Coach's job is more man-management than anything else, says Anshuman Gaekwad

We did not have a coach. We just had managers. Fortunately, managers in those days were cricketers, old cricketers and ex-cricketers with whom we could discuss issues and they could tell us the finer points of the game. Thereafter, when I became coach, managers were all passé, and the coach had to take care of the managers. Managers were appointed tour-by-tour. They did not know what had to be done.

Locally, we had local managers with no professional manager touring with the team. The coach had to do everything. I had to do everything domestically and even overseas. That was the situation then.

When I was coach, fortunately or unfortunately, I had no support staff. I had a doctor who was a physio, not a professional physio. There was nobody else. Just the two of us. I had to take care of the room booking, baggage, etc.

Now everything is ready-made. One click and you get all the details. It has become easier since technology makes it so. It can be explained easily.

Having said that, the value of the coach has been the same. A coach is supposed to be there analysing, scrutinising, dissecting and explaining various aspects of the game to the players and correcting them. We did this manually. Now technology does it. Ultimately, a coach is important because he is going to work with them. Earlier, you had to prepare the food and then eat. Now, the food is ready-made. Still, you have to eat it, right?

With the entry of John (Wright) (in 2000), things changed. Support staff came in and there was no end to it. Now, you have as many support staff as the players in the team.

Had to rent out videos of players

There has been a sea of change. As a coach, you had to do a lot of homework. We did not have laptops, we did not have computers, no videos and things like that. I had to borrow videos of players or rent them out, get tapes recorded and show them to players. I had to write notes during the match, go back to the room, call the players concerned and show them where they were going wrong, what could have been better and all sorts of things.

That was how it went when I was there. After the arrival of John Wright, things have changed drastically.

We were more than a family. Players probably spent more time with me than their families. Then, the wives were not allowed even though it was done very discreetly. We were very close.

We had confidence in each other. Whatever we discussed did not go out of the room. That's where you had emotional sentiments and attachments with each other.

Now it is different.

I know Anil Kumble fairly well. He is very straightforward, very disciplined. I did not have to tell him too many things. I knew what he was. However, I do not know Virat (Kohli) that well. The coach's job is more man-management than anything else. Technical correction, yes. Planning, yes. Keeping a watch, yes.

But how do you get things done? When I was coach, I had the likes of Vinod (Kambli). Most players had played a lot of cricket. There were a lot of celebrities. Sachin (Tendulkar), Sourav (Ganguly), Rahul (Dravid), (VVS) Laxman, (Javagal) Srinath, (Venkatesh) Prasad, Anil (Kumble), Md Azharuddin. They all had played a lot of cricket, more cricket than I had played. It becomes that much difficult to convince them, to get them into confidence.

But, once you do that, it's all yours. That was what happened with me.

Blame it on manager

I was surprised how things fell off as far as Virat and Anil were concerned. Anil, with his experience, gets things organised properly to his liking. Unfortunately, it did not happen when he was the head coach. Anil is basically a strong person, very adamant, he has his own ideas. You can do it as far as you are concerned, but to get it done with the team, you have to do it in a different way. When you have two strong-headed people together, somebody has to step back sometimes.

I personally feel that this (Kumble-Kohli spat) should have been sorted out a long time back. It should have been nipped in the bud. I will put the entire responsibility on the (administrative) manager. He was supposed to keep a watch on what was happening in the dressing room, outside the dressing room, hotel, anywhere. The moment he found something (unpleasant), he should have reported it to the BCCI, which was obviously not done. That was why it went so far that there was no going back. Appointing a manager is very important, not only to give information but to oversee everything and ensure nothing goes wrong.