Kyle Coetzer interview: 'Scotland have skills to compete against world's best'

Scotland will be back in an ICC world tournament after five years. They will compete in Round 1 of T20 World Cup 2021 which will act as a qualifying round for Super 12s. When they competed in a world event last, in the 2016 World T20, they couldn’t manage to get past the first round but finally registered their first win at an ICC global event with a win over Hong Kong. They haven’t won a single match in the 50-over World Cups. But in the last five years, after the 2016 World T20, they have improved substantially and have been on an upward curve. They have more wins than losses since then. Till the 2016 World T20, their win-loss rati0 in T20Is was 0.681. However, after that event, it jumped to 1.230. In ODIs, it was 0.509 till the 2016 WC and it rose to 1.250 post that. They have managed to beat a full member side for the first time, in fact, two of them — Zimbabwe and Ireland — in this period and also No 1 ranked ODI side England. A change in mindset and approach has acted as a catalyst as the team instilled aggression and a fearless approach. Amid the changing dynamics, Kyle Coetzer has been one of the constants of Scotland cricket for the last 13 years. He’s seen it all and led from the front. He’s been the symbol of Scotland cricket over the years and as he leads Scotland into a world event, the ambitions have grown, the expectations have risen and so has the excitement. [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  File image of Kyle Coetzer. Twitter/@ICC[/caption] Firstpost caught up with the Scotland captain ahead of the T20 World Cup to talk about Scotland’s rise, goals from the tournament, the importance of opportunities for Associate countries, the impact of THAT win over England and much more. Scotland will be playing their first big ICC tournament after 5 years, what’s the mood in the camp right now? Everyone’s really excited to have the opportunity to play cricket first of all, but also, to play cricket on the world stage is something that doesn’t come around all that often for any team in the world and even less often for teams in our position. So, yes, the guys are really excited about the opportunity. There was a pandemic-induced break of almost two years before you got back to the field. What are your biggest takeaways post resumption? Simply the belief that even when you haven’t played the game, you don’t lose the ability to play the game. That’s certainly something we’ve taken from it that even after an extended break of about two years…Our first game was against Zimbabwe who are a full member side, and had played the better part of 10 games previously before we played them in their tour of Ireland and Scotland and we beat them in the first game. We realised that you can still perform even though you’ve had a bit of a break from it. There are certainly areas that we can always improve on. But that belief that we are still capable…Some of the main attributes are guys’ physical attributes, they’ve managed to get themselves stronger, bowlers are bowling faster, batters are hitting the ball further. That’s the simple things the guys could improve in their own time. And they certainly took that opportunity. How challenging would it be in T20 WC considering the fact that you’ve played just 5 T20Is in the last two years? The challenges that you face are that you haven’t made big decisions or haven’t been making decisions as a player under pressure as much as you are required to. So obviously, if you’ve got 10 or 15 T20s banked away, there’s plenty of learnings in there, plenty of experiences. And often in cricket, if you’ve had a bit of a break, it’s those decisions under pressure that are the ones that you might not always get right or the ones that you might not execute even though the decision is right. So, it is about dealing with pressure. But I’m certainly not saying that we’re in any dissimilar position to any of the other teams in the group. We’ve all had an extended break from the game, so we’re all in a similar boat. So, it’s a level playing field in many respects. We’ve just got to make sure that we’re in a position and ready to make those big decisions at the right times. You have Oman, Bangladesh and PNG in the qualifying group, how do you analyse the group in Round 1? First of all, every game is a big game. No one game that is different. We believe that we have a real opportunity to progress, but ultimately that comes down to our performance on the field. There’s no given right to get through the group. Our first game is against Bangladesh and that will be a really great experience for a number of the players. It’s certainly a game that we feel that we are capable of winning. We’ve beaten Bangladesh in the past and we’ve run them close on a few occasions too. Richie Berrington actually scored a hundred against them in a T20I when we beat them last we met (2012). So, we know that we are capable of overcoming them. Oman is a very dangerous team. They are playing some good cricket as well, especially in the T20 format. And we know that we’ve to be on our game to beat them, especially in home conditions. PNG were one of the front runners in the qualifying tournament getting to this stage. So, you get three teams that are very dangerous and it comes down to our ability to be able to play our game and play our attacking brand of cricket. Play the way that we feel would give us the best opportunity to win. And currently, we’ve played a few games recently and done well. The guys seem to be heading towards peaking which is the right time as soon as the games start. What are your goals from the T20 World Cup? Simply making the Super 12s is a great starting point for us. We would certainly think that it will be disappointing if we didn’t get through to Super 12s. But there’s no given