Coach's role is to create right environment: Bayliss

Trevor Bayliss is the quintessential Twenty20 coach who has already steered two teams to October's Champions League in South Africa, and is looking to take a third to the qualifying phase of the same tournament.

Bayliss coached Sydney Sixers to the inaugural Big Bash title in Australia, then hopped across to India to help Kolkata Knight Riders claim the Indian Premier League title on their fifth attempt. Over the next three weeks, he will marshall the challenge of Wayamba United in the first Sri Lanka Premier League as he embarks on a rare hat-trick.

"Whilst it is good to have success, just because you have won a couple of competitions doesn't mean it is going to automatically happen in the third one," Bayliss, a former New South Wales middle-order batsman, told Wisden India. "It's up to that group of players, actually. They have got to work hard. When it's all said and done, it's the players that actually go out and perform. It's my role, as the coach, to try and create an environment that allows the players go to out and play their best.

"We don't want to talk about winning the title, making the Champions League, at this early stage," added Bayliss, who was Sri Lanka's coach for four years, between 2007 and 2011. "I don't want to put any extra pressure on the players."

Bayliss said his successes in different parts of the globe were a vindication of his coaching philosophy. "I suppose it makes you feel good from the point of view that the way you do things is successful," Bayliss, 49, said. "It probably lets you know that what you do is the right way and is a successful way. That gives you confidence. But in any form of the game, in any part of the world, my philosophy about coaching is to try and keep it as simple as possible, not over-complicate the game."

To coach teams in different parts of the world, Bayliss admitted, hadn't been as challenging as it might appear. "Probably the only small barrier is perhaps the language," he said. "Maybe not, again, because most speak English pretty well. From a cricket playing point of view, you have the same types of players and the same characters in every team. You have got your stroke-players in each of those teams from different countries, you have got your players that nudge the ball around, you have got your big tall fast bowlers, you have got your slingers, your spinners. It's very similar."

Bayliss will again work with Mahela Jayawardene, who was Sri Lanka's captain during the early part of Bayliss' time with the national team. Bayliss acknowledged that Jayawardene and Gautam Gambhir, his captain at KKR, weren't dissimilar characters. "Gambhir was very, very good," Bayliss said. "He is a quietly spoken guy off the field but one that has got certain views on the game and how it should be played. On the field, he plays it very tough. I think he'd do well captaining any team. Both he and Mahela are very quiet, quietly spoken. But they play the game hard and tough, they play to win always."

Warming to the SLPL, Bayliss said, "Any new competition is full of excitement. We will get new players, different players than may have been seen before. It's always refreshing to see new players, in a new competition. This competition should create a fair bit of interest here in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately at the moment, we haven't got all of our team here but I have been here for a week now, practising with a lot of young local players and there is some very good talent. I am looking forward not just for this year but over the next two or three years because the Wayamba team has got some very good young players."