Is a foreign coach the answer to Indian cricket's problems?

Great players do not necessarily make great captains or good coaches or efficient selectors. On the other hand, ordinary players sometimes turn out to be successful in the other capacities. Mike Brearley was a mediocre player but a shrewd captain. Dav Whatmore played with moderate success for Australia in seven Tests but proved to be an outstanding World Cup winning coach for Sri Lanka. Dutta Ray at best played club cricket but as a selector from the early fifties to the early seventies - and also as chairman of the selection committee in the sixties - he had an unerring eye for spotting out young talent.

More recent examples would seem to augment this view. Duncan Fletcher, never more than an ordinary cricketer for Zimbabwe is now the coach of a suddenly successful England side. Bob Woolmer, an average cricketer who played 19 Tests for England with moderate success, proved to be an outstanding coach for South Africa. On the other hand, West Indies with a think tank of players like Clive Lloyd, Malcolm Marshall, Viv Richards and Roger Harper have found success hard to come by in recent years.

The interesting point to note in these cases is that all the successful coaches are cricketers who played for another country. This is a relevant point right now with there being talk of Indian cricket going in for a foreign coach. Naturally there is resentment in some circles who feel there are enough Indian cricket greats who can fit the bill, so why go in for a foreign coach. The point to be driven home is whether these greats are qualified to be coaches. Representing India in about 100 Tests and having an outstanding record does not mean that the player is qualified to become a good coach. A person in this post should have some eminent qualities, something that has been proved not just in cricket but in other sports as the deeds of immortal personalities like Vince Lombardi and Harry Hopman will testify. Sure, along the way would come along someone like Franz Beckenbaur who was a great player and a successful coach but he would appear to be the exception to the rule.

In India, the position of a full time coach for the national team is still a new entity. For long, Indian teams had only a manager (and a treasurer or second official for touring sides). Sometimes of course the manager was also a former Test player like in the case of Lala Amarnath, Hemu Adhikari, Ghulam Ahmed, Polly Umrigar and S Venkatraghavan. But only in the last decade has there been the concept of a coach or cricket manager, a person who deals purely with cricketing matters and not administrative. Starting from 1990, we have had Bishen Bedi, Abbas Ali Baig, Ajit Wadekar, Sandip Patil, Madan Lal, Anshuman Gaekwad and Kapil Dev. Of these, except for Wadekar who was rather successful and had a fairly long tenure of four years, the others hardly tasted success and their tenures were brief. Gaekwad, who held the post for two years was perhaps partly successful.

With this kind of dismal record, has the time then come for the Board of Control for Cricket in India to enlist the services of a foreign coach? Going by recent events, it looks like all is set for the transition. In the first place a poll on this website a couple of weeks ago on `should the BCCI appoint a non Indian as coach' evoked this response. About 68 percent of those who voted replied in the affirmative. Secondly, the BCCI aware of the fact that probably the time is ripe to appoint a foreign coach, has tackled the issue in all seriousness. In fact in recent times, the field has narrowed down to two - Geoff Marsh of Australia and John Wright of New Zealand. And just the other day, BCCI president AC Muthiah went one step further. While confirming that the two were in the running and that the Board's AGM at Chennai on September 29 and 30 would take a decision on the matter, he also said that the appointment of a foreign coach at this stage would be proper as he would be more well versed with the latest developments in training techniques. He also added that an Indian could be appointed as assistant coach who could take over after some time. How many would agree with him on this last point is of course debatable.

But the board president's comments are at variance with those of re appointed national coach Anshuman Gaekwad. In an interview to a news agency, Gaekwad was of the view that a foreign coach was no kind of solution to India's cricketing problems. ``I don't think it will have much of a difference. When Bobby Simpson was here as consultant coach he taught the same things to the boys that had been done by our coaches before,'' he is quoted to have said.

Notwithstanding criticism in some circles, the way seems clear for a foreign coach to take over. And even if as Gaekwad says it is no solution to Indian cricket's problems, it is worth a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. After all, it could just be that a foreign coach can work wonders with the Indian team, the kind of which the likes of Woolmer, Fletcher and Whatmore have done with other sides. One lives on hope, is it not?