Corey Collymore came to Bangladesh as a pace bowling coach for High Performance (HP) team in June last year. He was then appointed as Bangladesh national team’s interim bowling coach and now he is serving as the head coach of HP. The HP team recently had a long and successful Australia tour where they played two four-day matches, a few 50-over matches and a T20 series with a number of Big Bash League teams. HP team was the runners-up of the T20 series under Collymore’s coaching. He recently spoke to Daily Sun’s Tanvir Ahmed Pranto and talked about his coaching stint in Bangladesh so far and his views on coaching and T20 cricket. Here are the excerpts:

Daily Sun: How was the HP tour of Australia? How do you see that?

Corey Collymore: It was very good for the development of the HP players.

Daily Sun: You played two four-day matches, what was the highlight of those four-day matches? How did they cope with the Australian conditions?

Corey:  For me that was actually the highlights of the tour, two four-day matches playing on faster bouncier pitches, lots of grass. With both bat and ball, it was pleasantly surprising to see Bangladeshi players playing in those conditions and really putting up some good performances and shown that’s something that is needed for Bangladesh cricket.

Another good thing is that the two-four day matches were played with two different balls. First game was played with the Duke ball, the second played with the Kookaburra ball. And to see that the ball doesn’t make a difference. You still have to get in a good position to hit in the middle of the bat, you still gotta catch it, you still gotta hit the right area with the ball. And you still gotta field and get your throws in. Still a red ball. Just a different name. But again the highlight was how the guys adapted to the conditions and showed that they can play in those foreign conditions.

Daily Sun: You played one-days as well but you were really good in T20s. So, how did you see the young guys coping in the shorter format in those conditions?

Corey: We played two one-days, one went okay and the other didn’t go so well, probably the worst game we played in the tour. Pakistan Shaheens were a very good opposition for the guys to test themselves. And that’s why I thought the four-day matches were the highlight of the tour. One-dayers was a quick turnaround, so, difficult to judge. But in the T20 format the guys adapted well. I think, being younger they are accustomed to playing in this format and they love this format. So it was easier for them to adapt. I think it’s more understanding how to play the game or managing themselves in that format that we probably let ourselves down. But we put up a good show (in T20s), and again shows that the guys are developing and learning.

Daily Sun:  Shamim Hossain Patwary in particular was very good in that tour, anything you can say about him?

Corey: I knew Patwary from last year when I did some work with the national team. He is a skillful player. He came in, he practiced and trained with us before we left. You can see that he was in good form. Players go through different patches in their career and he was the one batting really well and he made advantage of most of the thing that he had in the middle. He was the one guy in form for us. He practiced and trained really hard, so you get in good habits and keep the standards, you get your rewards.

Daily Sun:  Were you disappointed to see Afif Hossain and Tanzid Tamim not shine in white-ball series as per expectations?

Corey: As I said, players go through different patches in their career. Those guys were not shining as you put it, I don’t see it was a matter of their skill and talent. I even said to Tamim, “you are finding ways to get out; no one is getting you out”. I think in T20 cricket, people overthink the game. You have more time than you think as a batter in T20 cricket.

Daily Sun: You’ve been the head coach of HP. What is the philosophy of the HP team right now? And is this totally aligned with the national team management?

Corey: I was not supposed to be a head coach, to be honest. I came to be the pace bowling coach, I got into this role by default. It’s a tough question to answer, but I would imagine so. I know the coaches from other programmes. When I speak to them, or they speak to me, I had conversation with national team coach, or some of the coaches, yes. So, in my limited time being in the role, I would have to say yes.

Daily Sun:  How are you enjoying your stint? What are the areas you are working on as a coach?

Corey: As I said, I just came into this role. I didn’t know what to expect but I’m really really enjoying working with these players. For me, from the time I started coaching I look for two or three things. One is hard work for sure. One is respect. I will add standards to that. There are a lot of standards that I can see dropping in cricket, all over the world, not in Bangladesh. I would like to see the standards getting higher.

And understanding where we are in the cricketing world. In the cricketing world we are probably number eight or nine. You can move from number eight or nine to number one, I think there’s a process that needs to be done. For me it’s about understanding where we are at. We are of Asian descent and may be weaker than the African descent people. So what we need to do? We probably need to get stronger, we probably need to get fitter. We can do our skills for longer. That’s the thing I want to focus on. Cricket is a game of skills. We have our programme started by next week (15 days programme).

Daily Sun: Do you think that Bangladesh players are coachable? Or do they have a very set mindset?

Corey: To me, I didn’t find any problem. All the names I just called since I’ve been here from last year. I don’t like to change people. These people have been doing lots of things before I got here for them to reach where they have reached. But if I see something I think needs a little tweak like someone getting a bit close to the stumps, I give them a comment. I did that to Shoriful actually in the same series. He understood and then he got into a better position and he was bowling really well against New Zealand in the Test series, though he didn’t bowl much. He went to New Zealand and bowled really well in ODIs and T20Is there. So I think small changes can help sometimes. Same thing with Nahid Rana, Tanzim Sakib.

Daily Sun:  Little knowledge, little bit of inputs that can help a player, isn’t it?

Corey: Yes, I always say a player needs to be comfortable with what any coach is talking about them. If it’s not comfortable we leave it out and we find a different way to do it. It can’t be what I say, really. You need to work together with the players. If a player can’t do what you’re saying, it would never work.