BRUCE YARDLEY

MUMBAI, May 14: Daryll Hair and the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) have done enough to earn the men from Kangarooland a bad name. Hair raised a storm by dubbing Mutthiah Muralitharan a chucker and the ACB got an entire nation against the Aussies by forfeiting their World Cup match against Sri Lanka.

Ironically, Sri Lanka owe much of their upswing in their cricketing fortunes to Australia. First it was Dave Whatmore who guided the Lankans to a historic World Cup triumph and now it's Bruce Yardley who has stepped into his compatriot's shoes at the team coach.

Yardley, who will be 50 later this year, in fact, terms himself lucky to get the job of coaching the world champions. ``I was to go to Lancashire when I got a `sniff' about this post,'' he revealed in the course of a brief chat after his team's three-hour practice session at the Wankhede Stadium this afternoon.

The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) couldn't have asked for a more Lankan loyalist than Yardley to take over the reins till the 1999 World Cup. For, Yardley was the BCCSL's technical expert who cleared off-spinner Muralitharan during the team's acrimonious tour to Australia where the bowler was called by Hair for chucking.

``I got to know Murali during a coaching stint in Lanka way back in 1991,'' reveals the former Australian off-spinner. ``I have backed him all the way. He is not a chucker and there's no second thought about it.''

Yardley, who has taken 126 wickets and scored 978 runs in Tests, points to the head and says: ``The focus is on the top two inches. Good cricketers should be playing good shots. And when they don't, I step in instilling in them the importance of perseverance. In fact, the buzzword in the Lankan camp is attarinipa which means ``never give up''.

``It's difficult to retain the high that the team experienced in the World Cup,'' he opines, referring to the lean phase that the Lankans underwent after their World Cup success. But since Yardley took charge in late January this year, the outfit seems to have regained their winning ways.

The Akai-Singer Cup triumph at Sharjah last month and a fairly successful Test series against Pakistan at home are some of Yardley's highs as coach so far. The low point of his five-month old tenure came early during the New Zealand sojourn, which according to him was a bad experience. ``Bad weather and seaming pitches added up to make it a forgettable tour,'' he says.His face lights up when queried about the talent pool in Lanka. ``They do have some very talented players but the quality of cricket that is played in the country is not good. I'm working on a reserve squad comprising select under-19 boys, which undergoes full training and play matches. My aim is to create a squad of fast bowlers for I've always believed that you are only as good as your reserves. Look at Pakistan, four of their strike bowlers are out of action but still they have Aaquib (Javed),'' opines Yardley.Yardley was lavish in heaping praises on the young Pakistan paceman Mohammad Zahid, who had made a sensational debut scalping eight wickets. ``He's just fantastic. He's sensational and I feel he is the fastest bowler in the world,'' he remarks on Zahid, who has failed to make the team owing to an injury.

On the team's recent defeat against Pakistan, Yardley had some interesting comments. ``It was nice to learn that New Zealand had beaten Pakistan in the first game. But a stung Pakistan side is more dangerous, aren't they ? The guys (Lankans) played well and lost putting up a score of 259,'' he observes pointing to the bad start as also one of the prime reasons for the loss.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.