He is the chief architect of Team India’s Cricketing Success amongst more visible Demi-Gods, Maharajas, Prince and Captain Cools. He is the man who brought Professionalism to Indian set-up. Despite all his contributions to Team India he was not getting his due recognition and adulation. 50 years from now, I hope he gets more adulation and recognition than Demi-Gods, Maharajas, Captain Cools and Prince, which he truly deserves. Here are some off-the field Cricketing exploits of this gentleman.
Incident - 1
This man got stick for his choice of team selection during the auction of first IPL tournament. The team that was selected at his behest was termed as Test Team. The players he selected during the auction were Kumble, Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn, Mark Boucher, Chanderpaul, Zaheer Khan, Wasim Jaffer and others. Today Kallis is cynosure of all eyes in this IPL – edition 3. Steyn, who had a couple of quite IPL seasons, is firing on all cylinders. Cameron White, Twenty-20 specialist, was a flop in previous editions but now he is the vice-captain of his country’s Twnty-20 team. He is at peak of his prowess. He is yet to play a match in this edition since he was away for the national duties. At this juncture of IPL-3, the Bangalore Royal Challengers are looking ominous.
Incident – 2
He was playing for Kent in the English county. John Wright was the director of coaching there. He recommended John Wright’s name to the BCCI. John Wright was the most successful coach of Team India before Kirsten arrived. He along with likes of Dravid, Sachin, Ganguly, Kumble. Laxman, Srinath and Sehwag laid foundation for the team which is now number 1 in the Test Rankings.
Incident – 3
After the debacle of 2007 world cup, to rebuild the team he was instrumental in bringing Robin Singh and Venkatesh Prasad to the coaching team. They made significant contribution towards team’s success. They were later removed citing the poor performance of the team in bowling and fielding and that is a different story. But nobody can deny the need for specialist bowling and fielding coaches in this age and contribution of Robin and Venkatesh Prasad.
Incident – 4
He was also responsible for creating Category D in players pay contract in addition to earlier three categories. Fringe Players are included in this pay category. The pay pie is not only shared by big guns and also by deserving fringe players. It was acknowledged by an official in BCCI Top brass.
There are many more…
