Lives in Cricket No 12 - Ric Charlesworth

than match play. If there is one thing that underpins consistent high achievement in sport it is consistent high quality training.’ He acknowledged that ‘anyone who thinks they know me will tell you that I always think I’m right! I am an opinionated know-all, stubborn and argumentative.’ But such critics were themselves only partly right: those who know me best know that while I will contest strenuously ideas and views I disagree with, I am also always listening … I am absolutely convinced that the more people in the group contributing, the more likely we are to get the best way of doing things. 27 What made that claim plausible was one of his most controversial innovations with the Hockeyroos, the gradual, but eventually complete abandonment of the traditional role of team captain, in the belief that all players should be thinking about the game and taking responsibility for its tactics. This concept was both very alien to the traditions of cricket and yet one that he had developed thanks to his experiences in the first-class game. While Ric Charlesworth’s achievements with the Hockeyroos would occupy a central place in a conventional, full-scale biography, their importance for this account is that they gave him credentials – and personal confidence in his coaching methodology – to open opportunities in cricket. * * * * * Ric had first expressed interest in coaching the Australian cricket team in 1986 when Bob Simpson had won the new position. A letter from the ACB’s David Richards (also a later chief executive of the International Cricket Council) ‘recorded my interest and asked me to consider the position’. But pursuing the job was ‘out of the question’ while he was still in parliament. When Geoff Marsh succeeded Simpson as Australian coach, in 1996, Ric discussed what he saw as a major weakness in Australian cricket with his old West Australian opening partner: 1993-2002 67 27 The Coach , p 79.