With so much being written about the coaching of the senior West Indies cricket team; the usefulness or otherwise of West Indies senior team head coach Bennett King and his group of coaches, and with "accountability"suddenly seeming to be the watchword these days in every facet of life in the Caribbean, something that has long come into vogue everywhere else in the world, perhaps now is an excellent time to continue to find out, after the Jimmy Adams' (manager of the West Indies Under-19 team to the ICC World Cup in Sri Lanka) interview last week, what a really good manager or coach is and does.
We continue with this series of interviews of important personnel in the Soca Warriors build-up to Germany and the West Indies (any age-group) to some sort of regular success.
I have not even met the man, so I could not speak to Soca Warriors head coach Leo Beenhakker. I know of him, of course, since he has a long coaching history. I could only promise that, sometime in the not-too-distant future, he too will share his thoughts with us.
In the meantime, I did manage to speak to his team's manager, Bruce Aanensen, someone for whom I have the greatest respect, for his longevity and effectiveness in the business, insurance and banking forums, and his association with the Queen's Park Oval and cricket. I doubt very much that many people really understand that in Bruce Aanensen, the Soca Warriors have a manager who is probably uniquely qualified for the position.
Bruce Aanensen is open, forthright, informative, professional, concise and honest. Like I have said in the past as regards
FIFA vice president, Jack Warner, maybe West Indies cricket needs the honesty and professionalism of a Bruce Aanensen too!
Colin Croft (CC): Bruce Aanensen, you are so very proud of your charges, the Soca Warriors, aren't you? You seem to have a permanent smile. How do you really feel, not the public visage, as Warriors team manager and this achievement overall? Any worries?
Bruce Aanensen (BA): Look, Colin, everyone in the country of Trinidad and Tobago should really realise that this is a fully unbelievable, fantastic achievement. People are still coming to terms with the fact that Trinidad and Tobago is the smallest country to ever have qualified for the FIFA Soccer World Cup Finals. Immediately, this achievement is wonderful and magnificent. I hope that all would understand what the achievement of Trinidad and Tobago qualifying for the FIFA 2006 Soccer World Cup really represents.
The players, to a man, are extremely proud, over the moon, of what they have done. I think that they have worked very hard as a team to get this qualification, supported each other well, and that has been the basic element and the main reason that we have been able to overcome all of the adversity, in words and deeds, and eventually qualify.
CC: You are a former banking, insurance and business executive, now retired from those perhaps stressful situations, with so many years under your belt in the business world. Yet, this must rank as one of, if not indeed the hardest job you may have ever had. Yet, you are taking it all into your stride, with a great wide smile of pleasure, or is it stress?
BA: I will tell you the truth. I am thoroughly enjoying what I am doing now, managing these great guys. I have had over 25 years of human resource management, so dealing with the players in negotiations and those things are elements that I have been doing for many a year. I must say that I feel very comfortable in the role that I have been given.
The one thing that I insist on is that the administration, the management, the coaching staff and all of the players themselves show the relevant and necessary amount of respect for each other and their contributions. It is certainly a two-way street, one that all elements of this team must travel; give and take. That is such a very important ingredient.
I understand that over past years, rifts and everything else came between the players, the management, the administration, whatever. I think that those are now fully absent from this set-up. It makes me very proud to have been a part of implementing some of this.
I think that after all of this, and so far, everyone seems quite happy and relaxed at the way things have been going. Perhaps the hard work is yet to come. However, I do believe that if everyone does what everyone is hired and selected to do, be it player, manager, coach or administrator, there really should be no problems at all. Of course, there will be the exceptions, perhaps those logistics situations that we could not control for ourselves. The team spirit is wonderful, as high as I think it would ever get, 100 per cent, maximum!
CC: Team spirit is excellent in the Soca Warriors soccer team, but would you say that national fervor also helps, perhaps the 12th man on the field, the extra squad member, so to speak? After all, even in such great success, there always still seems to be some strange, underlying political intonations. Any comment on that?
BA: You know, politics always seems to creep into everything in this part of the world. That is quite unfortunate, since everyone should just do what they know best and are qualified for. Meddling and bungling are not what could be called "good management".
As for me, I do not believe that the Warriors' players would allow any so-called politics, or politicians, to intervene, to disrupt the effort of what they have been asked to do.
I have been asked many times about the Trinidad and Tobago Government's promises to the players etc. I would rather hope that sooner, rather than later, the Government would not only state their full position, but would do what they have to do for the players, give them whatever they think is due. We would like all of these issues long behind us as soon as possible, so that the players can remain fully focused with the task at hand.
