A coach for a national side is more of a consultant, not a "coach". It's not like Dravid or Tendulkar need to be taught the finer points of batting. It's more to motivate players, formulate strategies and in general, give insights. A consultant is hired by companies to give perspectives that are not obvious to insiders (out of the box) because they are not encumbered by a set thought process or culture. Even core engineering companies do this. An Indian coach understands the psyche and culture of Indian players, claims Wadekar. Maybe true, but it is ridiculous to presume that a foreigner cannot understand our players. Didn't Wright do a stellar job? Even chappell's tenure was good in patches (record wins chasing, long string of ODI wins, test wins SA, WI etc) - the only problem with him was that he tried to be the captain when he was just a consultant. Wadekar's last line "I can never think of any foreign coach simply because I am just not in favour of one." betrays his bias, which is no different from what he accuses the BCCI of having. He claims BCCI is obsessed with a foreign coach regardless of merit, but his last statement clearly suggests he is obsessed with an Indian coach, merit be damned. The question is do we need a coach at all? The BCCI thinks it does, and having made that decision, it's think tank will select the best for the job. If it happens to be a gora, so what?
Many players in the Indian team are better players than Gary Kirsten. It is not expected of him to carry on coaching job Indian team where the likes of Greg Chappell failed. The big question is what is his experience. Consider the joint efforts of Venky Prasad, Robin Singh and Lalchand Rajput. With the successful people like this around does the Indian team need an inexperienced coach. If at all we have a coach he should be better than these people and command the respect of the team members. Gary may be a utter failure.
RE:'Why do you want a guy with no coaching experience at all'
by timepass on Dec 03, 2007 11:34 AM
there are more oldies (team & mgt) and oldies prefer something "fresh" (i meant "fresh" ideas)
Greg Chappel came with single point program that is to make it easy for Australia to win World Cup.When he was appointed coach,India was the only team that could stop Australia from winning the World Cup. Very systematically,he created rift in the team and then got rid of tha charismatic captain Saurav Ganguly , who would not have allowed his plans to succeed.He was a captain who had a mind of his own and would not listen to anybody if it was wrong for the team. Kiran More, all along cooperated with him as , maybe , he did not suspect anything.Thus,it is better that we go for an Indian coach.
RE:Beware of foreign coaches
by VIPUL MATHUR on Dec 03, 2007 11:27 AM
Absolutely correct. He was like pest (Deemak) for the Indian cricket, had a single point motive to raise Indian Team to ground just what pest (Deemak) do and he succeeded. How Australian can be faithful for India and now how South African can be faithful to India. Why we can not think this.
RE:Beware of foreign coaches
by Maximus Decimus Meridius on Dec 03, 2007 11:32 AM
This "charismatic captain" was playing utter rubbish when he was dropped. In fact he got thrice as many chances to prove himself than Dravid, who is an INFINITELY better batsman than ganguly (compare their strike rates in the recent 2-3 yrs and u'll find that dravid has scored as quickly or quicker than SCG and has scored more runs). Ganguly worked hard, came back and that's well done by him. The fact remains that he deserved to be dropped.
Don't for once think that India were in any position to stop Aus. Remember 2003 final? That team was at its stongest then - players were younger, bowlers were fitter and quicker, and what happened? 349-3! Aussies were the only team we could not beat, and that happened twice. On spinning tracks we may win the odd game, like Mumbai or chandigarh, but on a flat ODI batting pitch, they will cream us in their sleep, and then bowl and field us out of the game. If we have to stop the aussies, our fielding has to improve significantly, which means get rid of slow movers - Ganguly figures high on that list, with Dravid already out. SRT is a good outfielder, so I guess he can be persisted with. Well, who's going to bell the cat? Drop ganguly and the CPI will have another topic to divert attention from Nandigram - already Taslima Nasreen is working splendidly for them.
Greg Chappel came with single point program that is to make it easy for Australia to win World Cup.When he was appointed coach,India was the only team that could stop Australia from winning the World Cup. Very systematically,he created rift in the team and then got rid of tha charismatic captain Saurav Ganguly , who would not have allowed his plans to succeed.He was a captain who had a mind of his own and would not listen to anybody if it was wrong for the team. Kiran More, all along cooperated with him as , maybe , he did not suspect anything.Thus,it is better that we go for an Indian coach.
We have the world class cricketers in India who can coach the present Indian team. Mohinder Amarnath was hosting a cricket show some years back and he was getting into the depth of the skills associated with batting and he was demonstrating it by getting his colleagues to show it to the audience and in one of his shows came the master blaster sachin tendulkar in his teens. I agree with what Ajit Wadekar has said in the interview. Mohinder Amarnath is the best coach for the present Indian team. That's it!!!!
i think Gary Kirstein knows some dark secrets of the BCCI and is blackmailing them, so the poor SOBS have no choice but to give in to his ridiculous demands!
So much of fuss and moolah for coaching the national taem. Why no body is concerned about the coaching level for domestic team. Improve the standard of Domestic cricket, Coaching, Umpiring etc. Provide specialist fielding coach, Batting Coach, Bowling Coach to domestic teams. Get the players prepared to face situtaions in International Matches at the domestic level itself. Only then the Indian can actually become a better team. Do well in the Mock CAT test ratehr than waiting for actual CAT ant try for 2 or 3 or 4 years.
I dont know whether a coach is required in the first place. If we decide to have a coach, I don't trust several Indians, who promote regionalism in the name of selection. Mr. Chappel himself had a tough time dealing with persons like Ganguly, who put maximum pressure on fairplay through Bengali politics. This sends shock waves in other regions. A foreign coach would mean equitable policy to all.
RE:Indian Bias
by on Dec 03, 2007 11:22 AM
I am sorry but Greg Chappel and his politics were solely responsible for our pathetic performance in the world cup.Greg Chappel came with single point program that is to make it easy for Australia to win World Cup.When he was appointed coach,India was the only team that could stop Australia from winning the World Cup. Very systematically,he created rift in the team and then got rid of tha charismatic captain Saurav Ganguly , who would not have allowed his plans to succeed.He was a captain who had a mind of his own and would not listen to anybody if it was wrong for the team. Kiran More, all along cooperated with him as , maybe , he did not suspect anything.Thus,it is better that we go for an Indian coach.
RE:Indian Bias
by Janavi Sundaresan on Dec 03, 2007 09:20 PM
Yes. Exactly. He was diabolical. But BCCI has not learned anything from it. They seem to have tremendous skills for India cricket disaster. That greg Chappal is still in India screwing some Rajasthan team.When are Indians going to learn?
RE:Indian Bias
by Reporter on Dec 03, 2007 12:01 PM
The issue is one of Bengali pressure to the detriment of rest of India. It is not correct to say that Ganguly is greater than other Cricketers. If anything, he can not be a part of the team and works for his personal benefits. Also, there are better persons to be a leader than Ganguly.
We need a mature cricketer with a past personal performance, as coach.He needs to guide,offer a shoulder, motivate and discipline the team when required.Hence he needs a personality to carry himself with the team.Indian will ideally suit the job.Sandhu,Sandeep Patil,Chandrakant Pandit come to mind easily.It is difficult digest that after Chappel was thrown out he would get a backdoor entry in Rajasthan,that too thru a BCCI official.Our thinking at the administrative level is poltical and not professional.Unless this attitude changes cricket will suffer.
