Dilleep Premachandran, in his Day 3 verdict, wrote -
While Sreesanth and friends were doing their thing for the second day in succession, it was hard not to think of the reams that have been written about the need for a bowling coach. With the team's one-day fortunes in free fall in recent months, the back-room staff have been slated, mostly by those who haven't watched a single practice session and therefore know little about the effort that Ian Frazer and Greg King put in to assist Greg Chappell.
Coaching staff can't win you a game, they can only prepare you to be successful. And after the one-day debacle, both players and coaching staff have worked like Trojans to put things right. Much was made of Sreesanth's chat with Allan Donald on Saturday morning, and while it undoubtedly helped, it shouldn't obscure the fact that the hard yards had been done over hundreds of practice sessions dating back more than a year. And the manner in which India have outbowled South Africa in this game was ample proof that bowling coaches - South Africa do have one in Vincent Barnes - alone don't guarantee magic bullets.
Given India's inability to bowl at the death in ODIs, given that tours are getting shorter and bowler workload is getting higher, given the paucity of time to adjust to different conditions, given the number of times bowlers are breaking down, wouldn't a bowling coach, with insight on these issues, make a difference to the bowlers performance ?
If a bowling coach is not a value add, then what case can be made for having the rest of the support staff? Each role can be similarly dismissed as no guarantor of success and can be done away with.
In conclusion, to quote Dileep Premachandran " Coaching staff can't win you a game, they can only prepare you to be successful", and here we are, gleefully shutting the door to greater success. This pig headedness by the Team Management is going to cost India big time.
1 comment:
Dileep was just printing what Greg Chappell asked him to post . . .
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