Gone are the days when Indian cricket team didn’t have a coach, a trainer, a physio or any kind of a support staff. But we still won the series against West Indies in 1971 and of course the 1983 World Cup and the series in England in 1986.
As they say, you have to change with the times, if we have to look at the history of world cricket, the only things that have remained the same are the bat, the ball and the stumps. In the nineties, Indian team saw Ajit Wadekar as their first professional coach.
After that many coaches came and many went, but the two most successful ones were John Wright from New Zealand and Gary Kirsten from South Africa. Both of them helped the Indian team gain popularity at the world stage.
Among captain and coach pairs, the one of Azhar and Ajit Wadekar was quite a big hit. After that came Sourav Ganguly and John Wright. MS Dhoni and Kirsten’s partnership also yielded fruitful results and got us our second World Cup triumph.
Now, the pairing of Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri is in charge of the Indian cricket team.
Shastri and my friendship goes a long way back. We have some great memories on and off the field. Be it for our office team, Mumbai Ranji team or the Indian cricket team.
What I like about Ravi from day one is his extraordinary self-belief and his never-say-die attitude. What I don’t like about him is his arrogance at times. But in the today’s professional world people hardly have the time to make people happy.
Ravi was always a focused man and a thinking cricketer. Even with his limited batting and bowling abilities he still managed to become Champion of Champions in 1985. He was never an attractive player but an effective one which ultimately matters when it comes to rank oneself.
Ravi Always Had the Guts to Face Reality & Challenge the Odds
In his later cricketing days, he fought a great battle challenging spectators and winning a game at the end with his performance. Every cricketer has good days and bad days. Every cricketer has ups and downs. One should have guts to face reality. Starting as a tailender and finishing as competitive opener, shows the real character of Ravi Shastri. After retiring from cricket he used to bore us more with his commentary efforts on his tape recorder. But as I said earlier, once he decides to do something he goes deep into it and tries his best to ace it. In the last two decades everyone has seen him becoming a champion commentator.
Ravi Shastri’s Real Acid Test Starts Now
In my view, Ravi’s real acid test has just begun. He has put his cricketing shoes back again but in the capacity of the coach of the current Indian team. In my observation, Ravi can offer a lot with his vast experience and knowledge about the game, the current crop of cricketers and about world cricket.
So far he has been the darling of Indian captain Virat Kohli and the current team. And I sincerely hope he continues to be. Cricket is a very cruel game. You can be the hero on one day and a zero the very next day.
I have been in the coach’s shoes for 22 long years, handling different national teams. You need lot of patience and learn player management. Before disciplining a player, you need to discipline yourself. The Indian team’s record is always excellent at home, but really poor overseas.
The question remains: Can Ravi change this on the challenging England tour?
Ravi Has Always Been Overconfident
As an ex-coach myself, I can say that a coach’s job is restricted to the boundary line. He can plan a strategy, give new ideas, give confidence, give advice, conduct net sessions, discuss other subjects but what ultimately matters is the performance of the team in the centre.
Ravi has always been a sort of overconfident guy, but that is not a bad thing in the game of cricket. He has won many battles against bowlers on the field and against media off the field. He has also got a gift of the gab, that’s why expectations are very high from him to deliver in the next six months, including this England series where we are already trailing by one match.
In the next six months, series are lined up for the Indian team, both in India and overseas. These will be followed by the World Cup, which is also hardly ten months away. One cannot win by making positive comments, one has to perform as well.
And all eyes would be on coach Ravi Shastri, who’d be expected to deliver big.