India Need More than Stop Gap Measures

OKHLA, India - Sept. 8, 2014 - PRLog -- Desperate times call for desperate measures. In the absence of acceptable contingency measures, the BCCI risked getting caught with its hand in the cookie jar without looking like it was serious about preserving the last vestige of the sport – Test cricket. Unwilling to take a swipe at the skipper midway through the difficult overseas tour of England, the BCCI did the next best thing it could do under the circumstances – virtually fire the foreign support staff barring the head coach. With mission scapegoat on their mind, the changes coming from BCCI’s quarters did not themselves cause surprise as much as to what they implied. The reality, however, is that more changes should be in the offing if the score line is intended to improve somewhere down the line on future overseas tours.

In a sport where the captain has more bearing than the coach and by that extension, the support staff, the BCCI made the backroom payroll pay for the on field disappointments of team India, although it was not entirely unwarranted. The BCCI stopped short of putting their foot down and in doing so, left the door open for more criticism. Stopping short of firing the current Indian coach, Duncan Fletcher, the BCCI sent his support staff consisting of fielding coach, Trevor Penny, and bowling coach, Joe Dawes, on a brief hiatus while bringing in a slew of stop gap measures for the remainder of India’s tour of England. If this was BCCI’s way of wanting to oust the coach without getting its own hands dirty, it was certainly pointing the way.

Although some would say that this was a classic case of locking the door after the horse has bolted, the BCCI appointed former Indian cricket and commentator, Ravi Shastri, as India’s director of cricket for the forthcoming one day international series against England. With the BCCI spelling out clearly that Shastri would be overseeing the interests of Indian cricket, it is not hard to surmise who the boss is in this picture. While Fletcher would remain coach, Shastri, a well known BCCI loyalist, has been entrusted with the task of not only infusing fresh energy into the weary squad but also, reporting back to the BCCI on the merits of keeping Fletcher on as coach for the remainder of the latter’s contract which runs up to the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2015.

Additionally the BCCI brought in an entirely Indian support staff to replace the duo with former Indian cricketer, Sanjay Bangar, and Bharat Arun as assistant coaches while employing R. Sridhar, associated with the National Cricket Academy, as the fielding coach. Bangar was the Kings XI Punjab coach in the IPL of 2014 after retiring from first class cricket in 2013 and had impressed both, the Indian and foreign cricketers, in the team with his level of involvement, commitment and clearly spelled out ambitions for the team. Arun has been involved with the coaching of India’s under-19 teams and the appointments are being seen as a way to reconnect with the young Indian squad and get a better understanding and perspective on the situation.

While the move to inject Indian support cast to bolster the team may have been seen as expeditious in an attempt to bridge the communication breakdown suspected to have taken place between the foreign coach and the Indian players in the course of the Test series, it would seem rather outrageous that on the face of it, the BCCI officials would go as far as to say that both, Joe Dawes and Trevor Penny, were free to either go back home or go on a holiday at a time when it would have seemed more prudent for them to hang around to exchange notes and  assess the team and the players vis-à-vis their Indian counterparts. If that is not a clear signal that the BCCI is no longer interested in their services, one would not know what is.

While these are certainly interesting moves from the BCCI at a time when it is colluding with other powerful boards to enhance its commercial interests, tinkering with the support staff alone would not get the team over the line on the next overseas tour in a format that has become something of an endangered species. While the BCCI is believed to be reticent about rocking the boat by firing both, the coach and captain, in making these changes, it is not unlike pulling the rug from under the feet of the coach who brought in the support staff in the first place. The changes would suggest that pressure is directly on Duncan Fletcher, who as India’s foreign coach, has struggled to change perception in the public eye that he is little more but an aging figure in the Indian dressing room and whose experience and knowledge as a master tactician has not, by a process of osmosis, converted into results since taking over from Gary Kirsten midway through 2011.

Although Fletcher came highly rated by his predecessor, Kirsten, who enjoyed a great run with the Indian team culminating in the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011, and has been the strength behind the likes of Jacques Kallis and Nasser Hussain and even helping out Rahul Dravid who rates him rather high, Fletcher’s help behind the scenes has been largely invisible and with India’s track record abroad not looking like changing anytime soon, Fletcher would be counting down his days to the next edition of the World Cup, if he manages to survive the duration of his extended contract which seems highly unlikely at this point.

As things stand, this may be an unceremonious booting of a foreign coach who never quite understood the ethos of the Indian cricket culture and furthermore, would find, in hindsight, his inability to connect with the passionate Indian masses may have led them to not being able to weigh and asses his value in the dressing room and fully appreciate his appointment. Against a dominant board and a powerful captain backed up by influence in the board, Fletcher’s uphill battle began almost immediately after an inconsequential tour of Zimbabwe straight into the now infamous tour of England in 2011. It would then seem to come full circle for the former England coach with an unrepentant India facing the consequences for lessons unlearnt, sitting on their laurels after the second Test and underestimating their opponents with Fletcher once more facing the brunt of the brickbats for being the silent, ghost-like shadow in the Indian dressing room.

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