right for any team to get through, we know that. It’s generally a belief in our squad that we are capable of reaching that stage. And then we’ll take it from there. If you reach that stage what are the goals? The first protocol is to do everything we can to make the Super 12s. Following that, if we progress, we certainly believe that we have the skills to compete against the best in the world. We do realise and we are fully aware that we’re going to have to play at the top of our game to really compete in those but that’s not to say that we can’t compete. But we have a whole lot of belief that we are capable of progressing far in this tournament. It’s just that you need to get on a roll, play well, and need probably four to five players to really put their hands up throughout this tournament and score big, take wickets and field exceptionally well because the margins are so tight in T20 cricket now. Getting a direct hit or a one-handed catch could make all the difference in the result. In the qualifiers, you had a mixed outing in the UAE. Was the slow nature of the tracks a bit of a problem? What were the lessons learnt and what would you like to implement at T20 WC? There were some great learnings during those qualifiers. Certainly, things didn’t all go our way. As a team, you have to expect few bumps on the road, especially in T20s. Playing in the UAE and Oman for a matter of fact…We haven’t played as much in Oman as the UAE, but we’ve been in Oman twice now, so we’ve got a decent grip of conditions there. The ability to play against spin and against bowlers that bowl very straight with lesser pace are some big challenges in Oman. And that’s something we’ve really had a focus on. The ability to play spin, the ability to find boundaries is really important. And then the ability to use the ball when you’re bowling the ball into the pitch, finding ways to get extra spin down the side of the ball as a seamer, and for our spinners to be disciplined, hitting the top of the bails is a real key area for us. So, the conditions won’t be a surprise to us. The ability to use the conditions the best to suit ourselves will be a challenge. The guys are in a good place and know what to expect. It’s down to us now. We’ve seen that the pitches are getting slower with the IPL, what will be the key for your team on those pitches? How have you prepared? The way we prepare for it is to have as many open discussions in our group as we possibly can. The players sharing each other’s experiences so that when you are facing a situation in the game where say the ball is turning or not coming onto the bat, guys have discussed with each other how we would approach those situations - whether the guys want to come down and use their feet or they want to sit deep in the crease or they want to stay leg side of the ball. These are all options the guys are fully aware of and it’s an individual thing, how the batters especially want to approach it. As a bowling unit, you’ve to be fully aware of how the opponent is going to try to attack you. What is best to bowl in those conditions? Lengths are vital and so are the lines. When the ball starts to slow up on the deck or starts to stay a bit lower, you want to try and be bowling as straight as you can, make sure the batsmen have to take the risk. A lot of that is common knowledge really, it’s just the ability to execute it if I am being honest. What will be the key to success for Scotland in the T20 World Cup? This comment is thrown away far too often by coaches or many teams around the world. We all say similar things but the ability to play without fear when we get out there, the ability to play with freedom. But for us, it is a togetherness within our squad, the trust within each other that we are all capable of beating any side but also beating the best sides in the world. So, taking that into these games will give us the belief amongst ourselves that we are here and we belong here in tournaments like these and we are well trained and in a good place. Let us make good decisions and play good cricket. We’ve got the trust that will take us to where we need to be but ultimately in T20, there is an element where one person can take the game away from you. But we have to believe that whether we have a good day or a bad day, we have the skills to get through. [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  File image of Scotland players. Twitter/@ICC[/caption] What are your strengths as a T20 side? One of our real strengths is the togetherness among the squad. We’ve noticed that even more since we’ve been out here (in the UAE). We’ve been very fortunate to have Jonathan Trott with us and he has clearly mentioned to the players…he says he can’t believe the amount of time the guys spend together. Yes, we are in bubbles and not necessarily able to go out and about but the time the guys spent together is pretty special, to be honest. Whether it be board games, the virtual reality games to just come together as a group on using the virtual reality headset, guys are spending time together which is really important for us. On the cricketing side, the ability to hit the ball out of the park is really important. It’s something that we’ve certainly improved and the skills in changing the pace for the bowlers is something that’s developed further. But our real strength is togetherness and the belief that we are good enough to play. [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  File image of George Munsey. Twitter/Cricket Scotland[/caption] How much has the arrival of George Munsey impacted the side? We’ve got a number of fantastic players amongst our squad and George is one of those at the moment, and recently, he’s certainly been putting his hand up to make a real statement. But it’s a different ball game when you get into the World Cup stage and the pressure is on. He’s