Why Guru Gary?

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The trend of hiring a foreign coach is quite prevalent in the sub-continent. The cricket boards of these nations do not show any interest in the cricketing greats from their respective countries. These foreign coaches are not able to gel well with the players because of cultural and traditional differences. What they bring along with them to the dressing room is nothing but confusion!

Moreover, the foreign coaches give more emphasis to workouts at the gymnasium. Weight training is OK to get in shape but not sufficient to achieve the fitness of batting for eight continuous hours. Weights swell the muscles and cramps accrue due to weight training and hence the injuries. The best way to achieve match fitness is to spend six hours in the nets everyday, instead of gym. Batting requires a different fitness level which can be achieved by batting, batting and only batting. Jogging and stretching exercises are much more useful for batsmen and bowlers alike, because these are natural forms of exercise and don’t exert the body too much.

I think what a foreign coach cannot do is get an insight into the team’s psychology. I don’t think Gary Kirsten was a better batsman than K. Srikanth. Had the latter been appointed as a coach he would have won the first battle of striking a chord with the team members, easily. Many people argue that since Australia and South Africa are among the best teams in the world, a coach from these countries will bring similar laurels to the country he coaches. I don’t agree with this. Greg Chappell is a glaring example. A coach does not make a team succeed. He only lays down the strategies for the moves. It is the caliber of the team to make this happen. It is the team which has to execute it on the field. If the team is mentally weak, it accepts defeat even before playing. What can the origin of the poor coach do here?!

A team player is nurtured at the domestic level. Fearlessness, killer instinct, thriving under pressure etc. are the values that are instilled in the domestic arena. A foreign coach cannot instill all these values in a player overnight. So the whole idea of a foreign coach is not acceptable. If Team India is performing well under Lalchand Rajput, Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh then why do we need Guru Gary?

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Filed under Coach, Cricket, Foreign Coaches, India

Tags: India, Coach, Foreign Coach, Gary Kirsten, Greg Chappell