The Coach Job & the Captaincy Conundrum

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 00:58:38 +0530

It would be really sad if Greg Chappell doesn't continue as the Indian coach after World Cup (and this is most likely gonna be true).

For once, we have (had?) a coach who's only criteria for team selection is performance & merit. For once, we've a coach who, in addition to amazing cricketing knowledge, also knows a thing or two about team-building, leadership, the mental aspect of the game & such. For once, we've a coach who can really take Indian Cricket & Indian team forward and make it a tough, consistent, winning unit.

As far as the captaincy goes, Rahul Dravid will have to take the responsibility for the World Cup failure (and he's willing to). Somewhere along the last 6 to 8 months, we lost our way in terms of the kind of squad we should've & the brand of cricket we play. The focus shifted from fielding abilities, form & fitness and that shows in the team selection. Dravid (and other seniors of the team - Sachin, Sehwag, Kumble, Ganguly?) lost the plot or succumbed to external pressures or both.

I remember Chappell saying ( a long time ago) that the best fielding teams are the ones that'll do well at the World Cup. And I believe if he had his way, our World Cup squad would've been much different. Hence, I believe he shouldn't have to share the blame for this one as much as Dravid (and other seniors) should.

Having said that, going back to Sourav or Sachin for captaincy would be a huge mistake. They're not in the right frame of mind to be a captain. Given the way Sachin has been playing (he's my GOD .. make no mistake about that), he should stay away from captaincy & focus on becoming an effective/high-impact player he once was. It really aches my heart to see Sachin coming in at No. 4 at the fall of couple of quick wickets & getting bogged down instead of playing positive, aggressive cricket that he's capable of. Ideally, he should have been our Arvinda De Silva in this World Cup. He surely needs to sort out what his role is & how he wants to play his game from here on. The way he's approaching the game right now is just not acceptable.

None of the younger/next-gen players have enough experience or form to become the captain ... except Yuvraj (and he's probably never ever been a captain at any level ... so he'll take wayy too long to learn).

Given this scenario, I feel Rahul Dravid should stay on as the captain & Chappell as the coach. Dravid surely has learnt his lessons from this World Cup debacle & he would NOW surely know where his priorities should be (namely a squad picked on form & fitness & fielding skills... not reptuation & 'talent').

Kaif should be brought back into the mix (his fielding & captaincy credentials are good ... and quite frankly he got a raw deal this World Cup).

Dravid should continue captaining for a year or two and we should search for captaincy-material players outside the current squad (while keeping an eye on how Kaif, Yuvraj develop). Pathan & Sehwag could only be considered if they sort their cricket out first & get back to form.

Introduction

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 00:35:28 +0530

Words that describe me: optimist, non-conformist, ambitious, logical, curious.

I love oceans & beaches, reading, cricket (of course), ballroom dancing (Waltz, Tango, Chacha, Salsa & more ), strategy games, software design & programming, traveling and much more.

I am not that much of a blogger but I do like to post something from time to time on random topics & sometimes on day-to-day events. Lets see how this goes.

Diary of Jigish Patel

The Coach Job & the Captaincy Conundrum

Introduction