Rod Lyall - 12 July 2011 - Bron
Few observers of the Dutch cricket scene would question the assertion that a key factor in ACC’s rapid rise to the upper level of the Topklasse table has been the quiet presence of newly-appointed club coach Anton Roux.

The 30-year-old South African spent two seasons at the club as player-coach in 2005 and 2006, making 1034 runs, taking 57 wickets, and helping them to win promotion to the then Hoofdklasse in the latter year. But his return to a more general coaching role seems to have a more lasting impact, as well as enabling the first team to make a serious challenge for ACC’s first national championship since 1954.

‘When I was here five years ago I made a presentation to the club Board,’ Roux says, ‘and this time I have a great opportunity to implement what I proposed then.

‘With the same people still running the club, and the same mindset governing their policies, we really can build for the future as well as gaining some immediate success.’

Roux sees looking after his first-team squad of 19 players as his first responsibility, but he also attaches great importance to the development of ACC’s growing junior section.

‘We now have a group of between 50 and 60 youth players,’ he says, ‘and my goal is both to develop their basic skills and to do more intensive work with the more talented kids.’

Roux is enthusiastic about ACC’s Pupils of the Week scheme, by which two juniors spend their Sunday with the team as they warm up, helping out with the chores, and sitting with him as he watches and analyses the game.

He pays tribute to the whole of the Topklasse squad as he reviews the spectacular progress they have made this year, while acknowledging that the fact that he was able to bring with him player-coach Heino Kuhn and exchange player Graeme van Buuren has added important dimensions to the side.

‘I know them both well from my work in Pretoria,’ says Roux, ‘and I knew that they would make a big contribution off the field as well as on it.

‘Heino has been a great support in coaching the juniors – something he would never be expected to do back home – and at 20 Graeme is a tremendous role model as well as an outstanding cricketing personality.’

Character and personality are elements which play a key part in Roux’s approach to the game, and he talks a lot about ‘coaching the whole person’.

‘The ACC side is full of real individuals,’ he says with a smile, ‘and bringing them together and giving them room to express themselves was part of the challenge,

‘But they have all responded well, and now those characters are shining through big time.’

Roux acknowledges his good fortune in having a side which not only includes current and former Dutch internationals like Mudassar Bukhari and Zulfiqar Ahmed, but also hockey internationals Lloyd Madsen (South Africa) and Eli Matheson (Australia).

‘These are guys who have performed at the very highest level in another sport,’ he observes. ‘Eli has an Olympic medal, and having them in the squad adds something special.

‘I spend a lot of time talking with them about approaches to coaching in their sport, and I’ve learned a lot from them.’

ACC’s offer to appoint him as club coach came at a crucial moment for Roux, who had just resigned as director of the Northerns Academy in Pretoria, having helped produce sixteen first-class players in four years.

‘I was mentally and emotionally drained after having to commit 100% energy every single day of those four years,’ he admits, ‘and I may have been within days of walking away from the sport.

‘But this is a fantastic opportunity, and it’s given me a new lease of life as a coach. In coming to Amsterdam I really have made a decision for my own personal development as well.’

Roux pays a warm tribute to the coaches who made a difference in his career: Martin Langer and Craig Ebersohn early on, then Grant Morgan – who was player-coach at Bloemendaal for a time – and above all, his former colleague at Titans, Rob Walter. He also acknowledges a debt to Richard Pybus, who was coach during his last season as a player with Northerns.

Having seen Dutch cricket both as a player and a coach, what would Roux change if he could? He pauses for a moment.

Then, ‘umpiring’, he says. ‘I’m not having a go at the umpires, because they’re volunteers who do a difficult job. And everybody makes mistakes.

‘But you can only play good cricket in a good environment, and when umpires make blatant mistakes it can leave a sour taste, whether you win or lose. Dutch cricket definitely needs to recruit more young umpires, and to devote more effort to developing their skills.’

He also has strong views on the role of player-coaches, and the need for non-playing club coaches such as himself, and those who are working at other leading clubs.

‘I would make it compulsory for every top club to appoint a non-playing coach as well as an overseas player,’ he argues, ‘and it has to be someone who really wants to make a difference.

‘We all know that many player-coaches are not really interested in coaching, and that clubs are happy to allow them to avoid it because they are only looking for results on a Sunday. But young players need more than that, and they also need continuity in coaching.’

A third area in which Roux believes things need to change is in the integration of club coaching and the KNCB’s national set-up.

‘When I arrived,’ he says, ‘I approached [national noach] Peter Drinnen, and asked him whether there were any specific areas he wanted me to work on with ACC’s three players in national senior squads, Mudassar Bukhari, Mohsin Ghaznavi, and Steven de Bruin.’

Out of that approach he has been doing some work with other members of the national side, and he believes there is a great deal of room for further co-operation between club coaches and the Bond’s coaching staff.

He certainly does not underestimate the difficulties inherent in a cricketing environment like the Netherlands, where the sport is not widely played and young players are less exposed to the highest levels of the game.

‘In many ways, motivation is a more important element than technical skills,’ he says, ‘and in the end the motivation has to come from the player himself.

‘It’s difficult in a country where almost every cricketer is a part-timer, and most have other pressures in their lives. I say to the ACC players that I want them to leave the rest of their lives like baggage at the gate, and to come to practice completely switched on.’

Roux admits that the side’s early successes have created a momentum which has made his task much easier this season, carrying through into the whole atmosphere around the club.

‘We won some close games early on, and had that not happened things might have been very different,’ he says.

‘But on the other hand, at HCC a couple of weeks ago we were in real trouble, and instead of crumbling we came back hard and won the game. That takes character as well as skill, and in the end that’s what matters most.’