Now that I’ve got your attention, please bear with me and read till the end. 🙂
HISTORY: FROM MANAGERS TO COACHES
Until the appointment of John Wright in 2000, we only had the concept of a Manager. This practice too began in the 70s, and eventually the role of a Manager morphed into that of a Coach. Since 2000, we have had nine coaches, with Gambhir being the latest. Wright, Fletcher, Chappell, Rajput, Kirsten, Kumble, Shastri and Dravid were his predecessors.
ADVENT OF SPECIALIST COACHES
Around 2010, the concept of specialist coaches for bowling, fielding and batting began, all reporting to the Head Coach. In fact today, the total number of staff that report to the Coach is between 14–16.
APPOINTMENT OF THE COACH
While the initial appointments were informal, BCCI has now formalised the process of appointing the Coach. It issues a call with a clear job description and qualification criteria. You can see the announcement that led to the appointment of Gambhir here.
JOB DESCRIPTION OF THE COACH
In its advertisement, BCCI outlined clearly what it was looking for in a Coach and also made him responsible and accountable for the performance of the team. In other words, the buck stops with him.
Skimming through the job description, one sentence caught my eye:
“To build a structure in place that ensures that all players are developed as cricketers and individuals.”
WE NEED AN ACHARYA
To ensure that all players “develop as individuals” requires the Coach to be an Acharya. In our tradition, an Acharya is someone who embodies what they teach. In other words, the Coach in his earlier career as a player as well as in his current role as a Coach has to walk his talk. Only then will he be an Acharya. In fact, for a Coach to be an Acharya, he need not have been a great player. If you look at the successful managers in football, baseball or basketball, they were not at all the greatest players. While playing records give you the credibility, they do not automatically make you a great Coach. What we need is 50 percent cricketing credibility, 50 percent Life Coaching skills, that is the ability to mentor, support, and train players on how to deal with pressure, success and failures. Train them in values and building mental strength. And this can only be done by an Acharya.
WHY GAMBHIR IS NOT AN ACHARYA
A. 2011 WORLD CUP
Gambhir is a bitter man. He scored 97 in the 2011 World Cup, but the public credited Dhoni for the victory. Since then he has not found closure, and at every available opportunity, he keeps mouthing his bitterness.
An Acharya is never bitter. He would accept the lack of recognition as a life lesson on the ephemeral nature of such recognition.
B. VIRAT & ROHIT
He wears his dislike for Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma on his sleeve. (Where did he disappear when Virat hit his latest century at Ranchi? ). This eventually has led to a situation where two of the all-time greats of Indian cricket did not even get a farewell Test match and had to retire in between a series.
An Acharya sheds their past dislikes and not let them affect their current role.
C. NOT TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
His recent press conference post the white wash against SA reveals that he did not read his job description carefully. The buck does not stop with everyone. It stops with the Coach. However, he kept repeating that everyone is to be blamed.
An Acharya humbly accepts his mistakes.
URGENT NEED FOR A MID-TERM REVIEW
While BCCI professionalised the process by making an announcement for a coach and giving a detailed job description, they did not include that they would be periodic reviews and KPIs. I think the time has come for an urgent mid-term review with him. Also it would be good to actually take anonymous 360-degree feedback from all the staff and the players. This should bring out clearly his strengths and weaknesses as a Coach, especially on mentoring and developing the players as individuals.
LEARNING FROM PULLELA GOPICHAND
Let us come back to Gopichand. I believe he is a Acharya. He believes that medals come when character is strong, and building athletes with strong values matters as much as winning medals. He trains his players to meditate, visualise and build a steady mind before anything else. He works with sports psychologists and works on the mental resilience of the players. For him, everything begins with inner mastery.
Gambhir is not exactly known for the above aspects that Gopichand espouses.
WE NOW HAVE TWO CHOICES
A. Continue with Gambhir but bring on a Acharya like Gopichand who can work on developing the players as individuals. The role of a Coach has already been split before. First, there was one Coach. Then came the batting, bowling and fielding specialist Coaches. We have accepted that one person cannot do everything. Maybe it is time to divide the responsibility of the head Coach to develop cricketers and individuals into two roles and persons.One coach can then focus fully on cricket, tactics and preparation. Another coach can take the responsibility for developing the inner and mental side of the player.
So, the question I raised in the beginning: should we appoint Pullela Gopichand as India’s cricket coach?
You tell me now.
B. Another choice we also have is to sack Gambhir and appoint a coach who has the ability to develop players both as cricketers and as individuals. For this, we need an cricketing coach + an Acharya.
Dhoni, anyone?
Hari’s Curries
A Buffet of Reflections