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The role of a cricket coach is most underrated and also most overrated at the same time by the fans.
Recently I was watching a talk show where this topic was discussed extensively. The panel on the show were Brian Lara, Sir Vivian Richards and Ian Chappell.
All three of them legends of the game and they unanimously agreed that coaches are at the international level should basically be good man managers.
They also mentioned that the name “Coach” should be changed to something more relevant.
Even though that kind of simplifies the role, I think there is some merit to that line of thinking.
Sourav Ganguly recently on another TV show brought up an interesting point. India toured Ireland and England in 2007 without a coach.
The Indian team manager for that tour was Chandu Borde who was already 72 years old at that time. India went on to win both the series, first against South Africa in Ireland, followed by a Test series win in England.
The Indian team was experienced and contained players of the calibre of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Kumble and Zaheer Khan.
The team was full of legends and the role of the coach here would have been just to help to manage and help the captain with the strategy for the games.
Coaching in the international level does not exist. If a player needs coaching at the international level, he should not be there in the first place.
So would it be more appropriate to call them consultant or Advisor or Strategist instead? Probably yes, but again I am not sure what the position is called is that important compared to having a clear understanding of the role.
There are lots of fans who blame the coach for the poor performance of the batsmen or the bowlers but again the role of an international coach is not to teach players to bowl or bat.
That level of coaching is done at the grassroots level and should stay there. Once the player is representing his country, he is expected to do the basics right.
If he is not, the coaches at the preliminary levels need to questioned.
This does not mean that coaches are not needed at the international level. An international team can be full of legends but they need a good manager and also someone who helps the captain strategize ahead of the game.
A manager/coach is extremely important in a professional setup and cannot be completely ignored. You can never understate the role of coaches like Dave Whatmore, Bob Woolmer and Gary Kirsten and their contributions to their respective teams during their tenure.
Managing a team full of legends is very important in cricket and all the above coaches did that. Gary Kirsten helped India to a world cup win and achieve No.1 rankings in Test cricket. I don’t think Gary ever had to teach Sachin Tendulkar how to bat or Zaheer and Kumble how to bowl.
The success of these coaches was to effectively manage the teams they were involved in and offer support to their respective team captains.
Dave Whatmore converted the Sri Lankan team into world beaters. Bob Woolmer managed a mercurial Pakistan team full of legends effectively which none of his successors were able to do.
All the above coaches I mentioned understood their role and their boundaries. A coach’s role should never interfere with that of the captain and a coach should never have a say in what the captain does on the field.
The cricket coach role is no different that coaches at any other sport. A player at the international level cannot be coached and that should not be in the national coach’s job description.
The link to my original article
Roger Federer decided to give French Open a miss this year. Not only did he missed the Open, he missed the entire clay season in order to concentrate on Wimbledon.
Federer earlier this year won the Australian Open, his first Grand Slam in five years and to do it by beating Nadal in the finals was phenomenal. Federer is a great champion and the current record holder with most Grand Slam singles title in men’s tennis.
Federer is currently 35 years old and possibly has a year or two left at the top level, so it is prudent that he decided to pick his battles.
This is not something new in professional sports. In cricket there are players who during the back end of their careers decided to skip one format over the other to prolong their careers.
There is nothing wrong with that. Sportsmen have very uncertain and short careers and them wanting to make most of their time is something which needs to be respected.
Federer won the French Open in 2009 on clay, a surface where is he not very comfortable playing. It is harder to play on clay when you get older.
Unlike grass courts and hard courts, clay isn’t a quick surface. Players need to have lots of stamina and the ability to engage in long baseline exchanges. Also unlike on synthetic and grass courts, you don’t get too many free points on clay.
Competing against young players on clay can be very taxing and can take a lot out of you. I am not saying that Federer would not have won the title – he may well have – but again that’s the chance he has taken.
It can be really hard for someone who has been struggling with injuries over the past year or so to ignore the fact that he isn’t young anymore.
Federer is arguably the greatest tennis player in history of the game and he has practically achieved everything a professional tennis player could achieve in the game.
He has also said that he is not aiming for number one ranking anymore which means that he need not play all the tournaments for points either.
