In praise of the coach

In modern-day cricket, a team without a coach is like a rudderless ship. Some purists may ridicule the concept, but the game has progressed in such a manner that the captain would be better off with some off-field help. Strategising has always been an important part of cricket, but in this cutting-edge era, its importance can hardly be overstated.

If you see a coach working with a player - laptop for company - and wearing a hassled look, it’s because he is trying to work around a problem. Tackling it head-on is impossible because the players have developed set patterns in their younger days. If not taught the right things at a young age, players get into bad habits. A lot of time and opportunities are lost if the coach at the higher level has to undo all that and teach them anew. That’s what makes the role of a player’s first coach critical.

A coach at the junior level has to play other roles too. It's not just about batting, bowling and fielding - it's about understanding the player. India is a vast country; players come from different regions and backgrounds. Different players have different sensitivities and the coach has to be flexible. A coach needs to understand what really influences the player's motivation. Some players come from a poor background and can't even buy their kit. It's the duty of the coach to make sure they don't feel out of place.

When we started playing cricket, we used to work with Achrekar sir [Ramakant Achrekar]. He used to treat the players as his own children. His principle was simple: the more cricket we played, the more we would learn. And he would go out of his way to help players achieve that motive. I remember that for [junior level] matches, he would take me with him on his scooter and drive me all the way from Shivaji Park to Cross Maidan [more than 10 km] and back.

The common bond was the enjoyment. We enjoyed playing cricket under him and he enjoyed coaching us. That factor is sometimes missing nowadays - because coaching has become more about high elbow, proper technique and biomechanics, etc. We need to retain the enjoyment factor at the young age because the real pressures are yet to follow at that time.

The role of a coach at the Ranji Trophy level is different although a thorough knowledge of the game is essential here too. The player who has made it to a Ranji side does not need that much work on the technical side. Here the coach has to be a good man-manager and a tactician. The Ranji sides are a mix of players with different interests. There are youngsters making first-class debuts, there are veterans and there are players on the verge of national selection. So apart from managing the technical side, a coach has to get the diverse players to play as one unit.

A Ranji coach has to be a good communicator. I have worked with Frank Tyson for a long time, and having worked with him has helped me realise the importance of communicating well with the players.

A Ranji team's coach is also a master tactician. The Ranji season is a long one, during which a team goes through many ups and downs; some teams completely transform during a season. So there is a major role that a coach plays. There has to be an overall pre-season plan, and plans for every match, which have to be very flexible. The coach in that capacity plays a bigger role than at the international level, because it is easy in domestic matches to send a message across if the things are not going well on the field. During international matches, you can see the coach intervene maximum once or twice because once on the field, it's a captain's game.

With the advent of the video analysis and other technological advancements, coaching has changed a lot. The laptop is not just one fashionable accessory, but something that can be of great help if used properly. The idea is to find out the shortcoming with a player, sit with him and show him what is going wrong, and then find a solution. That is where technology can help because, for example, if you have the backing data, it is easy to convince a bowler he has been bowling too much on the short side.

There was a time when the coach at the Ranji Trophy level would just oversee a training session and give a pep talk before the start of the match. But the role of the coach has undergone a massive change over the years. A good coach, nowadays, especially at the Ranji level, can be the difference between a winning and a losing side.