IAN SALISBURY

In early May, we caught up with Surrey's new second team coach at Whitgift School, where his young charges annihilated Gloucestershire in the Second Eleven Trophy to make it two one-sided Surrey victories in as many days with the first team beating Yorkshire at Headingley on Bank Holiday Monday.

Marcus Hook: So, a second one-sided Surrey win in as many days. I guess you must be pleased with that performance… 
Ian Salisbury: From the second team point of view we were way off the pace in the first couple of games against Reigate Priory and the first game at Hove. We were done harshly with the toss on both occasions, but there are ways to lose games. There were a few harsh words and since then I can't fault the guys. Just a few home truths about the basics of cricket. At that stage Surrey had been pinned up against the wall and having to take a few blows, in a way justifiably so. The only people who can get the club out of this situation are the players themselves. I just pointed that out - that you've got to stick together, but that it's also down to individual responsibility and that it's down to you as team-mates to turn it around. How they responded during the three-day game at Hove was amazing, which is pleasing for a coach when that happens because you can't do it for them. They've sat down themselves and decided what they want to do and how they're going to do it. We give them direction of how we'd like them to do it, but ultimately out there you saw a side… there's little bits, we could have got a few more runs, if you want to be critical, but in the field they were diving around there was genuine want not just for them to be successful but for their team-mates to be successful. Doing it for each other is what it's about. If you're going to get out of this, they're going to have to fight for each other and we're going to have to fight our corner. The guys who were successful last week, people like Matthew Spriegel and Gary Wilson went up and were successful in the first team. That's what we want to do. Hopefully, Stuart Meaker will do that and then it will become infectious. Rather than looking at themselves and worrying about what they're doing, they will be worrying about what the team's doing. When we get that collective back we'll move forward.

Marcus Hook: But it's also a team effort off the field, and you're now a member of a pretty impressive backroom staff… 
Ian Salisbury: Chris Adams is a hugely driven guy. He's not going to put his name to anything unless he knows he can do it justice. He's very determined to turn it around. Hopefully he's recruited well. He's gone for people who are not only Surrey men through and through, but as determined to turn it around. But, as I said, we personally can't turn it around, we can help turn it around, we can give people direction and belief, but ultimately we've got to instil in the players that they've got to do it themselves, and they've got to do it as a unit.

Marcus Hook: We're a few weeks into the season now. Is there anything about the job you weren't expecting? 
Ian Salisbury: From getting ready to play for Warwickshire two months ago, it happened so quick it didn't give me time to prepare as I would have liked. The biggest shock has been that when you are a player, you look after you own personal skills and how you fit into a team. But, as a coach, you have to look after everybody else. In organisation it's a hell of a lot easier knowing that when you turn up to a ground it's going to be organised. But for the second team coach it's slightly different. You're thinking about towels, balls, umpires, scorers, in some games it's coloured clothing, like on a Tuesday after a Bank Holiday Monday, when, all of a sudden, you haven't got staff players, you've got four players who have got to find gold kit, you need brown pads, the cricket manager has got all the white balls. That sort of thing is not easy. So I've now got a checklist. I've got to leave home a lot earlier. When I was playing I was someone who could turn up reasonably late and walk straight out there without a problem. Now it's everybody else's needs first and yours last. You also need a strong shoulder to throw a lot and bowl a lot… In the first month when you see people netting you obviously see people improve, but you've got nothing to judge it against. It's only when you start getting outside and you've got actual scores of individuals, bowling figures, spells, that you've got something to judge what success is. So, like I say, the first game was frustrating, but in the last two games it's been hugely pleasing.

Marcus Hook: But I guess it's not just about who's getting runs and taking wickets, but, more importantly, who's got the best attitude and who's prepared to work hard to improve their game. 
Ian Salisbury: The successful sides that I've been lucky enough to play in over the last twenty years have had two things and that is the right attitude and the right amount of talent. That's not rocket science knowing that if you've got the right attitude and you've got the right talent you'll be successful. So, at the present moment we're just trying to put the two together. If we have a squad of twenty people on the Surrey staff who have the right attitude, and what I mean by attitude is the right professionalism to do their job, add in some talent then we'll go a long way.

Marcus Hook: I get the impression that you're glad to be back at Surrey… 
Ian Salisbury: It's fun to be back, but sad not to be playing any more. When I think back to around the time I turned thirty, asking myself what will I do when I stop playing professional cricket this would have been my ideal job. When you carry on until you're 38 or 39, you go through different emotions on what you'd like to do. But, ultimately this is something I wanted to do and at the perfect time. Two weeks ago I don't think Surrey could have got any lower, but hopefully we're now on the up. On Sunday, because we hadn't been winning, we just forgot how to win. Then to bounce back the next day and win shows we're on the right track, because if you lose games you should have won sometimes that can have a hugely negative effect. So, for the boys to bounce back the next day shows we're doing it right. That's a huge positive. We need to keep it going. We need it to snowball. They're having to work hard at the moment to achieve anything, which is what you'd expect really. I know what it's like. You have to work hard. Professional cricket is hard, it's not easy. You have to do it and that's sometimes I feel something that's been missed. You can't do just enough to get by. We are where we are because we're not good enough, so we've got to work harder and harder to get where we want to get.

Marcus Hook: Whenever I get to the Oval early on a match day, it amazes me how it always seems to be that it's Mark Ramprakash in the nets first trying to get someone to bowl to him. As good as he is, he's still the first person in the nets… 
Ian Salisbury: What suits one person doesn't always suit another, but last year I played with a guy called Tony Frost and he ended up topping the batting averages last season. He's the only other person I've seen who works as hard as Mark Ramprakash. I don't think there can be any substitute for working hard. You don't get there through natural ability alone. There's a lot of time that has to go in behind the scenes for that natural ability to shine. It's no mistake that Ramps scores the runs he does. Then it's frustrating when you hear someone say that they think they're doing enough and you go well you got nought, one, two… Are you doing enough? I think that's where we are as a club. If they're not willing to work hard there will be somebody else who is willing to work hard. We want to be the best club in the country, not only just for now but we want it to last for a long time. We need it to keep coming through. That means instilling a culture all the way through. That's going to take time but we want the right people with the right attitudes. If you don't want to do it, then fine we'll find somebody else who does.

Marcus Hook: As we're in Croydon, and I'm from Croydon, what do you think of the wicket at Whitgift? 
Ian Salisbury: It's fantastic. It's a hell of a lot better than my old school wicket. There's more grass on this bank than there was at my school. It's just superb. It's May the fifth and we've had the keeper nearly standing on the thirty-yard circle to two bowlers. What can you say? We had some young talent on display today - George Edwards, what a find he is. Tom Lancefield impressed, Stuart Meaker, Rory Burns the keeper there is talent there. Looking at some of the age groups all the way down, the talent's there. We've just got to get that to the first team. Not just ready to play, but ready to perform. So that when they come in it's not just a speculative will they score runs, will they take wickets, we know they will perform. That's my challenge. For this club to move forward it has to be home grown as well. In an ideal world it would be eleven, but it's never an ideal world.

MAY 2009