'My belief is to have one coach and share workload within that'- Andrew McDonald opines on England's split coaching structure

The newly appointed Australian head coach Andrew McDonald shared his opinion on why splitting the coach duties is not ideal for a team. His statements come after England’s new Managing Director Rob Key decided to split the English team’s red-ball and white-ball duties.

After Chris Silverwood, England’s former head coach, was sacked following a humiliating loss against Australia at the Ashes earlier this year, Key decided to appoint two different coaches to handle the red-ball and white-ball duties. On the other hand, McDonald is of the opinion that splitting the duties between two different coaches will create obstacles in communication process.

“I think the way that they’re going to set-up, structure up, is clear. I think they’re going to go for a split coaching role. My views on that differ slightly. My belief is to still have that one coach and share the workload within that. I think for me the continuity of messaging is critical. But also the priorities shift. And people probably don’t like me saying this, but the priorities do shift at certain times. You can’t be everything to everyone,” he told SEN radio.

If you had split coaches, which format takes priority?: Andrew McDonald

McDonald has previously been associated with Leicestershire, Victoria, South Australia, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Rajasthan Royals at the IPL before replacing Justin Langer in the Australian national side.

“Pat Cummins on the back of three Tests in Pakistan, at the end of that he’s really fatigued, and then the white ball team gets compromised because Pat isn’t playing. But he isn’t ready to perform in that environment, so if you had split coaches, which format takes priority?” he questioned.

“So I think the ability for one selection panel and one coach to work through that and give direction as to the priorities at that time and managing the overall squad, and then someone coming in, potentially a Michael Di Venuto or another assistant coach coming in to allow the head coach to balance the workload but still stick on the same path,” he further added, stating that he would not be coaching the side for each of the 50-over games during the 2023 World Cup scheduled in India.