Coach set to mark territory in Sri Lanka

September 8, 2002 by neil manthorp

The strangest sight on last month's generally strange tour to Morocco, certainly from a cricketing perspective, was of new coach Eric Simons watching players train and behave in a way he fundamentally disagreed with. It didn't happen all the time but now and then, if you watched closely, it was possible to observe him literally biting his bottom lip as he forced himself not to say anything. He is a strong, charismatic leader of men, an inspiration to three generations of players at Western Province and he was supposed to work his magic at national level. So what was he doing biting his lip? "I didn't think it was appropriate to say too much in Morocco," Simons said like a wise sage. "The guys have been together for a long time and they have ways of doing things." This time, however, as we board a plane for Dubai in under...