done it a number of times in the qualifiers but now is his time to do it in a World Cup. But he’s making extremely good strides within his game. His ability to score fast and put bowlers under pressure is obviously key to our success. But then again, if George isn’t that player on that day, we’ve got a number of guys in our squad from Richie Barrington, McLoed, Leask who can play those roles with the bat. You have rich experience in the side. Josh Davey, Michael Leask, George Munsey and Mark Watt have played back in 2016, that experience will be crucial? From the 2016 T20 World Cup, we managed to achieve winning our first game at a global event which was effectively brushing something off our shoulders that had been hanging against Scotland for many years. So we’ve achieved that and the next stage is to push our way through to the second round of the competition. Having that experience, having those players who played a real tight game against Zimbabwe and another tight game against Afghanistan in that tournament, which we weren’t quite able to get over the line, is going to hopefully hold us in a stronger place when those opportunities come around in the tournament. We’ve got some fantastic players, guys with lots of experience of playing games and managing situations under pressure. So there are some exciting times ahead no doubt and some fantastic players among our squad who I fully believe are capable of winning big games for us. You won your first match against a full member side (beating Zimbabwe in 2017) and then beat World No 1 England (2018). How much did that win have an impact on Scotland cricket? Yeah, it was huge. It didn’t just impact Scottish cricket, it impacted the Associate world. When any Associate country beats a Full Member, it’s an important moment in world cricket. I use the tag Associate Member very lightly because I do believe that there are a number of countries in the same position as Scotland who are certainly capable of pushing especially some of the lower-ranked Full Member nations on a regular basis. But obviously, with some of the higher-ranked ones, there is still a gap there, let’s be honest.

This day in 2018, Scotland beat the then No.1 Men's ODI side, England, for the first time in international cricket 👏

Calum MacLeod, who was adjudged Player of the Match, starred with a sensational 140* 🤩 pic.twitter.com/5ERaCk4P4G

— ICC (@ICC) June 10, 2021

We’ve shown it, Ireland have and Kenya back in the day have as well that if you get a strong side together in the right mentality, in the right desire and trust amongst your team, you can compete against anyone in the world. The challenge for us or any Associate Member, is clearly the finances. How do you keep your team together for a long enough period to get it into a position where we’ve managed to? In the position that Ireland and, for the matter of fact Afghanistan, have managed to get into? How do you keep that group of players together to progress and keep the keep your team strong, keep your game growing within your country? Also ultimately, the reduction of teams over the years in the world events has made that extremely hard. I just remember sitting there as a player knowing, ‘Wow you’ve got one cutthroat tournament to try and make it to this event and that’s getting reduced’. And imagine those teams that were supposedly lower-ranked sides than us. Imagine their motivation levels, imagine players and youngsters in those countries thinking I want to play in the World Cup but where’s a route to get to it? It’s virtually impossible and it was being made harder and harder. So, thankfully the projections of those numbers have increased but still from my point of view, playing the 50-over World Cup is the pinnacle. It’s the pinnacle that for most teams is potentially achievable but certainly very hard to do so. So, winning games against the Full Members, winning that England game has a huge impact on the world game and certainly in Scotland. But look, we all stick together when it comes to Associate countries. We all are vying for more opportunities and ways to grow the game. There’s lots of passion and thought in that comment. And we like to see the game growing in those opportunities. And as a Scotland side recently we’ve beaten two Full Members — Ireland and Zimbabwe and that was after a two-year break, so we are not doing too badly within the last few months. Your Win/Loss ratio has significantly improved after that 2016 World T20. You are winning more than losing and it’s a significant transformation. What has changed? I’ve spoken about this belief and the development of our mindsets. I wouldn’t say we were not capable and we didn’t have the right thoughts in our minds when we were playing in 2016 or before. But there is an internal trust amongst each other that we are doing the right things, the belief that we have the skills to compete and perform in all conditions around the world. And that puts us in a real strong position. The trust amongst each other whether that be with the bat, ball or in the field, to perform and execute a skill…We almost know each other so well that we can call the shots that the players will try and play before the ball is even bowled. That’s the trust and the understanding that we have of each other and that doesn’t happen over time it comes with experience, friendships, and development within ourselves, development of our own game. So, there’s a load of areas there that have changed but a complete and utter desire to win and the trust amongst each other is the key area of how we’ve developed and clearly improved our win ratio. After the WT20 2016, the team met together and decided on a change in approach, can you delve deep into that meeting? A typical Scottish way, not just in cricket but the other sports as well, perhaps was that we would continually play and enjoy