Why does a man like John Buchanan, who has enjoyed such success inspire so much scepticism? The Guardian's Andy Bull meets the former Australian coach to find out whether he is a 'cricketing mastermind' or a complete fraud'?

Laid out across the sheets are a spread of the day's papers. Buchanan had been in the press a lot of late. Not least in the Times, where Shane Warne had recently written: "I think that for the ECB appointing Buchanan is a great move, because that means Australia have got more of a chance." The criticisms of old players and pundits are one thing, but Warne's, surely, are not so easily ignored. Buchanan sees the antipathy as the natural product of his coaching style. He almost suggests it was intentional. "If you take coaching on its broadest basis it's about helping people, about establishing a relationship. Shane and I have a relationship, it might not be as close as I'd like it, but we do have one. My role was to challenge him. Challenge him on a personal level, a playing level, and a team level. Because sometimes, for some people, you need to be provocative, to question what they do. They may not like it, but that's the role of a coach." That, presumably, was his thinking when he called Warne "vain, stupid and self-centred" after his drug ban in 2003.

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