In the middle of a series or a tournament, experts and enthusiasts probe players’ techniques in order to find faults. What makes little sense is how such efforts repeatedly end up laying most of the blame on the coach.
The appointment of foreign coaches especially raises expectations and the country impatiently waits for the magic to unfold.
Coaches may be broadly classified into two categories; a performance coach and a skills coach.
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A performance coach is one who is sound in strategies and sporting acumen and with his knowledge of the abilities of players, formulates game plans. A skills coach on the other hand identifies faults in players’ techniques and helps rectify them.
As the description of the latter category indicates, the job of a skills coach is not during a series but is a continuous pursuit of a player.
Such training must be done before the competition. It is also incorrect for us to expect a coach to provide dual expertise at the international level.
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Greg Chappell’s appointment brought much hyped expectations which faded just as quickly as they peaked.
John Buchanan’s appointment as KKR coach also created much buzz. Buchanan’s confidence in proposing the multiple-captain system created the buzz. That system failed completely.
It is important to remember that the Australian team that Buchanan coached was with many legends.
Another coach, Mickey Arthur from South Africa too failed to produce results as coach of the Australian team. Perhaps some foreign coaches failed to recognise the differences in the dressing room cultures of the teams they coached.
Hurriedly imposing successful models from one part of the world in another has never been the answer.
The appointment of Bobby Simpson is exemplary in this regard. During his decade-long reign as coach he oversaw Australia’s most dominant period in world cricket.
However, Simpson failed to translate this success when appointed consultant of the Indian team during the 1999 World Cup.
When one watched his fielding sessions with the Indian team at the Vengsarkar Academy, it appeared that he himself was the most enthusiastic participant but in strategy management his advice was ignored by the coach.
Not consistentDuncan Fletcher’s record as England coach was quite good. Mike Atherton, Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain have been singing his praises; and now Ravi Shastri too is convinced about Fletcher’s sound knowledge of technique and strategy.
Why then is he not able to produce results consistently, especially when the bowling and fielding coaches were of his choice?
The appointment of Shastri seems to have shifted the burden of delivering magic onto him.
Shastri has been a successful leader in the past as the captain of a young, inexperienced India and Mumbai team.
He has the knack of getting things done.
Real testHis real test as a Team Director is to get Fletcher and the support staff to work on each player’s weaknesses.
Sanjay Bangar, Bharat Arun and R. Sridhar have enough experience regarding the approach and attitudes of Indian players.
Once Shastri gets all four heads together, the pieces will fall into place.