Yorked!!! – By Chetan Narula.

About time, we had a new coach…

On 4^th April 2007, Greg Chappell resigned from the post of the Indian cricket team’s coach after an embarrassing early exit from the ODI world cup. 190 days later, the Indian team still doesn’t have its new coach selected as yet.

Everybody has witnessed the drama that unfolded since Chappell’s exit. Just for refreshing the memory, Dav Whatmore was supposed to be the favourite to replace the Aussie, but somewhere something went wrong and he wasn’t short listed after the initial round of discussions held by the coach selecting committee. Then, as if pulling rabbits out of the hat, the BCCI invited Graham Ford and John Emburey for an interview. Ford agreed principally only to later refuse, adding yet another mysterious chapter to Indian cricket history.

So finally some sense prevailed and the BCCI then invited applications via advertisement for the coach’s post, the way it is supposed to be done. Some 20 ‘coaches’ have applied, among them being, Chandrakant Pandit, Richard Done, Tim Boon, Kepler Wessels and Martin Crowe. But rumour has it that the Board is unhappy with the ‘lack of quality among the current applicants’, the process is yet to proceed beyond the application stage.

Anyhow, the team went to England without a coach, won the T20 world cup and is now facing the ODI world champions at home without one too, so one can only imagine how long it will actually be before one sees a new face in control of the team. The point is that it needs to be done fast, the selection of the coach that is. Simply, because it will only get tougher for the team in the months to come as first our arch rivals come calling and then the looming tour down-under. But why suddenly does one feel the need for a person-in-charge? The answer follows hence.

There is no doubt that the seniors ought to command deserved respect from the juniors and the juniors should be only too happy to give it, if they are treated well in return as well as given their due. Although the captain has commented about how invaluable the trio of Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly actually is, to the team, the selectors don’t seem to be agreeing whole heartedly. Which, in turn is not surprising, as when was the last time, the selection committee agreed with the Indian captain?

This time, however, it could lead to a fairly more troublesome situation. Clearly, any sensible cricket follower would be foolish to write off the trio just because we won the T20 without them. But that doesn’t mean that they should be playing all possible matches. The time has come in Indian cricket, thankfully, when rotation of players becomes a focal point. And this is where the new coach could be the most useful. With a younger captain asking the seniors to sit out games, even the inconsequential ones, or the selectors wielding their axes, would be in nobody’s interests. Although all three are seasoned campaigners and experienced enough, only a coach can make them understand as well as advice on which matches they should play or, well, skip without hurting any sentiments.

The next point emanates from the point above. Dhoni is a bold captain no doubt, but he’s become one in a very short span in international cricket. He’s been successful in an even shorter span so naturally all eyes are on him. Not only of the Indians’ but the opponents’ as well. What remains to be seen is how he will cope with the pressure as all Indian captains traditionally begin to lose it within a year of ascertaining captaincy. Be it Azhar, Sachin, Dravid or even Dada, all have suffered sooner rather than later. Dhoni’s troubles have already begun as the team trails Australia at home, so the sooner the coach comes to relieve some pressure and responsibility, the better.

Australians are at the pinnacle of not only this sport, but mostly in all the sports they participate in. no wonder the opposition and especially the captain feels tremendous pressure against them. and dhoni is beginning to feel it. A couple of tosses have gone wrong coupled with a few decisions as well. But this is no report card on his captaincy, not yet. The point is that something as important as the batting order hasn’t been sorted out is a cause for concern. Why is dravid scratching around at no.5 or why isn’t dhoni coming in at no.3? why isn’t gambhir opening despite the fact that either of tendulkar or ganguly, are capable enough of dropping down to the middle. Some one needs to be assertive enough to take a stand on this and clearly the team management is currently not upto it.

Then there is the small matter of the overall responsibility of the team, their conduct and their on/off field antics. Venkatesh Prasad and robin singh might be doing a fine job but they are at best support staff. If some one like sreesanth continues with his monkey antics on the field, somebody s got to pull his reigns in at some point or the other. Dropping him is no solution as he has a wonderful bowling brain and we need to rest the overburdened bowlers. In short, this is just another case in point which demands an immediate arrival of a coach.

The overall bone of contention is that as we progress in the season, the pressure on the team is only going to mount. With the success in the tests in England and then in south Africa, maybe the board feels the team could go on a bit longer. But what they fail to understand is that the team is being supported at the moment by the home fans. This will not work in Australia as they will need some one to take off all the steam in pressure cooker like conditions. But even before that against the Pakistanis, even the fans might not be so forgiving if the team meanders at home against them. the Indian public, after all, does have a fickle memory.

The above discussed questions, all need to be answered and quick. Although the team management might be scratching their brains over these issues, it s amply clear that we really need some one who does this twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. He is called the coach.