Lives in Cricket No 12 - Ric Charlesworth

at the Fremantle Dockers, including a master class on the primitive tactics still deployed in that spectacular but baffling sport. 1 When he graduated, with high distinctions in his main subjects, in 2002, ready to spend a period living in Italy and writing what became his third book on sports coaching, new stages in his life were still to come. The following overview, preceding more detailed discussion, shows briefly why it has been a remarkable life. As a left-handed top-order batsman for Western Australia in its most successful era, the 1970s, Ric played at different stages alongside a dozen Test players, many of whom threw in their lot with Kerry Packer near the end of the decade. He was never likely to be a recruiting target for World Series Cricket [WSC], partly because of his conservative batting style but also because his cricketing potential was always blunted by other preoccupations. A medical student for much of the decade, he also played hockey for Australia at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics . In the 1980s he displayed new versatility. He captained Australia at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 – after being named captain for the eventually boycotted Moscow Games in 1980 – and played again at Seoul in 1988, while serving as MP for Perth in the federal Parliament between 1983 and 1993. Through his role with the all-conquering Australian women’s hockey team throughout the 1990s he developed a coaching methodology that appealed to the administrators of other sports. After spurning approaches from Australian cricket – and spending a short period with the Fremantle football club – he was Director of High Performance for New Zealand cricket for two years until late 2007. On the verge of then signing a contract to fill a similar role with the England and Wales Cricket Board, he chose instead to answer the call of the International Hockey Federation to help restore the Indian game to its former glories. Quickly frustrated by political and bureaucratic incompetence and corruption, he left in August 2008 and two weeks later accepted the position of coach of the Australian men’s hockey team through to the London Olympics in 2012. 6 Prologue 1 Unless otherwise stated, all comments and attitudes attributed to individuals are derived from the author’s interviews listed in the bibliography. In addition, Ric Charlesworth’s comments and attitudes partly reflect the author’s informal conversations with him, especially in 2002.