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Sharendian cricket is on a new high, just the right concoction of the old and the new. Under Dhoni, who has proved himself as an effective captain, India have been crowned the World champions in the twenty20. On the other hand, Anil Kumble has brought his sheer experience into play and has been able to outclass Pakistan in the first Test.
The team seems to be jelling well together. But guess what? At this juncture, Indians order the ideal party pooper -- a foreign coach!
Reports of South African Kirsten joining as a coach indicates that the BCCI is still excited about the prospect of a foreign coach. This is in a way, akin to buying your wife a 2 million dollar aircraft for her birthday. The BCCI -- God bless them! -- seem to be going overboard while playing out the rich man's fantasy. While in the case of the rich billionaire, he has the personal wealth to do so, the BCCI, one would like to think, is, or has to be, more accountable. Its decisions should be well thought out. Not the "middle-of-night" operations that look like a secret corporate take over!
Firstly, how well-thought out is this decision? Haven't there been enough controversies already? The BCCI does not have to look around. It has to learn from the experiences with Greg Chappell. The Chappell controversy has hardly died down. It is clear from his recent interviews that somehow Greg -- otherwise a fine human being -- found it difficult to deal with the "subcontinent culture."
Of course, Greg being Greg, makes no bones about his views. Moreover, a lot of people believe that he single-handedly destroyed the Indian side so passionately built by Sourav Ganguly, who till date remains the most successful Indian captain. But for the inherent strength of the Indian side, it would have taken years to come out of the chaos and interlaced anarchy. But it did, within months, and that too, without the help of a foreign coach. In a way, Greg is right. There is a "subcontinent culture", which a foreign coach would never get used to.
If I look at nearer home, my Pakistan team is functioning under a foreign coach. For the moment, the foreign coach becomes a whipping boy and a scapegoat for those who have to defend Shoaib Mallik's inept performance both as a Captain and as a batsman.
Whether Lawson has contributed anything or not will not be known. I, for one, feel that either Lawson has not been talking to the boys or they are not listening to him. And when the knives in Pakistan are out, there would be the odd media leak as had happened in the Greg-Sourav controversy. We have had Woolmer, another great human being, but it was well known that Inzy and Bob never got along well. In Woolmer's case, it was more than obvious that he just did not like the "subcontinent culture" that Greg has been talking about.
Part of the reason why this so called "mystery death" was played up is because of the tension between the team and Woolmer. Everyone from Day One knew it was a simple accident. A foreign coach thus becomes a handling exercise for everyone; for the captain, for the Board and if you have a loose-tongued coach like Chappell, your time is mostly spent in fending him away from the media.
My first question is does India really need a foreign coach at this stage? The second is a more basic one. What does the coach really do? I didn't require a foreign coach and neither did Sunny or Ravi Shastri.
I think they have done well without a coach. In any case, if a coach has to teach them basics about cricket, you already have a fielding and a bowling coach. And which player requires basic lectures on techniques? Mahendra Singh Dhoni's form of cricket is its own brand of cricket. Some of his cricketing shots are not from any textbook.
