In late July 2021, I had the opportunity to interview Justin, he was very generous with his time and we had an hour together while he was on tour with the team with the West Indies.
It also soon after the first reports of discomfort about his intense style had emerged from some of the players via the media. When we finished the interview, we talked a little about intensity, about what it meant and why it was not necessarily a bad thing given the brief he had to repair the team culture and return the team back to its winning ways.
The team went on to win the T20 world cup and retain the Ashes beating England 4-0 in Australia. By any measure this was surely a sign that the team was doing well.
It was a shock then, when he was only offered a 12 month contract by Cricket Australia. The reports were that players wanted a more calm and composed presence as a coach.
Last week I heard, John Buchanan, the former Australian cricket coach who lead the team to team to 3 consecutive World Cups wins, a world record 16 consecutive Test Victories, speak about the role of coach, and I thought it summed up perfectly why Justin was successful.
In light of this I thought it was a good time to revisit the interview with Justin, we can never know what the team environment was like, but we can view the results, listen to Justin’s words, and those of one of his players, Usman Kwaja, who said; “He brought humility back to the Australian team … I know what we played like before he was coach and I know what we played like hen he was coach.” And form an opinion of just what the role of a coach is.
I hope you enjoy it second time around as much as I did.