The "foreign" coach

It was pretty interesting to read that Ajit Wadekar said:

.....it makes no sense having a foreign coach "when you have former players like Patil, Kapil Dev or Sunil Gavaskar, who were great players in their time".

It has been pretty much commonplace for Indian cricketers (especially former coaches) to criticize the idea of foreign coaches, and in some cases the coach himself. Everyone's dug in to the issue and publicized his views, be it Kapil or Anshuman Gaekwad, and now Mr. Wadekar.

Faisal Shariff wrote a brilliant article sometime in 2003, just after Kapil said:

"It is a pity that despite India having coaches of the calibre of Sandeep Patil, we have to import the likes of John Geoffrey Wright."

I am tempted to say that Paaji probably doesnt know English well enough to use words like "pity" and "caliber" in the same sentence, as someone memorably chuckled a few years ago. Agreed, I was a fan of Kapil as a kid (can never forget the trouble he took to get the entire team to sign my autograph book during the India-England test at Bombay in 1993), but he was dumb to wade into the matter.

Another joker who put his foot deep down his mouth and into his oesophagus was Mr. Vengsarkar who said that

"Wright as a coach has not done anything extraordinary, for if one goes through the record books, his performance as a coach is pretty ordinary. Possibly worse than any of the Indian coaches we earlier had.....
...............
on the tour of Zimbabwe last year and during the India-Australia series in India, Chetan Chauhan's contribution to the team was more than that of Wright in terms of handling young players in the team, talking to and guiding the seniors."

Said like a true blue Mumbaikar...(I am partly Mumbaikar, but not the hardcore, Shiv Sena types!). If he were to comment on the relative success of Infosys in the IT sector, he will probably credit (with due apologies to any Infy folks) the butler in Building-1 for making Infy a force to reckon with....but then for all u know, the butler might be slipping in some 'roids/juice into the stuff the peoplez in there drink...(Yes, there are some first-rate clowns in the HR department there..)...

I cant but help think these dudes are insecure about their legacy as Indian coach. Agreed, Wadekar and Gaekwad set up the foundations for the team which did well under Wright's guidance. Sad to say, Kapil was not up to the mark as a coach. A great player doesnt necessarily make a great coach. I dont think Bradman even coached the Aussie team, or if he did, nothing great came out of it!

I'd tend to think that the foreign coach would be a good thing to follow, especially after the success with Wright. Atleast he wont be parochial like some coaches have been, keeping in mind that the coach also plays a role in team selection (yeah, when the 5 bozos sit down to choose the teams for a series).

It's probably a toss-up between Greg Chappell and Tom Moody. Have read a lot more abt Chappell rather than Moody, and he was streets ahead of Moody cricket-career wise...But then Moody might turn out better than Chappell! I had similar misgivings when JW became the Indian coach back in 2000....

Lets see what happens...I suspect Sandy's gonna be the new coach...considering Dalmiya attempted to replace JW some years ago, only to have the players threaten a revolt!

What's buzzin:
Frank Sinatra - Duets....
Miles Davis - a whole lotta songs...he's amazing!
Daily recco/dekko:
Rahul Bhatia has a nice post up on his blog...Made me think...