enough to make Cricket Australia's CEO James Sutherland and team
performance manager Pat Howard pleased with their decision, but the
added bonus of victory in South Africa topped it off nicely. Howard said Lehmann's success as coach had stemmed in part from his off-field approach.
"We have been extremely pleased with the results Darren has achieved
with the team since he came on board," Howard said. "He has helped
create an excellent team environment that has seen players thrive.
"We want that to continue so we used the winter period to work through
an extension to his current contract. Importantly it provides continuity
for the team and certainty for Darren heading into a critical period
for Australian cricket."
Lehmann's relaxed, inclusive style has been apparent from the outset.
While preparing for a warm-up game against Somerset last year, shortly
after being handed the job, he called the team together, asked for the
stop-watch to be started, and declared that no team meeting during his
tenure would ever go longer than 30 minutes. After that, it was off to
the pub.
In the words of opener Chris Rogers, it was a moment in which the players realised that they could enjoy their cricket again,
and that the weight was off their shoulders. Lehmann has also been
known to deliver a serve for a loose shot or silly decision, but he
himself said the major change he had noted in the Australian setup since
he came on board was in the atmosphere of the squad.
"I think the togetherness of the group as a whole, support staff and
players, the way we all get on so well with the families and look after
each other outside the game," Lehmann said. "They're all really talented
cricketers and we've got some great people involved in the game. That's
been the biggest stride."
On the field, he has engendered an attacking approach which comes
naturally to many of the Australians, but might have been forgotten at
times in the pre-Lehmann era. Not that his captains across all three
formats need much encouraging.
"I was quite an aggressive player myself and I've got a captain [Michael
Clarke] who is quite aggressive. George [Bailey] is aggressive, Finchy
is aggressive, so with Clarke it makes it quite a bit easier to
implement an aggressive plan. That's the pleasing thing is the captains
have been on board and that's what you need."
The immediate goal for Lehmann and Clarke is to continue their
improvement away from home, after winning in South Africa. The first
Test in Dubai begins on Wednesday and Australia can return to the No.1
ranking if they win 2-0.
"We've certainly got to improve our skill level away from home," Lehmann
said. "We did that well in South Africa. But it's only the start of the
tour here away and we didn't have the result in Zimbabwe we would have
liked. So we've got to keep improving away from home, first and
foremost."
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @brydoncoverdale
Feeds: Brydon Coverdale
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