The makeover of the coaching staff of the Indian team was a long time coming. Well-meaning people with the welfare of Indian cricket at heart and who had spotted anomalies in the coaching structure advised the BCCI to name an Indian as assistant coach for the three-match ODI series in Bangladesh in June. It did not happen.
Eventually the freefall to a 3-1 defeat after the memorable Lord’s victory has compelled the BCCI to ease out bowling coach Joe Dawes and fielding coach Trevor Penney for the ODI series.
It was a ruthless execution that resulted in the authorities bringing in Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Bangar, Bharat Arun and R. Sridhar with a clear objective of providing fresh ideas to a large group of players who flourished to an extent in the opening two Test matches but took retrograde steps afterwards.
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As of now the BCCI has not touched Duncan Fletcher, but by all accounts the sword of Damocles is hanging over his head.
The hammer had to come down hard after the 3-1 defeat. That was the trigger.
“Can this get any bigger; are there not enough indications,” was the quick response from a very influential BCCI functionary involved in parleys leading to the changes made on Tuesday, especially when asked if this was the beginning of a complete tilt to an all-Indian coaching structure from the home series against the West Indies in October-November.
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Without doubt the BCCI was anxious and disturbed by the turn of events that unfolded after the Lord’s Test that Ishant Sharma turned on its head with a match-winning seven-wicket haul.
The spontaneous and sharp reactions from former India captains and distinguished players soon after India went down in the fifth Test at the Oval in a way mounted pressure on the BCCI to introspect and revise its opinion on the coaching staff. Sunil Gavaskar went to the extent of saying he doesn’t even want to get into the mind of Fletcher.
Three or four people involved in the process of reshaping the coaching staff believe that there was breakdown of communication between the coaches and players.
“We went to the extent of seeing video footage and consulting the analyst. The television commentators were pointing out how Alastair Cook made adjustments and improved. This was not happening in the case of our batsmen. They were making the same mistakes. Was anyone telling them what to do,” wondered the BCCI official.
The same set of people were unhappy with the deployment of the bowling resources right through the series. “Bhuvneshwar Kumar was not even able to land the ball at the Oval. Why this complete shift from our strength (spin) to pace? We are trying to give maximum opportunities to the two leg- spinners Amit Mishra and Karn Sharma.
“On another aspect there is so much cultural diversity in our pace attack. Pankaj Singh is from Rajasthan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is from UP, Varun Aaron is from Ranchi and Ishant Sharma is from Delhi.
“Looks like there are communication issues. We hope the presence of Ravi, Bangar, Arun and Sridhar will open their minds. We hope there will be more meaningful conversations between them.”
What has also upset the BCCI is that India lost the home series to England after the winning the first Test at Ahmedabad and the recently concluded series after winning at Lord’s.
“It’s happening often and in a cascading manner. Hopefully we will be able to arrest this tendency. We also hope Shastri will be available on a long term basis and up to the World Cup.”