Buchanan's contract talks on hold until after Ashes

Not only are the futures of some of Australia's ageing cricketers on the line on their return home from the Ashes tour this month, but also the fate of team coach John Buchanan.

Buchanan's contract with Cricket Australia expires next month and CA said discussions would take place with him upon his return from England, the Sun-Herald said on Sunday. There has been much debate over Buchanan's influence on the team, even though he has an impressive coaching record of 54 wins and 11 losses in 76 Tests.

One of Buchanan's fiercest critics has been Ian Chappell, the former Australian captain, who has urged Ricky Ponting to seek guidance from senior players like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath rather than Buchanan.

However, Buchanan has spoken of his keenness to continue in the job through to the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. "There have been initial discussions but both parties have agreed not to hold any more until the end of the Ashes," a CA spokesman told Sun-Herald. "We'll see what the situation is then."

Buchanan was at the helm as the national team marched to a record 16-straight Test victories between 1999 and 2001 and then triumphed at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. But he has been under pressure along with the Australian team in the Ashes series, with Duncan Fletcher, his England counterpart, and Michael Vaughan generally winning the tactical battles.

Chappell was withering in his damning of Buchanan's role in the Australian team. "If I was Ponting, I would be relying on those types of cricketing brains," Chappell said at the launch of his new book, Chappelli Speaks Out, last week. "Warne is one of the great cricket brains of any time and McGrath is behind him a bit, but not bad either, why would you listen to Buchanan when you can listen to these blokes.

"All this crap I hear about plans now, plans, everybody has a plan when they go out and the plans that come off, they only come off all the time because you are up against a mediocre player," he said. "But if you are bowling to [Garry] Sobers or Viv Richards, you better have seven or eight plans and you better be ready to run right through them four or five times in a day, and be able to suddenly develop another plan when you might see something a bit different. See how angry Buchanan is getting [on tour], people are starting to ask him some pertinent questions.

Bob Simpson, the former Australian captain, was another who queried Buchanan's training methods, claiming that he doesn't spend enough time on Australia's deteriorating fielding skills as witnessed by the number of dropped catches in the Ashes series. Michael Slater, the former Australian opening batsman, has also called for specialist assistant coaches to boost the back-room set-up.