Stuart Law says he has softened since he stopped playing but one would not necessarily guess it from the way he talks. On Wednesday, at his first press conference as Middlesex coach, Law had some kind words to say about West Indies, where he has just finished a two-year stretch as head coach, but some candid ones about the state of the game in Australia.

“The staging of the Big Bash right in the middle of the Test summer probably isn’t the smartest move,” Law said. “I keep hearing that the Big Bash is doing so well. If it’s doing so well, play it in March. Don’t take up the time of Test match cricket, because the boys should be playing red-ball cricket alongside the Test matches.”

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Law, who played 54 ODIs and only a single Test in his 20-year career, said he felt “Australia have definitely got the talent” but that “they’ve just lost track of what’s important”. He thinks the time Steve Smith and David Warner have spent playing grade cricket this season will have helped with that.

“I think it will have given them an idea of what life is really about,” he said. “When I first started playing grade cricket in Brisbane, as a 15-year-old, I was sharing a dressing room with Allan Border. That doesn’t happen much any more. Test players don’t really play much club cricket when they’re away from international duty, they’re wrapped up in cotton wool and put away.”

Australia, Law said, should recall both men as soon as they can. As for West Indies, Law believes that England will start their upcoming series as “red-hot favourites” but “if they aren’t on their game,, then West Indies have the team to make an upset”.

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Results were pretty patchy in the time Law was with the team but he feels that “a core group of senior players” have emerged and that they’ve “proved that they can do it”. He listed Shai Hope, Kraigg Brathwaite, Jason Holder and Shannon Gabriel. “It comes down to self-belief. If they have that they can achieve anything they want.” A lot of this England team will know that already,, of course, given West Indies’ famous win at Headingley in 2017.

“The euphoria of the first Test win in England in 17 years was something that’s still celebrated in the Caribbean,” Law said, “They don’t need much to have a party out there.” He felt it was pretty telling, though, that they could not follow up on that result in the next Test at Lord’s, where they lost by nine wickets. But still Law feels West Indies are finally moving in the right direction. “There’s been massive improvements. I know Johnny Grave, the CEO, and Jimmy Adams, the director of cricket, have made massive strides forward to make sure the level of professionalism has been raised. So the first team are in a healthy state.”

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The one area that still needs work, Law said, is the domestic game. “But then it’s very difficult to run on a shoestring budget or to produce superstars when there are hardly any practice facilities and no academy set-up. So that would be the next port of call. And it is in the pipeline. They’re just waiting for funding to come through.”

Law said it had been a hard decision to quit but explained that he had been drawn to Middlesex because they had offered him a four-year contract, and the county job meant he would have the chance to spend more time with his immediate family, who live in England.

He thinks Middlesex have the makings of a winning team. “I’ve just watched them train, and the skill level’s great and the work ethic is fantastic. If we can add just a bit of steel to the mental side, we’ll have a pretty good package,” he said. “I was tough mentally, a tough player verbally, so hopefully an ounce of toughness will rub off into the dressing room.” It seems he’s been told he needs to improve their white ball cricket in particular. He might even look to bring in one or two West Indian players to help him do it. “Shai Hope would be one I’d target.”