Couched in secrecy — coaches for bowlers and fielders?
By Veturi Srivatsa, IANSWednesday, January 6, 2010
In cricket, fielding alone is something which comes naturally to some players. Basics like footwork, pick up and a quick throw of the ball are in-born to them. And they train hard to attain excellence. Good fielders will never need coaching as they know the man who’s to train them learnt it all by himself and so can they.
Of course, there are those who need to be fine tuned in the basics since they come to know of the importance of alertness on the field only after entering the Indian dressing room.
Yet, all top cricket-playing teams have specialist coaches, crowding the dressing room with increasing support staff. At this rate the day is not far off when the support staff start churning out best-sellers with titillating dressing-room tales.
Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf has an interesting take on the fielding coach. He says there is nothing a player can do even with a coach, except taking more and more catches at practice. He cited the example of Pakistan hiring that great South African fielder Jonty Rhodes before their 2008 England tour and yet dropping 20 catches during the series! But his Indian counterpart Mahendra Singh Dhoni differs with him and says his players need a fielding as well as a bowling coach.
It is close to three months since the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sacked fielding coach Robin Singh along with bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad without assigning any reason. Perhaps, that explains why the board did not get into formal written agreements with the two.
Whose decision was it to sack the two coaches? The media footnote absolves coach Gary Kirsten and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni of playing any part in the decision-making. It is hard to believe that they are innocent.
The Board secretary issued a terse statement on the sack, but without any explanation: “The BCCI has decided to discontinue the services of bowling coach Mr Venkatesh Prasad and fielding coach Mr Robin Singh, with immediate effect.”
The Board wants people to believe that the two former India players have been dumped for the team’s dismal showing in the World Twenty20 Championship and the Champions Trophy. But it is widely believed that one of the coaches has invited Kirsten’s wrath for breaking the unwritten dressing room code of keeping things within the four walls by indulging in backbiting and hobnobbing with media.
In this country no coach is sacked without the tacit approval of the captain and senior cricketers. No coach has survived by displeasing senior players who go straight to the Board chief seeking his removal. Practically every coach, barring perhaps John Wright, was shown the door for annoying the ‘khalifas’ in the team.
Dhoni’s carefully worded statement before leaving for Bangladesh makes it clear that the team badly needs specialist coaches. He, however, has not minced words when he said the team is missing the bowling and fielding coaches and that Kirsten’s workload has immensely increased in their absence.
Prasad and Robin were in their jobs for just over two years, from the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 success. They have seen the team rise up in the rankings with a home Test series win over Australia and victory in the last ever triangular ODI series in Australia.
If anything, both bowling and fielding have deteriorated steadily since their departure. The number of catches spilled during the recent Test and one-day series against Sri Lanka in particular and before that in the one-dayers against Australia was not funny at all. The state of fast bowlers is as bad. They are either injured or losing form, bowling far below their known pace.
Dhoni and his senior colleagues, who have an opinion about pitches at Kotla and Motera to parroting what a great player Sachin Tendulkar is, went into a conspiratorial silence on the sacking of the two coaches.
Some of these worthies, who grant interviews only to a chosen few before and after every series to show that the media is at their beck and call, tell the not-so-privileged journos that their contractual obligation with the board prevents them from talking to media!
Soon after getting the green signal from Dhoni, the board spokesman announced that the process to find the right men to assist Kirsten has been initiated.
Now who do they want as bowling and fielding coaches? For them Indians are no good and are indeed dangerous because they can be eyes and ears of certain influential Board officials and, worse, of the media. To make things easier for the team management, all foreign coaches want the support staff of their choice. Greg Chappell had his way and now Kirsten is slowly gaining the stranglehold.
Their choice for bowling coach has been narrowed down to two of Kirsten’s former South African teammates, Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock, having already roped in American-born former baseball coach Mike Young as fielding consultant for the Sri Lankan series. The credentials of these gentlemen are impeccable, no doubt, but the people who recommended them are more powerful.
Kirsten’s favourite appears to be Donald who has helped Shantakumaran Sreesanth to be back on his bowling feet at Edgbaston during the Kerala medium-pacer’s stint with English county Warwickshire. Could Pollock’s name have come into consideration from his Indian premier League captain Sachin Tendulkar, like Wright’s came from Rahul Dravid when the two were there at Kent?
Now that the India captain says Kirsten has learnt to find his ropes in the Indian dressing room, it is anybody’s guess how he will find the right bowling coach.
(06-01-2010 - Veturi Srivatsa is sports editor of IANS. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at v.srivatsa@ians.in)
