Buchanan's family ethos binds Australia to greatness

Coach who was released by Middlesex is already preparing to build a new all-conquering 'baggy greens' side

Getting the sack from Middlesex, a side languishing at the bottom of the County Championship, is hardly the most impressive reference to have on your curriculum vitae when applying for the job of coach to the best side in the world. But for John Buchanan – who was released after just one year at the London club – the success he achieved in taking Queensland to their first two Sheffield Shields was more important than the inability of Middlesex to make the most of what he had to offer.

Middlesex's loss in September 1998 became Australia's gain by October 1999 as Buchanan joined forces with his captain, Steve Waugh, and took the "baggy greens" from being a very good side to a great one. Debate will rage as to whether this Australian side – before Mark Waugh retired – is the best ever, but in presiding over 15 of the 16 matches in the world record run of successive Test wins, as well as 14 one-day internationals without defeat, another world record, it can safely be said that Buchanan is Australia's most successful coach ever.

"It may sound strange but my approach is all about trying to make myself redundant," Buchanan said. "I believe that in the end this is your role because you are trying to make each player his own best coach. To do this they have to understand their game technically, physically, mentally, tactically and then how they can contribute to the team.

"To enable this to happen you have to create an environment for it to happen. What we are actively trying to create is the notion of family so everybody has the opportunity to get to know themselves and the other players better. They also get to know where they would like to go as individual cricketers and where they can take the team.

"I believe success is about the process, not the number of wins we have had, or the average of players, because if we get the process right the other things should follow."

And TEAM (Together Each Achieves More) and what you can give to a team is a huge thing in Australian sport. Australians like to think that they are all in this together. England are currently more of a team than they have been for a long time, so they have a chance, but at Middlesex, Buchanan attempted to do this by getting rid of the old historical ways and the pecking order that went with them.

He wanted everyone to have the same privileges. This would have meant that players travelled together – on a coach, lived together -–shared rooms on away trips, and looked like a team by going out to play with exactly the same kit on, not as capped and uncapped players.

This meant that some senior players faced the prospect of giving up privileges they thought they had worked hard for, so his vision did not go down too well. With Steve Waugh, though, he has been fortunate to find a more open-minded ally.

His experience at Middlesex would have told him that getting the job as Australia's coach was probably the easy part, winning the players over was the challenge. And they do not come any tougher than a team full of seasoned superstars who have been doing things a certain way for years, especially if you are a man with a modest playing background. Australia's coaches before Buchanan were former greats like Bobby Simpson and Geoff Marsh, not an opening bat who scored 160 first-class runs.

Yet Buchanan has achieved this and has taken Australia to new heights by making the bloke making his debut feel as responsible and valuable to the side as a veteran. "The first thing I had to do was earn the respect of the players and that could only come from doing the job" he said. "Steve Waugh has allowed me to coach the way I want which is to challenge the players to find new ways of doing things. We have disagreements, but we have a very good evolving relationship and we complement each other well."

It is such openness and honesty in the pressured atmosphere of a dressing-room that enables great sides to thrive. Australia currently have one, but it will change dramatically over the next three years as Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Steve Waugh retire. If Buchanan is still around, which he hopes to be, this is when his work can be seen.

"If and when I or any of the players go, we want to have a set-up in place that makes the transition seamless," he said. "I am not trying to make myself irreplaceable. I wasn't at Queensland. I was not there to win a Shield for them, I was there to set up things so that we could dominate state cricket, and it is the same internationally.

"Australia are in an era where we have four or five greats, but in another there may be only one or two. I believe if we are doing the right thing we will not be dependent on four greats because we will have more very good players to support two good ones.

Queensland have won the Sheffield shield for three years in a row since Buchanan left. Perhaps England will have to wait a good while longer to regain the Ashes!