England coach Bayliss targets triumph after tragedy

LONDON: There are a lot of people within cricket who are apt to call a one-sided match a “massacre” or a dropped catch a “tragedy”, but new England coach Trevor Bayliss is unlikely to be one of them.
The Australian was in charge of Sri Lanka when their team bus was attacked by gunmen in Lahore in 2009. Bayliss was also present, in his role as New South Wales coach, when South Australia and Australia batsman Phillip Hughes was fatally struck hit on the head by a bouncer during a domestic match at the Sydney Cricket Ground in November.
For Bayliss, about to coach England against his native Australia in an Ashes Test series, the memory of the Lahore attack — where England deputy Paul Farbrace was with him as assistant Sri Lanka coach — remains vivid.
“I certainly remember when the bombs and the bullets were flying around, I thought ‘oh well... I can’t believe we’re actually being shot at’, but there was nothing I could do except keep your head down and your arse up,” Bayliss told reporters at Lord’s on Wednesday. “From the terrorism point of view it is said all the time, but you can’t allow that kind of thing to determine the rest of your life.”
As for the death of Hughes, who died after being struck by a Sean Abbott bouncer, Bayliss said there was a need to honour his memory without the batsman’s passing inhibiting the way sides played their cricket.