Grass courts have always been Federer’s best surface and he has seven Wimbledon titles. He wants to be fit and ready for the championship and that’s something which is a personal decision. Only the player knows his body and what he can or cannot do at a particular time in his career.
Federer’s decision needs to be respected and there is no reason to question it. He is a great player and I am really looking forward to couple more Grand Slam titles from him before he calls it a day.
Wimbledon and the US Open gives him the best chance of adding to his 18 titles than the French open does. So Federer deciding to miss the clay season may not have been a bad idea and as Andy Roddick put it, it was smart from the champion.
My article published on The Roar
England are the only team among the top eight test-playing nations to not have a 50-over title to their name.
England for a long time did not take ODI cricket seriously. Their style of play and their strategies were outdated and they struggled to compete in the modern game. For years they failed to recognise that as a problem until yet another poor performance in the World Cup 2015 gave them the jolt they needed.
England realised that they were way behind the rest of the world in the shorter format, and so they’ve changed their ODI team and their approach towards the shorter format. England now have an explosive ODI team. They finally have a team that can break the jinx of not having a 50-over trophy.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
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Now that IPL is out of the way, focus shifts to the 2017 Champions Trophy, kicking off on June 1 at The Oval, where the hosts take on Bangladesh.
Australia have won the tournament twice and are one of the favourites to lift the trophy. Most Australian players were involved in the two-month-long IPL and have just few days to recuperate before they play their first warm-up game, against the Sri Lankans.
Read the full article at The Roar
An emotional goodbye
Posted on: May 15, 2017
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I still remember the day I landed in the US for the first time. It was January 5th night and there had been heavy snow in Pennsylvania. My international student advisor along with another student whom I had contacted through students association had come to pick me up. I was 22 years old and had never lived away from my parents for more than a month. I was confused, scared and was thousands of miles away from my family.
I did not know to cook, did not know how to manage finances and basically was unfit to stay alone at that time. To top it all, one of my luggage did not make it through on time. That suitcase was the one which had all the food and I was basically afraid of how I was going to manage. I still remember the night I landed and I did not even know how to call my parents to inform them of my safe arrival. The guy who came to pick me up wasn’t very helpful in telling me how to make a call. Mind you this was in 2003, calling to India was still not easy or cheap that it is today. So I just went to sleep without knowing how to inform my parents.
Thankfully my parents called the college and got to know that I had safely arrived. I was lucky that I had my cousins in the US already and they helped me out with the initial calling cards to India. Everyday from the morning after was a learning experience. From learning to cook to managing my own bank account I was Fast tracked to independent living. Even though it was difficult at the start it progressively got easier.
The college life was excellent, I met some wonderful people and I am still in touch with some of them. The 2 years I spent at the university taught me a lot and made me confident of taking care of myself. Once I graduated I did have few months of struggle but I did find a job which I held to the last day I was in the US.
The overall experience in the US was brilliant. The country gave me a lot and I loved every minute of it. I got married when I was in the US. My wife and I travelled a lot and saw lots of beautiful places. We had our first child while we were in the US. Lots of amazing friends and people, the memories would be etched in my mind forever.
It was really sad when I had to leave the country which I called home for 14 years. It was a really hard decision to take. I guess I had reached that tipping point when it did not make sense anymore to continue waiting. It was hard to make that call but I feel it was the right one. 14 years is a long time in a person’s life and I was not getting any younger. America gave me a lot, it was wonderful experience and I enjoyed every bit of it but unfortunately the law makers are stuck in the stone ages.
Things happened too fast and I along with my family moved out at a breakneck speed. It never sank in as I did not even have time to say goodbye to people I know properly. It was good in a way that it happened so fast. The only regret I had was when I moved out of my home where my wife and I stayed for 5 years. The home where my wife and I experienced lots of highs and quite a bit of lows. The home where my wife and I spent hours together talking, watching movies and cooking. It was an emotional moment when I left the keys at the counter and locked the door for one last time.
There is no regret and I would do it all over again in a heart beat. I had wonderful 14 years and I leave with no regrets. Thanks US for everything you gave me and this post was a long time coming. I have moved on to a new country and new life but I carry with me wonderful memories. Bye Bye US, thanks for everything.
girisopinion
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