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Business News/ News / Business Of Life/  Now, it’s Ravi Shastri’s turn to shake up Team India
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Now, it’s Ravi Shastri’s turn to shake up Team India

Ravi Shastri has been given unprecedented powers over the team for the One Day series. The message is clear

The Indian team at the Oval. Photo: Ian Kington/AFPPremium
The Indian team at the Oval. Photo: Ian Kington/AFP

NEW DELHI :

Ravi Shastri’s appointment as cricket director for the One Day series against England, starting next week, came as a surprise—some would say shock. Does this signal a shake-up in Indian cricket or is this merely sandpapering the current crisis? What exactly is Shastri’s role going to be? And what does this mean for the future of coach Duncan Fletcher and captain M.S. Dhoni?

There has been much speculation, and scepticism, over Shastri’s choice, so let me address that first. Since Shastri has become the ubiquitous troubleshooter for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)—often even in seemingly indefensible situations—there is some legitimacy to doubts about whether his appointment is an eyewash.

I would venture to say it isn’t, for two reasons. Firstly, somebody who is clued into contemporary cricket and understands modern cricket mindsets was a requisite. Offhand I can think of at least three other players, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, who also fit the bill. Willingness apart, immediate availability was also a dire need. Shastri was on hand, and in an emergency kind of situation it seemed logical to go to him.

Secondly, being an “insider", as it were, helps. He knows the BCCI administration well enough to manoeuvre without a hitch even in this short stint. He also knows the current players well and, I dare say, the captain and coach exceedingly well. It helps when the people you are dealing with in such crises don’t see you as a threat.

In my opinion, Shastri’s job is not that of coach. That position requires full-time commitment. Token appearances by even the most highly accomplished cricketers can hardly be productive, as we saw in the recent Test series: Rahul Dravid was made batting consultant, yet the Indian batting flopped dismally.

Purely from personal knowledge of the man over the years, I can see Shastri providing some robust pep talks. He has a positive, never-say-die attitude which can instil self-belief and confidence in the players. He will also be unafraid to spell out the riot act to players who deserve it.

Ravi Shastri. Photo: Ajay Aggarwal/Hindustan Times
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Ravi Shastri. Photo: Ajay Aggarwal/Hindustan Times

The BCCI is hurting very badly at the ignominy of the debacle in the Test series and the groundswell of public opinion against it for several sins of omission and commission over the past few years. The 1-3 defeat in Tests cannot be explained away as one of those things that happen in cricket. After winning the Lord’s Test, India were expected to win the series. Even an upset would have been palatable, for this is not unknown in sport. But the manner of India’s gumption-less, abject surrender has riled everybody. Even within the BCCI, which otherwise functions like some freemasonry, there were open rumblings of concern. Joint secretary Anurag Thakur raised queries about the coach which found resonance among many members.

Some corrective step, therefore, became inevitable. A message had to be sent out. The fact that this move has come in the middle of a tour suggests that something major is brewing perhaps in the way the BCCI is viewing not just the remaining part of this tour but also the future.

It is unprecedented, at least in Indian cricket, for a chief coach to have his wings clipped. Even when Greg Chappell’s relations with the BCCI and Indian team players were at their worst in 2007, the sanctity of his designation and powers was maintained. So, while Fletcher is still chief coach for the ODI series, his two hand-picked assistants, bowling coach Joe Dawes and fielding coach Trevor Penney, have been given a “break".

There is perhaps also a strong indication of how the coaching structure will emerge in the future. Sanjay Bangar has come in as assistant to Fletcher, Bharat Arun is assistant in charge of bowling skills and R. Sridhar, of fielding. While their tenure too is currently limited to the ODI series, it perhaps reflects a shift from the overt dependence on foreigners. But will this also extend to the chief coach?

In the past, it is the Indian players themselves who have insisted on a foreign coach: apart from their touted superior qualifications and work ethic, because they would be “apolitical". But the experience with Fletcher is likely to cause a rethink.

Which brings me to Fletcher’s performance. How much a coach is responsible for a team’s performance is always a contentious debate. The reasonable parameters to rate a coach would be (a) time spent with a team, and (b) progress made in that period of time.

Fletcher has had a reasonably long run but unfortunately the results have not been forthcoming, especially overseas, where his expertise was considered crucial.

What worsens the case against him is the poor fitness levels of Indian players and the terrible fielding display in the Tests. These are areas in which he had cherry-picked assistants. Ultimately, coaches are judged by the balance sheet of results. Fletcher’s shows too many debits, too few credits. As things pan out in sport, when this happens the coach is usually the first casualty.

For instance, Luiz Scolari, Brazil’s football coach, was sacked as soon as his team was beaten by Germany in the world cup semi-finals. In cricket, Andy Flower lost his job as England coach after the 0-5 Ashes rout and Mickey Arthur was unceremoniously sacked as Australia’s coach last year.

Fletcher’s contract runs through till the end of the world cup next year. The moot question is whether the Indian administration wants to run with him that long. He’s had his arms chopped off and is ready to be bumped off, though there is some scope for redemption if India win the ODI series 5-0 or 4-1

And so on to Dhoni. Is there a different yardstick for assessing a captain and a coach?

To rationalize Dhoni’s captaincy can be a daunting task. It’s almost as if there are two different personas at play. In limited-overs cricket he has been a brilliant tactician and matchwinner; in Tests—and especially playing overseas—he has seemed diabolically ineffective.

It’s a truism that a captain is only as good as his team makes him out to be and—as we saw in the recent Test series—if the top order fails to bat even 15-20 overs there is little any captain can do.

Yet it is the sheer consistency of failures in Tests overseas which jars, turns explanations into excuses. Like the coach, a captain too must finally be judged on the balance sheet of wins and defeats.

Dhoni has been captain for six years. Some ups and downs were inevitable in this period since the team was going through a transition. But the much-promised turnaround has not come around even after two years.

Dhoni may save his job despite the recent debacle, but almost by default, for there is nobody else the selectors can turn to right away. That’s not the position somebody who wants to be recognized as the country’s best captain wants to be in.

Ayaz Memon is a senior columnist who writes on sports and other matters.

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Published: 20 Aug 2014, 07:44 PM IST
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