Bringing back the Boof, and the old days The Boof factor: Australian cricket coach Darren Lehmann Photo: Supplied At a rugby lunch five years ago in Perth, a Super 12 coach was holding forth on the art of coaching by statistics, on how it was done in the modern day, courtesy of statisticians, computers and endless analysis of the games his own team had played, and those played by their forthcoming opponents. "For we have done the work," I broadly recall him saying, as part of a general theme. And we now understand that on average, Richie McCaw will touch the ball 67.234 times in a match, and if we don't get him below 59.892 times, we won't win the match. Same with turnovers. The Crusaders on average have 9.543 turnovers in a match, and they never lose a match when their turnovers are below 6.423, while our turnovers are now at 10.436 and we've never won a match when it is higher than 14.304 times and ... And so on. He sat down to rather stunned silence, quickly filled by the MC, Ray Seger, who brought the house down when he said, "I don't know if that was a rugby speech, or a f---ing BINGO call!" Nor do I. Though a good man, that coach didn't last too much longer in that particular position, and I am told his coaching style now is far less "paralysis by analysis," and far more by instinct, encouraging flair and feel rather than burying his players under a blizzard of numbers. Which brings us to the Australian cricket team, oddly enough. For of course the most stunning thing in this last while has been their complete turnaround, under the coaching of Boof Lehmann. Without being unkind, is it not now bleeding obvious that the approach of the previous coach, Mickey Arthur - a curious cross between endless scientific analysis and headmasterly homework setting - really was the disaster that a lot of us said it was. Too many bells and whistles, not enough basics. Lehmann embraces a wonderfully simple approach by comparison, promising from the start the Australians would play "aggressive cricket that entertains people but gets the job done on the field." And it was Lehmann, of course, who was the first senior cricket figure to respond to homework with his tweet: "What are we doing????? Cricket???? Adults we are, not schoolboys! And yet with Mickey Arthur, it was not merely an over-emphasis on homework. His quote of a few weeks ago, looking back on his time as coach, still stuns me, where he spoke on why he was happy to see Brad Haddin dropped: "Brad," he said, "was left out for a young guy like Matthew Wade to come in for us to build a brand that was going to be sustainable over a period of time, because at 35 the brand wasn't going to be sustainable with Brad Haddin keeping wicket." Huh? He's the freaking coach, and he's thinking in terms of the team's brand? In comes Lehmann, and starts to instill the old values, the eternal verities of how a successful team should work, far more removed from all the over-the-top-claptrap. He wanted some old heads such as Haddin back, and got him - and he has repaid that faith in spades. "That wasn't the Australian cricket team that I knew when I flew into Mohali," Haddin recently reminisced of the homework era. That was a unique situation which in all seriousness I can't really explain it. It was uncomfortable, walking into it. Guys jumping at shadows and the insecurity around everything that was being done, so just refreshing to get back here now and enjoy the game for what it is, a great game and been great for all of us. Lehmann also championed Mitchell Johnson from the first, believing him to be exactly that - a champion - never mind that, let's face it, his "brand" was shot as an over-the-hill ex-fast bowler. From the start, he has treated the players as equals, as men, not schoolboys, and the players have responded in kind. He has brought back, not a drinking culture, but an encouragement that the team at least regularly gets together to have fun. Somehow, he has somehow worked it so that Michael Clarke and Shane Watson aren't going at it like cats in a sack - perhaps helped in part by the move to no longer have the captain as a selector as well. He has given them real ambition, not just lip service. In the words of Clarke, "We were still working hard but I think we've prioritised and been very realistic with where we sit as a team and we don't accept being ranked fifth in Test cricket." The Mickey Arthur approach, by comparison, seemed far more accepting of mediocrity, saying, as he did in May, "We've put some stuff in place that we believe can get this team there in the next 24 months." Lehmann's stunning transformation of the side has been accomplished in just six months. Arthur later told ABC: "We had a goal that I will reveal. We wanted to try to push England really hard in England, but we wanted to win in Australia, this is what Michael and I wanted to do. We didn't go into the series ever to lose it, but we wanted to develop enough intelligence on all the England players ... We were going to really push them close, give the players in our team the confidence to see that England could get beaten, and then go for them in Australia. Anybody have any sense Lehmann was happy to lose any Ashes Test, ever? Most importantly, we now have one handle-bar moustache in the team, and one on the way, with Warner. And yes, the Australian cricket team seems to have reverted to the "some dickheads" policy, which has been pretty much a tradition since the 1970s and is working well for it. The most apparent thing, however, is just the sheer joy, the sense of fun, that Lehmann evinces as coach. Every time you see him interviewed or sitting with the players, or down by the boundary, he invariably has a smile on his dial. He seems to have loosened the players up somewhat. He is one for the old days and I dips me lid. Twitter: @Peter_Fitz