BCCI in the hunt for Team India Cricket Coach

The most successful coaching stint was from Gary Kirsten

By Sunil Sarpal

Coaching Team India is an onerous task for BCCI.  The tenure of Rahul Dravid, Team India Coach, is coming to an end.  BCCI is looking for his replacement.  In the past, some notable contributions as Team India Coach have come from Gary Kirsten, John Wright, and Ravi Shastri.  The most successful coaching stint was from Gary Kirsten.  But for his family commitments, he left Team India even though both BCCI and Indian side did not want to part company.  John Wright was also a success story so was Ravi Shastri.  The credentials of a coach should have man-management skills and recognizing zinks in players and finding solutions to it. 

At the moment, India has in its ranks the world class Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.  Both of them are at the twilight of their illustrious careers.  Coaching such stalwarts is a difficult task for a coach. 

When Anil Kumble was entrusted with the task of coaching Team India, he had differences with Virat Kohli.  This resulted in Kumble’s withdrawal from the coaching job.  There came a phase in India Cricket when Greg Chappel was appointed as India Coach.  During his tenure, Team India’s performance nose-dived because he had differences with the then  India Captain Saurav Ganguly.  BCCI had to remove Greg Chappel to save the team  from the ignominy of  dismissal performance. 

BCCI therefore has to keep all pros and cons in mind for this appointment. 

The names that are  making round for this job are Tom Moody and VVS Laxman.  Tom Moody carries advantage over Laxman because of his previous coaching stint.   

First and foremost, BCCI has to ensure that Team India’s harmony and unity is not affected with the arrival of a new incumbent for this job.  Will the new incumbent prove to be a worthy successor of Rahul Dravid?   Because Team India is blended with both youth and experienced players.  Indian Team is rich with both pace and spin.  India has the batters who can shine in any situation and condition. 

BCCI has to ensure that the coach will take the team forward and not indulge in any ego-related problem.  The coach should be competent enough to understand the requirements of both experienced pro and new and budding cricketers.