Sydney Thunder coach Trevor Bayliss doesn’t hesitate, nor need a leading question when asked the key difference in a finals-bound dressing room, a year on from owning the worst Big Bash record in a decade.
“David Warner,” Bayliss deadpans.
“The job he’s done as captain, it’s not just about his batting, it’s his personality. He’s always up for it, he’s a positive character. Loud, obnoxious sometimes. But the boys love it.
“He engages with everyone and out on the field, everyone’s got confidence that he obviously knows the game and the [tactical] moves he’s made have, most of the time, been good ones.
“He’s a proactive captain, proactive captains seem to know what’s about to happen and make a fielding change before it happens.”
Redemption arcs abound in Wednesday’s BBL knock-out final. Glenn Maxwell has powered Melbourne Stars’ rise from an 0-5 start. The Thunder went 1-7 last season, the worst return of any side since the same outfit failed to muster a win in 2012-13.
Thunder skipper David Warner.Credit: Nick Moir
Either way, the never-ending Warner narrative and accompanying spotlight were always good odds of defining the Thunder’s campaign.
It started, after all, with the franchise championing an end to his leadership ban that resulted from the 2018 ball-tampering saga.
Warner’s tactical nous has rarely been in doubt. His 15-year international career has been accompanied by almost 400 T20 appearances for more than a dozen domestic sides.
The other side of captaincy – statesmanship and diplomacy, well.
Long before South Africa and sandpaper, Warner, once regarded as Australia’s “attack dog” in the field, was telling the public exactly what he told reporters on Monday.
“I’ve always said to people; ‘if you don’t like me, reach out, and I’ll have a beer with you and let you make up your mind for yourself’,” Warner said.
“I’m a father, I’m a husband. I am the captain of this team, but I’ve also got a responsibility to get the guys up and about. There’s times on the field that people play hard, and it’s probably not what people like to see.
“I am the person that is in the players’ faces and the cameras are always on me. But off the field, I’m just a normal person.”
Bayliss’s account of a sometimes “loud, obnoxious” Warner sits alongside glowing reports of the 38-year-old’s captaincy.
Happy days: The Thunder has turned the worst season in a decade of BBL into a finals appearance.Credit: Getty Images
English international Sam Billings describes Warner as “the driving force” in the Thunder’s turnaround. And an entirely different proposition to the Warner he expected based on an Ashes rivalry summed up best by he and fellow pantomime villain Stuart Broad.
In a summer when Cameron Bancroft and Daniel Sims were rubbed out by one of the worst on-field collisions in Australian cricketing memory, and 41-year-old assistant coach Dan Christian has more than helped fill out the Thunder’s XI, the wheels could have fallen off.
Warner has led with 346 runs (second only to Test tourist Cooper Connolly) at an average of 57 and a strike rate of 142.
And one of Australian cricket’s most renowned fighters, to what plenty will always see as a fatal fault, speaks of emphasising fun and entertainment in the Thunder sheds.
The old and the new: Warner and emerging star Sam Konstas.Credit: Getty Images
“Those date nights with your wife have changed to boys’ nights,” Warner jokes. Poker, PlayStation, golf and bets on fielding drills are his way of bringing a side together.
“Cricket’s about having fun. Yeah, it’s a job, but we look at it like we’re entertaining.
“We’re trying to put bums on seats, we want to put on a show and that’s what the BBL’s about … so leadership, everyone in the team’s a leader.”
Bayliss, with more than 20 years coaching England, Sri Lanka and numerous T20 outfits, was backed by the Thunder in June with a one-year extension despite last season’s wooden spoon.
Warner’s retirement from white-ball internationals dove-tailed with his vision of getting the best out of both the star opener and a listing lime green roster.
“My original thought of him being captain was to get the best out of him,” Bayliss says.
“We’ve seen guys at whatever level, they retire [from international cricket] and drop down a level to finish off their careers, you need that little bit of a carrot to make sure that you’re performing.
“He’s wanted to be involved with leadership and captaincy in the past and hasn’t been allowed to do that. I thought ‘here’s our opportunity to give him that responsibility show people that he’s a worthy captain’.
“It’s not necessarily that other teams have missed out on that because there’s been other good captains.
“But I think he’s wanted to prove himself in that type of role. And I think this year he has.”
