As I write this, India are in the midst of another grand choke on the cricket field. A scintillating start by Sehwag thrown away by the remaining batsmen, India are staring at a sure defeat stranded at 145 for 6. The skipper is still out there, but surely, even he can’t get India out of the sink now!
This made me cast my mind back to the One-day victory in Australia, and in particular, I was thinking of the team composition. There are two big differences. One, quite notably, is the absence of Sachin, a factor that the team should have learnt to cope with by now. But, this post is about the significant other. The presence of a foreign coach. To put it bluntly, do we need Gary Kirsten, or for that matter, any foreign coach, at all?
Look at the bare facts. Without a “head coach”, the team performed well in England, won the T20 World Cup and did themselves proud down under. And these feats span all three versions of the game, the feast, the supper and the snack! The think-tank of Prasad, Robin and Lalchand Rajput proved themselves to be more than adequate. Then, BCCI chose to do what they always do. Ignore common sense and reason to throw the board’s riches on a totally unworthy aspect. Surely, we should have learnt something from the Greg Chappell disaster? But No! We just did not!
What has Gary Kirsten added to the team? Why, he has not even helped the left-handed batsmen with their technique. Gambhir and Raina seem to come up short in the finals and key games. Otherwise, yes, they are promising. But it’s that other perenially promising guy who just leaves you exasperated!
Yuvraj appears more keen on maintaining his brand equity than going beyond his shoddy performances in key games. It’s been six months since he played Stuart Broad. But the media and the marketing agencies ensure that the fame has not got out of that bloated head of his. In the midst of all that, there was the IPL tamasha as well, which I also believe is another major factor in this defeat.
All the Indian batsmen were guilty of getting out to poor shots. They were still stuck in the T20 loop. Raina and Gambhir had big knocks, no doubt. But those came on flat pitches against weak bowling attacks. All they had to face was some quality in the bowling and the technique of these Indian ‘stars’ was exposed. Clearly, this is a problem we are going to see more of in the future. T20 is definitely going to affect the technique of batsmen in the game overall.
But I digress. Has Gary Kirsten done anything that Lalchand Rajput could not have? Or for that matter, we have a bowling coach and a fielding coach. Why a head coach? As a great opening batsman in his country, Kirsten came with good credentials as a cricketer. But again, he had never coached a cricket side and was only the head of a cricket training academy in South Africa. Even then, his previous experience means that he should help the Indian cricketers iron out the flaws in their game. I need not spell this out, but here it is. If anything at all, in the first few days at the helm, Kirsten has not been anything more than ineffective!
This is not meant to be an attack on Kirsten. It really isn’t. It is actually an avenue for me to vent my frustrations against BCCI. They have only been concerned with making money and them starting a new league to, well, make some more money. In the bargain, let us hope Indian cricket does not go down the drain, a la English football. Will the BCCI ever change its ways?
Well, a few more defeats and Gary Kirsten will be sacked. We will have a new coach, I mean a foreign one of course, in hs stead, but will we win in 2011?
Dhoni wants the victory. Sachin seems to be conserving himself for the big tournament. He has played enough cricket and won many awards. But what he lacks is that main international victory. And undoubtedly, Sachin knows this very well. Peter Roebuck tipped India as the next world champions as “India is the sleeping tiger that has just begun to wake up”.
Well, the tiger called Indian cricket seems to roar loudly once in a while, but the bigger tiger, or elephant, I should say, the BCCI, seems to be competing with Rip Van Winkle. Only when this changes, will Indian cricket really make huge strides!
Vagrant Vishes 
It is pathetic that we dont have the cutting edge to grab the victory when it matters the most. In the league games, we overwhelm mighty opposition to give way to the same in the more important games. The Indian team is like a tiger in the zoo. In front of frightened crowds behind bars, its the king of the world. But when it is tested by the zoo keeper, it is nothing but an oversized pussy cat.
I have heard that bribery brandishes its filthy self during the selection process. Sadly, it is the severe lack of nationalism and love for one’s nation that strangles us Indians everywhere.