The Officials of the cricket boards in the sub continent seem to have little faith on Coaches of their Nationality. All the four test-playing nations from this part of the world have foreign coaches. India has Greg Chapell, Pakistan has Bob Woolmer, Sri Lanka has Tom Moody and even the minnows of international cricket Bangladesh have Dave Whatmore as their coach.
These four gentlemen are changing the outlook of cricket in the sub continent. Undoubtedly cricket is like a religion in all the four concerned countries, and the idols of this “CRICKET” religion are star players of each team. The people of this part of the world are more worried regarding their favourite player’s performance, rather than their national team’s performance. This is where the problem lies, with the coaches of the national team. They are not accustomed to this type of situation where the star players get more attention than the national team. None of them have really hesitated from playing an important role in leaving out the star players from the national squad. The condition for a place in the team, to them is very simple, that is performance. That is the way things should go, but unfortunately our cricket lovers are not accustomed to this.
So when they tried to introduce certain reforms in the selection policies of their teams, the fuss that is going on was bound to happen. The cricket lovers of India cannot accept the exclusion of Sourav Ganguly from the Indian national team. I am sure had it been Sachin Tendulkar in place of Sourav, the fans would have gone even wilder. The same is the case with the Pakistani speedster Shoaib Akhtar, who has been in and out of the national team due to different reasons. In Sri Lanka too the same story follows, Sanath Jayasuriya has been excluded from the Sri Lankan test team for the test series in India against India. It is the same story everywhere, which is for the better of cricket. But when you leave out a player who has a large fan following, a section of the cricket lovers will turn against you, and the best way of responding to that is keeping quiet.
Let’s take a look back about these foreign coaches and my mind tells me that Dave Whatmore was the first foreign coach for an Asian team. The cool minded Dave Whatmore, an Australian coached Sri Lanka to its greatest achievement – that of winning the Wills World Cup in 1996. Sri Lanka were the One Day Kings in the mid 90s and they were because of being a great fielding side and a superbly fit outfit besides being a very well planned side for a chase or while setting a target . After Whatmore, they had gone in for Bruce Yardley and John Dyson both Australians and now it’s Tom Moody. Pakistan got its first foreign coach in Englishman Richard Pybus and he was no success as the Pakistan team and its Board couldn’t get the desired output out of him. Interestingly Pybus was one Coach who had just played the one First Class game in his entire career as a cricketer. Take that! For India it was the soft spoken Kiwi John Wright who was appointed in 2000.
It amazed me that the entire concept of having a Coach for a National Team hasn’t always been there in the history of the game. One program on TV, Krishnamachary Srikkanth said that the 1983 World Cup winning side or the World Series winning side in the mid 80s never had a coach and his conclusion was simply that a coach is as good as when the team is winning. Ian Chappel, the Aussie legend had made a statement that Coaches aren’t exactly essential for National Sides. Then what exactly is the role of a Coach? According to Karsan Ghavri, the Mumbai Coach – a Coach’s job at the International level would be to gel all the players together and hold them all together as a unit like one family. Ghavri mentioned in an interview, “that you don’t try to teach Sachin Tendulkar how to bat and all that, you can’t teach Anil Kumble how to bowl, because these are the legends of Indian Cricket, for the International players it is purely pumping motivation and instilling self confidence in the players”.
The Indian team coach Greg Chappell has been hit by controversies all the way so far and Bob Woolmer in Pakistan had to face some wrath with one gentlemen abusing him that he has come to Pakistan only to spoil their cricket. But the results are there to show, Pakistan has done very well in India and now are doing well against England inspite of them coming from a dream Ashes, India has won 8 out of their last 11 games. The best way, to stay out of controversies is to let the captain and the coach manage the team in the best possible methods. If that doesn’t works we can obviously get back to our older methods. The change brought about, by these gentlemen was really a much-needed relief, because at the end of it, it’s the nation, which matters, and not a specific player, and it is for the better of cricket.
So good luck, Mr. Greg Chappell, Mr. Bob Woolmer, Mr. Tom Moody and Mr. Dave Whatmore! We wish the sub continental cricket benefits from your coaching.