Sydney, Sept.12 (ANI): Australian cricket team coach appears to be cautiously gung-ho about Cricket Australia renewing his contract for a further three years, and says that it is a reflection of the support and backing he has from both the players and the cricket management.
Nielsen's new contract means he no longer walks a tightrope, as he did after the Ashes defeat in England last year.
"It's nice to have support. I can plan for beyond the World Cup, when my contract was due to expire. I can stop stressing about where I'm going next and can just charge ahead with energy and motivation," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Recalling the period immediately after the side lost the Ashes last year, Nielsen said he spent two or three days roaming around London, trying to find out the reasons behind the close series defeat.
He says he spent time questioning whether he was fit to remain national team coach and also reflected on the period when he was a player and agonizing whether he should continue to play or think of coaching as another option, because financial pressures on the home front.e now thanks South Australia teammate James Brayshaw for helping him to make the decision to retire as a player.
Brayshaw asked him whether he would be better off playing another 20 games or having a crack at coaching.
That one statement sparked off a career in coaching under the tutelage of Greg Chappell and John Buchanan and delivered him, relatively quickly, to the top job, a post he will occupy until at least 2013 after recently signing a new contract.
Coming back to last year's Ashes loss, Nielsen says that he was shaken so much that he questioned whether "coaching" was really up his street.
"The night we lost the Ashes we had a drink with the England blokes and, as important as it was, I just couldn't wait to get out of there. It had been a long tour. We had a couple of days off before the one-day guys arrived," he tells the Sydney Morning Herald.
He adds: "My family wasn't there, I was alone and just wandered around London. I spent an entire afternoon sitting in a coffee shop and then a pub having a couple of beers. I kept thinking, 'What's happened here?' "
"I was trying to work out why, how, what had I done wrong? I questioned the decisions I'd made, and wondered if I could have done better. After two or three days, I thought I could either keep feeling sorry for myself or I could accept that we didn't do it right - we needed to improve, and let's do it. I wanted to learn from the experience. That's why it was so pleasing to win the one-day series 6-1 and then the Champions Trophy. It restored a lot of confidence," Nielsen says.
"I made the decision to have a go at coaching as Greg's assistant and looking after the Second XI. When Brayshaw asked me that question, I realized it was a straightforward choice. I loved cricket and wanted to stay involved. Coaching was a way to do that," he recalls.
"Having a full-time role as an assistant coach gave us financial stability so we (the family) didn't have to worry about that six-month gap between seasons when no match payments came in to pay the bills," he adds.
When he was appointed Buchanan's understudy, his education took off. He started to fuse new ideas with the old to create his own style.
"Buck' was a tremendous mentor. He gave me opportunities to try things without being too restricted. He put me on a good path. We were different in that I came from a much more hands-on, cricket-playing background, and he came from a more man-management perspective."
"Our situations are different, too. He had such a talented bunch, whereas in the last couple of years several young guys have come into the team. So my approach has been to educate young players on how to be successful, but also apply the lessons from Buck about giving players more responsibility for their own programs," he said. (ANI)
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