So what if Wright is not Indian? He has done a great job, so he has a right to keep the job. Whether or not Shastri or Sunny can do the job is irrelevant - there is no job opening right now! Why fix something that ain't broke??
We should overcome this prejudice against foreign coaches.
I find comments by Kapil Dev and others disgusting.
Here is a coach (John Wright) who has demonstrated a brilliant knack of bringing a individuals (cricketers) to form a team, something that has always been lacking from the time I have watched the Indian team perform (that is way back when GS Ramchand was captain).
He has been instrumental in putting the edge that it displayed during the World Cup. This by ensuring high level fitness, trained by well trained professionals.
Ensuring injuries are attended to by trained professionals.
Arjuna Ranatunga has strong bias against non Asian cricket professionals. His very many comments in different situations is evidence to it. His rough times during his playing days are perhaps the cause of his mindset. Arjuna I feel is far from objective in assessing John Wright's expertise as coach.
I dont believe India should hire a foreign coach, because BCCI has loads of money and can afford it.
They should hire a foreign coach for all the right reason:
1. He will not be parochial in expressing his opinion
at selection time
2. Most Indian coaches concentrate too narowly on the
job which has led to poor fitness of team members,
frequent chopping and changing the team members
3. Most Indian coaches have lacked people management
skills- making every player when he performs or
not feel good about himself so he can focus on
lifting his game
4. John has put an effective framework in areas of
communication within the team
If I can think of an area where John could be disadvantaged, I think is his position to be upfront with Saurav when he has to tell him what he thinks he should.
***END *****
One question will always remain unanswered in many of Indian cricket fans, did Saurav chose to bowl in the World Cup finals because he was nervous of facing the Australian bowling ? even though we had the best batsman in the world to open the batting ? especially on a fantastic batting pitch.
Did Saurav compromise Indias position due to his own in adequacy ?
RE:John Wright
by SB on Apr 17, 2003 09:49 AM
The message by Mr "Enthusiast" was going too well before he started commenting about Saurav. Come on guys , you can see what change Mr. Wright has brought about to the team , but why do you hesitate to acknowledge Ganguly's contributions. Is this because a certain section of the (foreign) press dubbed him of being arrogant ? Or is this plainly because he hails from a different region that most of you guys are from ? May be his technique is not perfect ( who's apart from dravid's is ? ) but we cant deny that Ganguly has brought about a big change in the attitude of this team. I still recall the match against Sri Lanka in the super sixes, with Sri Lanka on 90-9 and Murali slogging wildly and Nehra just smiling at Murali , he quickly went to the bowler and told him that its not time to have fun , finish this off !! We want this kinda attitude in a captain. He is the only reason why you see youngsters are being the matchwinners for India. People critisized him for keeping Mongia in the team for too long - this reminds me of a time when he was critisized for having faith in Yuvraj ( "Yuvraj is Ganguly's blue-eyed boy" blah blah ) and now everybody is all praise for yuvraj. Is not this ridiculous. Lastly, India opted for fielding since the ball was doing a lot in the first half ( remember Zaheer's first over, only two balls he kept on line , Hayden was beaten hands down ) , We lost the final just because we bowled horribly. Period. It has nothing to do with Ganguly's inadequacy. Please remember he was our best batter in the last tour down under ( with centuries against Aus and Pak ). Its good being a constructive supporter and not a blind one.
Faisal was not talking about individual player coaches, but Team Coaches. A good team coach formulates team goals, strategies, fitness programs, etc. Then he makes sure the plans are diligently executed. Then the results come automatically if the strategies and plans were sound to begin with! Your article went on and on and on about individual great players and how they did not have famous coaches.
Also, the only thing you had to say about Faisal's comments on Vengsarkar was a pathetic "he knows more about cricket than Faisal". That is a very weak defense, Tapan.
Also, what is wrong with 'hiding behind statistics'? Don't you ever quote statistics to prove a point?
More is expected from a seasoned writer like you, Tapan.
a question of foreign coach arises. After all, we should be talking about the best coach - whether he is born in India or outside India is NOT A QUESTION!
I fail to understand the logic some of these so-called great ex-cricketers are using in evaluating, what I believe, is the best thing to have happened to the Indian cricket team.
I hope Dalmiya gets off his chair and offers a nice contract for next 2-4 years...
Whether India re-appoints John Wright as Coach or not and also whether India retains the Physio and the Trainer or not, it must be categorically noted down in terms of pure facts that the current three have done a marvellous job for the Indian cricket team - and I too join Dravid, Sourav and Sachin that the three should be retained.
Coming to former India greats - Gaekwad, Kapil and Vengsarkar and their comments - I must mention with due respect to what they performed for India in their cricket playing days, being Indian is a more a less like a tragedy. We immediately jump into politics and form clicks, groupism, back-biting, stabbing from the back, etc. etc. I am a Mumbai born and bred Maharashtrian and can see only dirty politics - if we continue with the swadeshi coaches.
I fully agree that John Wright has brought in the concept of a "unified Indian team" and I fully understand that Rahul, Sachin and Saurav fully realise this. Come in a swadeshi coach and it's back to square one - Groupism, Stateism, etc. etc.
People from North India are as bad as people from South india - that doesn't mean people from the West Zone are the Best. They could be the worst and Dilip Vengsarkar for one has proved that with his comments. NO doubt he remains one of my very best batsman, rightly called Colonel. His cricketing abilities were better than the Azhars, Ganguly, etc.
I hope the point is driven. Give credit where credit is due. Don't use people and dump them inspite of all their sacrifices they go thro. in their personal life. We have yet to find somebody more simple and down to earth than John Wright.
its purely an opportunistic comment made by our former greats now that sandip patil is back and kenya did make to the semis in the world cup..had this not happened then i doubt anyone would say such a thing..
Sandip patil may have been doing an excellent job in kenya but why is this bought out now when wright 's contract is at an end ?
As far a comparing patil and wright goes..well..i dont think its the same level of pressure with goes with both teams.india may have more talent for patil to coach but then with kenya he could afford to lose games and say they are in a learning process ..in india its a different story. Being a coach is a professional job and not neccasraily the most gifted cricketer need be a coach.
i feel the bcci and our "greats" are just finding reasons not to extend wright's job...
If they really love the game and want to give back to the country..well they could coach ranji teams etc..bring interest to domestic cricket which will improve competetiveness to the domestic level structure...if kapil and gavaskar coach say up and orissa ..wont this make news have more people following and more cricketers at the grass root level learning..just like micheal jordan is trying to do with the washington wizards in us basketball (although unsucessfuly.).?
What was needed was a cultural change, and Wright brought it to the Indian team...lets not think about coaches as foreign or domestic..the man is good, and thats what matters...even Bobby Charlton the Englishman coaches Ireland..so?? Indians maybe the best at Mathematics, and certainly got a lot to learn about management...let me put it this way..Chicken tikka tastes better than Big Mac, but we still go to McDonalds..do the wright thing, stay with Wright..nay, I say, appoint the man for life !!
regarding panix station discussion for Indian team for dhaka, watch out for this thing in future:
Akash chopra is out because of quota system sarandeep is in for quota system
both are from delhi so is mishra (lives), Bangar (lives), sehwag, gambhir.
i believe quota system is not part of team selections: we have all mumbai pace attack of khan, agarkar and salwi with chandigarh trio of harbhajan, mongia, yuvraj. actually these 3 cities balance the remaining billion plus represented by four of patel, ganguly, kale and kaif.
