Rating the last 5 Australian coaches

#3 Tim Nielson (2007-2011) – 7/10

Tim Nielson (on the left)

Tim Nielson was another coach who never played international cricket. Having played 101 first-class games and 51 List A games for South Australia, Nielson made a mark in the coaching arena pretty quickly. He retired in 1999 and began his coaching career soon after.

First, he was the assistant coach of South Australian Redbacks. He then worked with Buchanan and assisted him with the Australian team for three years.

After Buchanan resigned, Nielson took over as the head coach. His 4-year stint was a rather mixed one. After beginning on a strong note under him where Australia stretched their consecutive series wins to 9, with the retirement of stalwarts, the transition led to some inconsistency over the period of next three years.

Under Nielson, Australia won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2009 but failed to defend the World Cup in India in 2011. They also lost the Ashes at home (after 32 years) in 2010/11. The South Australian wicketkeeper stepped down from the coach’s post after inconsistent results (which included an Ashes defeat at home and a quarter-final exit in the World Cup).

Australia could only win 22 out of the 45 Tests when Nielson was in charge. But won 17 out of the 25 one-day series’. Thus, he gets a 7.