the underdog tag, which helps take pressure off your team. But there were too many examples of games where we ran the opposition close and didn’t quite ‘walk through the door,’ which is the expression that Grant Bradburn (coach) used at that time. So, he put up on the projection screen two pictures. There was one picture of a straight road that was: right you can continue down this road, things are pretty easy, you’ll keep progressing, improve as a team but you won’t hit as many hurdles and challenges. And there was another picture of a road that was a winding one basically. And it says look, or you can go down this road that can have a lot more bumps, challenges and opportunities to learn. You have to push yourself harder to make sure you can go down this road. He gave us the choice, either we can go down the easy one, we can stay within our comfort zone and we will be a decent team with some good cricketers and that will help us get through, or we can go down this tough route. And as a group of players, obviously, we decided to go down that route of challenging ourselves be that with the practice, physical essence, challenging each other with being able to question each other when the time was needed and ask tough questions. And that was the route that we took and that ultimately was the beginning of a change of mindset, a change of challenge and that’s something that has put us in a good place ever since. There was a change in approach in the batting as well, you got a lot more 300s, the strike rates went up. So what was the chat around that in terms of batting approach? We had to be willing to push the boundaries. Like I said about the winding road. And how to do that was explained to us by how far can you get up the top of the wave before you tip over the other side. You have to find your ability and position on that wave that you can stay on the top of it as long as you possibly can. So, it was a good analogy, and then it came down to the players challenging themselves in practice to find where that level was. And the trust in each other to make big decisions, to be willing to take on the opposition whoever that bowler was when we needed to push the scoring rate or show our ability of how dangerous a side we can be. How difficult was it to cultivate this winning mentality in a short time? I don’t think it was necessarily just in a short time. We had been challenged with conversations prior to that. But that meeting was maybe the realisation of what was going on. So, we had to be willing to trip everything back. We had to be vulnerable as a group of players to understand actually how we needed to improve and be willing to be asked good questions. Grant used to always say back then — ‘in the belly and not in the back’. So, if there were things that needed to be said, we had to be willing to bring them up within our conversations but we often didn’t do that in big groups, we did that in small ones so that the guys felt more comfortable to have these conversations. But you had to be willing to understand something from the bowler when they would maybe make a comment on what they would feel when they were bowling at you. And some of those comments weren’t comfortable. And you had to be okay with that and willing to take them on the chin and move forward and find a way to improve. World Cup 2015 and World T20 2016, how much learning did the two ICC tournaments provide? What those two tournaments taught me individually was to experience and try to take in every single moment. I remember the day I turned up to Sydney and the WC period was just starting. We arrived at the hotel and there was the World Cup towel on the bed and there was a boot bag with a World Cup emblem on it. We had all the cricket bags with Cricket Scotland logos on them and everything was great. I remember looking out of the window of the hotel just thinking the last thing I’m going to do when I am here is to turn on my TV and sit in my room and spend time on my own. That’s just wasn’t what I was going to do. I was going to go out, experience all that World Cup had to offer. And that was something that I took massively from that tournament. 2015 WC was an amazing experience and so was the 2016 T20 WC. But it was so important to experience that with my friends and teammates who were with me. That’s certainly something that I try to make sure the guys are aware of now, here in the UAE as we sit before we go to Oman. Even though we are in a bubble, that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun, we can’t enjoy the experience. There is no point in going on the field and becoming far too intense because before you know as I said, you will be on that plane home. So, we have to make sure we enjoy these moments. How tough was the pandemic enforced break? How did you keep yourself motivated with the T20 World Cup coming up? Obviously, what was going on was terrible around the world. What’s still going on is terrible to be honest. We want everyone to get through this everywhere around the world. We need things to improve and need people to look after each other. That’s the most important thing. There was a real concern in our household about all the things. But following that, the actual experience of initially being locked in in our houses wasn’t the worst because as a travelling cricketer, you are regularly going away and spending time away from family. Having two daughters and a wife who does most of the hard work when I am away…It was really nice to actually spend that time with them and create some new, long-lasting and positive memories in a time that was really negative around the world. And as a cricketer, trying to progress yourself physically was important. And having time to reflect on my career, where I am going and reflect on where my game is currently. So, those were some real learnings I took from it.