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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.

Well...Warney himself needed a lot of coaching and as he did not agree with Buchanan's method he was critical of him... however he was okay with his mentor teaching him how to play. So in the final analysis there was someone who coached Warne, who told him what was wrong with the way he was bowling and who helped him keep fit... just because someone is an international cricketer does not mean that he would be able to iron out all his deficiencies... He needs someone who can point out what is wrong with the way he is playing, sit with him and analyse his past performance and present performance and help him keeping his motivation high. All those who say coaches do not matter are the ones who do not wish to change with time. And before someone points out that India won the T20 without a coach, I would suggest that one needs to look at the long term and not just the short term. It was evident how India struggled with their strategy against Australia. And the pressure that the captain is under when the side is not performing well. He not only has to field the media, but also work out a strategy, figure out what is wrong with players out of form, and also instill discipline within the team. All this over a suatained period of time can cause player burn out and that is where Australia have been successful by putting up a support system which helps the players concentrate on their game, and have professionals who take care of the player issues, motivation and field questions and criticism from the media.

I read your article with interest but I can't understand why a lot of Indian batsmen come into International cricket unable to move their feet properly. Surely this would have been found out in Ranji matches and also by the coaches? It looks silly when the batsmen make the same mistakes over and over again. Especially as their weaknesses become so well publicised that even the commentators know of them in detail.

Equally, the bowlers are too fragile. They look weak conmpared to pace bowlers from other countries. Surely someone must realise that to bowl at 90 mph requires a fair degree of brute strength in the early days and you then grow into having better control.

As for an International olayer not needing a coach, nearly every tennis player in the top 100 has a coach .. why are they wasting their money? Warne may not have needed a coach towards the end of his career but he certainly did at the start and for some time after he got into the Australian side. A good coach not only gets your head right but is able to get the best out of the player.

Greetings!

Paras - Your article “In Praise of the Coach” on CricInfo.com blogs was very thought provoking.

I would like to bring out path breaking points which we across in that article, which are -

1] “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.”

The above-mentioned point is very true, because it reflects the first paragraph where you mention that a team without coach is like a rudderless ship.

Life is similar to that, without a goal, even the best of efforts can go down the drain. A coach is a veteran of a sort having seen and experienced things from close quarters and can make custom changes for players.

2] “…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.”

This is very true for they say, “When in France, be like the French”. There cannot be “One size fits all.” solution here, especially when cricketers from small towns want to make a point to their big city counterparts.

Somebody might be good at bowling, some at batting. Poor or Rich, Could be physicially unfit or mentally or otherwise. Personalities rule supreme here and that was very much evident in the Ganguly-Chappell case.

This becomes very important when parents want their children to be a Ganguly or Dravid or Sachin. Communication can’t be made a casualty here.

3] 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.

Knowledge like power increases greatly when shared with others. There is always room for improvement and the advent of computers and technology as highlighted by you is indeed a laudable effort by our coaches. A little guidance or tip here or there will make a great difference in the game, whether it is batting technique - stance/ grip or just the delivery of a bowl or holding the seam for a bowler.

This not only helps the cricketers do a SWOT analysis of themselves, but also helps in team building efforts wherein the team knows what they have to accomplish and how they are going about it.

I appreciate this article and keep it coming….. and hope today’s young cricketers get an excess to such articles.

Paras – All the very best. Baroda is lucky to have you on Board – Snehal Parikh…..

I think the basic difference between coaching an international side and a domestic side, at least in India, lies in the mindset of the players, apart from the obvious difference stemming out of the varying formats. I get the feeling certain Ranji cricketers, after a few indifferent seasons, and with the recent over-indulgence with age, as opposed to fitness, develop a mindset that they have very little chance of making it to the national side; for example; they seem to emulate Sachin Tendulkar only in his game, and not in his unflinching attitude — that makes him as enthusiastic towards the game, as when he was half of his present age. They start shifting their concentration more towards making a conscious effort of securing a good living for themselves and their families, for which they often have to look beyond cricket. This is not really so in international cricket, where money is thankfully not an issue, especially in India, that is only if a cricketer manages to have a sustained and successful run. Of course, a VVS Laxman, who has somehow been touted a Test specialist, and doesn’t really have the ‘image’ to fit into the superstar ads, earns less than a Yuvraj Singh, who still has no room in the longest version, but more than compensates in economic aspect, by being a darling of admakers.

Apart from developing the tactics to play matches and plan to fruitfully direct the career of a first-class cricketer, the coach always needs to keep the energy and enthusiasm going for the cricketers struggling to graduate to the highest level. However, the launch of the ‘rebel’ Indian Cricket League shows signs of creating an Information Technology-like scenario in Indian cricket, with Indian cricketers, young and old-had beens and never beens-promising and ordinary alike are shedding the ‘official’ fold for greener pastures moneywise and cricketwise. Especially striking is the case of 24 year old Abhishek Jhunjhunwala from Bengal and now of the Kolkata Tigers, who decided join the ICL after being overlooked for national selection even after to successful domestic seasons with Bengal and East Zone. This came in spite of him making to the final 30 for India’s ICC Twenty20 World Cup squad. Perhaps, if he persisted with the BCCI as did Praveen Kumar, who has made his international debut, or statemate Manoj Tiwary, he could have really pushed harder right into Indian national side.

So, a domestic coach, like a corporate human resource manager, now also has the added responsibility of retaining a cricketer. The problem is definitely more potent than in case of a promising cricketer moving to another state for a potentially better opportunity of making it to the national side.

The BCCI can arrange for video footages of domestic matches for interested coaches. Ideally, live coverage of all domestic matches would have been a great option. How long the BCCI will take in making the necessary arrangements, if they at all can make the required provisions, remain a crucial question though, especially in view of the fact that in spite of being the world’s richest cricket organization, it still doesn’t have an official Web site, and launches a cricket league, only after a media house has set the example.

Again, in spite of India been regarded as a cricket-crazy nation, where “Cricket is our religion, Sachin is our god”, honestly, how many people will be interested in watching the live telecast of Vidarbha versus Tripura? I deliberately make mention of this match, as it went down to the wire in the 2007-08 season, with the Central Zone team scraping through in the last post-tea session. Some years back when Railways won the Ranji Trophy, I read a news piece that the only spectators present in the ground for the final match were former India player, Railways medium pacer Harvinder Singh’s family members.

Private commercial television channels cannot really be expected to telecast matches live for which there are few takers to watch, and to sponsor. Perhaps, after all, India is more of a star-struck nation than a cricket-crazy nation, especially in view of the fact the number of people try to get into grounds only to catch a glimpse of a Tendulkar or a Ganguly practicing at the venue, the day before an international match. But, then again, the spectator turnout at Eden Gardens was poor, when Mahendra Singh Dhoni, following his early blitzkrieg in the international arena in 2005, came to play for a Kolkata club. Cricinfo, also doesn’t provide ball-by-ball commentary of the such Indian domestic matches, even though it provides the service in case of Australian domestic matches, for example.