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Business News/ News / Business Of Life/  The two sides to Duncan Fletcher
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The two sides to Duncan Fletcher

A miserable record in Tests, a healthy one in One Dayers. With the 2015 World Cup nearing, India's coach may just keep his place

Duncan Fletcher (left) with Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Photo: Matthew Lewis/Getty ImagesPremium
Duncan Fletcher (left) with Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Photo: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images

NEW DELHI :

An international coach must be judged by results alone—by and large, that is the yardstick adopted by all teams in international cricket.

If a team keeps winning, coaches continue (like John Buchanan for Australia, 1999-2007, and Andy Flower for England, 2009-13). But if the team fails at the world cup or bites the dust in a major Test series, it is the coaches rather than the captains who often pay the price: Rahul Dravid continued while Greg Chappell had to quit after a disastrous world cup campaign in 2007, Australia’s Michael Clarke continued after a 4-0 drubbing against India and a failed Champions Trophy campaign in England in 2013, while Mickey Arthur was sacked as Australia coach just prior to the Ashes series.

So despite India’s dominant 3-0 thrashing of England in the ongoing One Dayers, the humiliating Test series defeat that preceded it makes coach Duncan Fletcher a popular target.

There is, of course, another school of thought which argues that a coach can do little if the team’s top players misfire repeatedly. Or when the pick of bowlers is not good enough to take 20 wickets in a Test consistently.

“There is a limit to what a coach can do," says former India coach Greg Chappell, who was in India recently with a junior squad from Australia. “In the coaching business, if a team is not winning it’s generally the coach’s fault and if it’s winning it’s (because of) good players. That goes with the territory."

He spent a couple of tumultuous years with the Indian team as national coach.

“What a coach can do best is to make players believe in themselves," he says. “Generally, players don’t lose the talent but they may lose confidence, may lose their way mentally. Being a coach is a little bit like being a parent; you do as much as you can but at the end of the day kids have to learn from them (coaches). What you can do is to create the opportunity."

It is unlikely that Indian fans will share Chappell’s sentiments. An evaluation of numbers alone will show that Fletcher, appointed almost three years ago, is lucky to have survived. During this time, India have won just two Test matches abroad, lost 14 and drawn four. At home, India have lost two Tests, won 11 and drawn two. During the 1990s, India were often ridiculed as “tigers at home, lambs abroad", and it remains true for the Fletcher era.

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was fulsome in his praise when his team whitewashed Australia in a home series last year. “I am especially very happy for him (Fletcher) because he has only seen and spent tough periods with us, especially when it comes to Test cricket. He has seen some good ODI (One Day International) performances but this is the best we have performed under him and we can only improve from here," Dhoni had said in New Delhi in March 2013.

Like Dhoni, the ODI format has come to Fletcher’s rescue consistently. Fletcher had failed to turn England’s ODI fortunes when he was the coach there, but his record with India is healthy. Under him, India have lost just 17 of 44 matches abroad and only eight of 28 at home. Last year, India also won the Champions Trophy in England, a major title.

India also reached the finals of the Twenty20 World Cup this year, yet another high for Fletcher.

Through it all, Dhoni has backed Fletcher. Even after the recent Test series loss to England, which prompted the Board of Control for Cricket in India to take the unprecedented step of appointing Ravi Shastri as “director of cricket"—an obvious move to undermine the coach’s authority—Dhoni stood up for his coach.

“Definitely he will lead us into the world cup," Dhoni said about Fletcher in Bristol, UK, before the ODI series started. “Also, he is still the boss. We have Ravi who will look into everything, but Duncan Fletcher is the boss."

Lalchand Rajput, who has worked as coach with the Indian team, believes Dhoni’s latest statement backing Fletcher is a practical move.

“There is not much time left for the world cup," Rajput says. “We have a home series against the West Indies, which is going to be a cakewalk, and then the real test in Australia, where we are playing a Test series and an ODI triangular just ahead of the mega event. It will not make sense to appoint a new coach who will have little time to understand the team dynamics."

Arthur, a former South African and Australian coach, once said that no matter what the circumstances and results, the captain and the coach needed to be on the same page. “The captain-coach relationship is almost like a marriage and the players are like the children," he said in an interview to the Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph in November 2011. “So if they build conflicts...you’ll get the children misbehaving."

Fletcher has often been hailed for his excellent technical inputs but has been found wanting on the strategy and game-plan fronts. The signs have been evident: Fletcher’s refusal to alter a batting line-up that failed repeatedly on the tour of England and Australia in 2011 is the highlight. Not much seems to have changed in his approach; three years later, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli failed in every innings in the England Test series but were not replaced.

India’s focus has already shifted to the 2015 World Cup, so Tests may not be a priority. This may mean Fletcher will keep his place.

Vimal Kumar is the author of Sachin: Cricketer Of The Century.

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Published: 03 Sep 2014, 07:57 PM IST
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