O’Keefe said Australia should have another coach for Tests and limited overs

Ahead of Australia’s tour of India, former spinner Steve O’Keefe has pitched for having separate coaches for different formats, saying it will help take the pressure off one person. The Australian team will play Test and ODI series on the tour of India. Andrew McDonald is currently the coach of Australia across all formats. He replaced Justin Langer before the series against Pakistan last year.

O’Keefe, who played nine Tests and seven T20 Internationals for Australia, believes that if the two-coach approach can work for England, there is no reason why it should not work for Australia. England have done well after having different coaches in Test and white-ball formats. The Test side, under coach Brendon McCullum, has won nine out of 10 Tests, while England won the T20 World Cup in Australia last year under Matthew Mott.

This year in Australia will be very busy. This includes the team’s exposure to important tournaments such as the Border-Gavaskar series, the Ashes and the ODI World Cup in India. O’Keefe believes the time is right for a new coach. This former spinner told ‘SEN Radio’ on Saturday, “I think it will be effective to follow the way of England.” There is a lot of pressure on the coach of the team to travel, they are away from home sometimes 300 days in a year.

He said, “Australia has to face India and England in the coming time. It is a high pressure tournament. I think this burden can be reduced by creating a pool of coaches for T20, ODI and Test. O’Keefe said that different coaches were needed at the time because cricket had evolved in different ways in different formats. He said, “Now every format is very different from the other. I’m not doubting Andrew McDonald’s ability. He is a brilliant coach but I think in future if we have separate coaches in white ball and red ball format then it will be the right way forward.