Brendan McCullum, the current England Test coach was the coach of the IPL team Kolkatta Knightriders for about 3 years. It is time enough for a responsible board to assess the quality of a coach. McCullum has rejuvenated the sagging fortune of England. 7 wins in 8 Tests and almost all of them were emphatic wins. Did the Indian board miss a trick? Let me try to analyse in McCullum and the Indian board.
While McCullum was the coach of KKR, the franchise did not win any title but they did finish as the runner up in 2021. He was quite instrumental in promoting Venkatesh Iyer to open the innings. It really paid dividends in KKR reaching the finals that year. With the rules surrounding IPL being favourable towards the Indian players, any coach will only be able to do a little bit. McCullum showed his true potential after becoming the coach of England. Nonetheless, the Indian board must have been aware of McCullum’s potential.
Indian cricket needs an aggressive coach
Indian cricket at the moment is struggling to find a coach who can transform the mind of the players. Convince them into playing aggressive positive cricket. The entire team is still playing the game with the mindset of a cricketer who played the game in the 90s and early part of the millennium. The current coach Rahul Dravid and the incumbent, Laxman were never really aggressive cricketers.
It is not even clear whether there was a selection process before appointing Dravid. Even if there was, I don’t remember too many non-Indians applying for it because everyone pretty well knew that it will be Dravid. During their playing career, they were quite content in treating the deliveries on their merit. Never have they tried to do something out of the ordinary. It is not their fault. That is how they grew up watching and practising the game and that is what they are. However, Indian cricket is in need of a drastic change. It needs a coach who can convince the players that playing positive cricket right from the outset is not a bad thing.
Were the Indian board in frequent communication?
This is where the Indian board failed to utilise the services of someone like McCullum. They would have known quite well what McCullum is capable of. If not, they failed in that too. The Indian board must be in constant communication with all the franchises to ascertain about the various coaches. It could be batting or bowling or fielding or in the case of McCullum, the head coach. This will give them an idea of whom to recruit when the time comes.
The period McCullum became the coach of England was the period Shastri was coming towards the end of a long and successful tenure. The contribution of Shastri must be mentioned here. He alongwith Kohli brought about a sea change in the attitude of the players towards fitness and not just match fitness. If the Indian bowlers were fit even on day 5, it was because of the strict fitness regime that Shastri brought into the team. Sadly, the current dispensation does not seem to regard fitness as that important a part of the game as can be seen in how Rohit and Pant have gained enormous amount of weight.
Continuity of a successful process
This is where someone like McCullum could have continued with the thought process of Shastri. He would have ensured continuity. Being a fitness freak himself, he would have naturally given fitness a top priority. It looks like BCCI never really wanted a foreign coach. They were always intent on securing the services of an Indian and that too a former great cricketer. BCCI must realise that not every great cricketer will make a great coach. Shastri for all his experience as an Indian cricketer, can never be considered a great cricketer but he was as effective as any coach.
Ofcourse, these are early days in McCullum’s coaching career and he still has a lot of major challenges to overcome. Least of which will be in Australia in 3 years time where England have lost 14 of their last 15 Tests. However, he has shown that he can not only change the attitude of a team that were on a losing streak but he can turnaround their fortune pretty quickly.
Ever since Gary Kirsten bid adieu, BCCI is also stuck in the mindset of hiring only an Indian for the national team. Partly, there were influenced by the media propaganda that Indians can also be good in coaching. They must know better than that. They must know that non-Indians will tend to look at things in a dispassionate way. Take the case of Lokesh Rahul. He has proved to be an utter failure at the top of the order and when it comes to T20, he is such a liability. Yet, Dravid continued to have faith in him and everytime, he was let down by Lokesh Rahul. A McCullum would have looked at a different cricketer or he would have convinced Rahul to play his shots at the beginning itself.
Wrapping up McCullum and the Indian board
The Indian board had the services of a potential diamond on their hands. All they had to do was to handover the contract to McCullum and watch him work his magic for India. Instead, they blew the chance and now we are all watching how the England cricket team is undergoing a tremendous transformation.
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