Asanka Gurusinha’s hopes for Essendon, coaching style, return to Premier Cricket

New Essendon coach Asanka Gurusinha discusses his ambition for the Premier Cricket season, coaching style and return from Nigeria.

Asanka Gurusinha has spoken for the first time of his vision for Essendon Cricket Club.

The Sri Lanka legend and 1996 ICC World Cup winner will coach the Bombers this season after being appointed in May.

Gurusinha returns to Melbourne after a two-year stint as national coach of Nigeria and will lead a Premier Cricket club for the first time.

Essendon will be looking to improve on an eighth-placed finish and a surprise finals appearance last season.

Having overseen his first weeks of pre-season training, Gurusinha was excited by the potential at his disposal.

Asanka Gurusinha celebrates a century against Australia at the MCG.

“The boys made finals last season, from what I know they pretty much lost the first half (of the season) and won the second half,” he said.

“We have a good, young side, led by James Seymour, so our goal is to play finals again but not just the top eight to see if we can get a bit higher than that.

“The players are keen, we started optional sessions a couple of weeks ago and the turnout has been really good.

“With my experience – I was head coach in Nigeria, I was director of high performance in Sri Lanka, team manager, director, all those things – so I think I look at the game in a different way.

“I like to work with the players rather than tell them what to do, I think that’s the best way, getting them to understand the road we’ll be taking together and get them to be a part of it – it’s not my road and they have to be on it.

“We have to be strict in some areas but these guys are experienced enough to understand and they’re committed from what I’ve seen in the first few weeks.”

Gurusinha will have a number of quality players to work with, headlined by the Bombers’ skipper.

James Seymour will be looking to re-assert his dominance on the competition after losing his Cricket Victoria contract despite being a regular in the state side and scoring his maiden century.

James Seymour in action for Essendon. Picture: Hamish Blair

Liam Bowe celebrate a wicket for Essendon. Picture: Hamish Blair

Bombers spinner Liam Bowe was Premier Cricket’s joint leading wicket-taker last season and paceman Cam McClure retains his state contract after 19 wickets in 12 matches.

All-rounder James O’Donnell, batsman Farzan Chowna and wicketkeeper Connor Poulton all enjoyed breakout seasons, while Michael Hill and Tom O’Donnell will be invaluable veterans.

Gurusinha believed improvement would come from within and said recruitment would not be a high priority.

“I think it’s a young side, who’s hungry,” he said.

“I’m not looking to bring players into the First XI from outside at this stage, what I’m looking to do is strengthen the Second XI.

“If you have a good, solid Second XI under your First XI squad of about 13 players there will be plenty of pressure on the First XI guys.

“Right now with winter it’s only a couple of days of training inside but hopefully from September we can get outdoors and start to play practice games.

“The great thing is we’ve got eight or nine two-day games this season and some players haven’t played two-dayers for more than two years.”

Gurusinha spent the past two years building cricket in Nigeria, which is currently 42nd in the ICC T20 International rankings.

He believes his time spent with the “Yellow Greens” has helped his cricket coaching but the pull of home was too strong.

“It was a great experience – I was coach and director of high performance so I had to do everything, there was no support,” he said.

“At Essendon I have two or three assistant coaches, I have support to get things done and the facilities in Australia are great.

“In Nigeria, part of my job was to coach the coaches and when I walked in nearly two years ago they didn’t have turf wickets but when I left they had three grounds.

“You learn to do everything yourself, including organising the training, equipment, the grounds, you have to advise the curators on the wickets – to me it was a terrific experience.

“I came back for two reasons, one was safety, it is getting a little bit bad, and I have an 11-month-old grandson, so I was missing him.”

The star batsman played for North Melbourne and Prahran after retiring from international cricket and served as a consultant at Kingston Hawthorn in 2020 before moving to Africa.

He kept tabs on the Hawks and the Premier Cricket competition while overseas and was confident in taking on the job at Windy Hill.

Gurusinha will be working across Essendon’s teams to hopefully deliver whole-club success.

“I played the game at Premier Cricket and I remember how tough it was,” he said.

“We’re lucky we’ve got a couple of Victorian state guys and a couple of junior guys as well, so I’m looking forward to working with them.

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“I’m looking forward to the Dowling Shield and I’m not just working with the men’s team, I’ll be supporting the women’s coach as well.”

The Premier Cricket season will begin on October 1 with red ball cricket to make its long-awaited return.

Eight two-day matches have been scheduled for the new season, separated into two blocks at the start and end of the season.

The T20 Super Slam will also return with five rounds and finals played on Tuesday nights from late November.