That is the main reason why Jack (Warner), Richard (Groden) and I went up to London to meet with the players. We had hoped, and we were able to successfully work out all of the details. Every concern that the players and the management had have been resolved. Every request that the players have made have been considered and worked out amicably.
We discussed what finances the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) could afford and what the players feel that is their entitlement etc. I can report that, to be honest, we had some very cordial meetings with all of the players. As far as I can understand and believe, everything has been resolved and in all friendliness too.
CC: From what I have been informed, the Soca Warriors have maybe two, maybe more, practice games, before the big event in June. One game scheduled is against Peru and the other against Iceland. Is this sufficient preparation for such a massive event, such a great tournament? Would the players not be under-prepared, match-fitness-wise?
BA: To be honest, there are a lot more games than those advertised that we will be playing in. The game against Iceland is being played on February 28 (Carnival weekend). That fixture would also allow us to go to see the England vs Uruguay game in Liverpool on March 1. Obviously, we would want to see England play, since they are one of the teams in our group. That would be a wonderful opportunity to assess them.
The next game will be here in Trinidad and Tobago, against Peru, as has been advertised, on or around May 10, as the build-up continues. It will become much more hectic too.
After that Peru game, we leave for a camp in the UK, a camp that starts on May 14, so we will leave the Caribbean on/around May 12-13. Unfortunately, we could not go before that, since the camp-site is not available until May 14, due to the English Premier League.
We are, at the moment, negotiating to play warm-up games against several teams on May 24, May 27 and then again maybe on June 3. After that game on June 3, we will then go straight into our camp in Germany on June 4. Those games should be enough.
As we speak, there are a number of opponents that we are looking at, for practice games; the Czech Republic, Japan, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary are some of them. Jack (Warner) is at the moment trying to find out which teams are available and willing to play against us on the approximate dates and what financial arrangements could be made for the games, so that they can go ahead. We should know soon enough.
I expect that within the next week or so, we should have all of those schedules worked out and an announcement of the opponents, schedules and venues would be forthcoming.
CC: Quite a few of the Warriors obviously play in the UK, in the Premier League and the lower leagues. The qualifying African teams at least have the African Cup of Nations tournament from which they could start their tune-up. However, the managers of the clubs and even the countries' teams have been making various dissenting noises about the players, their injuries, their efforts and their availability. Some managers are even suggesting that some of the players might be worn out and burnt out before the big event.
BA: The African Nations Cup is a great tournament for the African qualifying teams. Yes, I know that a number of the clubs in the UK are very concerned at losing their players to the national teams for the World Cup, especially at that time of the season.
By now, many of the club teams in the UK are either looking to get to some promotion or winning some trophy or even to get themselves out of the relegation stakes, so they really need their players. To give up some of the top club players to play for a country is always a great debate; this "club vs country" row. It is of great concern to the clubs.
However, the FIFA rules are very clear on this. The African Cup of Nations is an approved FIFA event, and when played, as per schedule, the clubs will simply have no options but to give up the players and give them their blessings to play for their countries.
CC: How would the players who play for the Soca Warriors be affected by all of this "club vs country" war? Could they be affected at all by their clubs' wishes?
BA: No, No, not at all. For the game on February 28, against Iceland, we are still trying to get the approval of both FIFA and the clubs in the UK to use our selected players. That should be forthcoming soon too, since the earlier we know, the better we can plan.
I know that the "official" FIFA cut-off allowance date is March 1, after which the clubs must allow the players to go to their countries, so playing the day before should not be any great issue, even if maybe a club or too might want to query that.
The season in the UK finishes on the weekend of May 6-7 We play Peru in T&T after that, on May 10, so there would be no problem there. All of our players who operate in the UK would be released by their clubs by May 6-7 anyway and will be available to play that game against Peru on May 10. There is no problem there at all.
With the English season being closed thereafter, our training camp will not run afoul of any plans/games that might have involved our players. That should work out well for us.
This is really a wonderful time and I hope that we, Trinidad and Tobago and the entire Caribbean, all enjoy this effort by the Soca Warriors. It is really a great achievement by some people who have worked tremendously hard indeed and gotten their just rewards!
CC: Bruce Aanensen, I hope that the enjoyment and success continues. Thank you.
Sometimes in life one gets to meet people that one should try to emulate. If anyone really wants to study business and sport and to have a full appreciation for the effort, ethic and commitment necessary to succeed, then Bruce Aanensen is a great example. Enjoy!