Steve Rixon, the outgoing assistant coach of the Australian cricket team, has slammed Cricket Australia saying he had very little respect for the organization.
“I’m not getting into a slinging match … I have very little respect for the organisation, so I think we best just leave it there,” Rixon said on Sky Sports Radio. “I don’t like a lot of things they do. They interfere basically with a lot of the cricket decisions over the period of time and I don’t necessarily agree with that.
“It’s none of my business. At the end of the day, I do what I do, I go out and do it to the best I know how. But it’s probably just draining and the one thing I’ve lived my cricket life with is a major passion for the game.”
When pressed for his view on Howard, a former rugby union international, and whether he had a problem with him, Rixon replied: “Let me say, I hope he was a good rugby player.”
Rixon, who had a long standing relationship with the current Australian captain Michael Clarke through his junior days, said that apart from his duties in drilling the fielders as a fielding coach, he also served as a mentor to Clarke.
“With Michael now being very content with where he is, Boof’s obviously come in with a stronger approach to that,” he said. “That’s why I think cricket’s in a very good shape with Australia, we’re starting to get all those bits and pieces.”
The former Australian wicket keeper was let go after current head coach Darren Lehmann expressed his desire to assemble his own backroom staff around the team. Rixon however insists that he is still on good terms with Lehmann and has no problem with his decision to bring in his own staff.
“Darren will eventually get a team around him that he’s very, very comfortable with and that’s fine. That’s the way life is, that’s the way it is with coaching. He’s come in with some heavy hands and he’s done a very good job in actually sorting a few of these things out and I complimented him for that. If he continues down this road, he’ll get the best out of this Australian cricket team.”
Rixon is the fielding coach for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League(IPL) and is expected to continue in that role for the upcoming IPL season.
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