With his Australia contract expiring after World Cup 2007, coach John Buchanan has suddenly run into a few hurdles on the home stretch of his seven-year-long run. But days after negotiating that wrong one from his Test team’s spin superstar Shane Warne, Buchanan says that despite all the questions being raised about his methods, “it is important to stick to the principles in which I believe’’.

This belief is stronger than ever on the morning after Australia — despite taking the Malaysian tri-series as a trial — managed to reach the final, looking set to add more silverware to their over-bulging trophy cabinet tomorrow. Indeed, the support the coach received within hours of Warne giving a boot to the team’s ‘boot camp’ before this tournament shows that Buchanan has enough support from within to script a memorable last chapter to his dream run.

Skipper Ricky Ponting was on phone asking for an explanation from the star leggie and seniors like Adam Gilchrist and Justin Langer, who despite not being in Malaysia, have publicly defended Buchanan’s ways and intentions. That was after Warne accused Buchanan last week of over-complicating issues and sometimes lacking “a little bit of common sense”.

Now, ask Buchanan about the pressures of criticism while trying out-of-the-box training methods and he just shakes his head and dismisses that as just another professional hazard. “I think there are people who make observations about various coaches, players and administrators. And that is always to be expected. But in the end, it is the coach who needs to clearly understand what his philosophy is and what vision he has and later plan how to get there. I think it is important to stick by your principles,’’ he told The Sunday Express.

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